Biology assessment : on the feasibility of anticipating synthetic biology

Main claim In this thesis, I claim that due to the transition from mechanical technologies to living technologies, Technology Assessment requires a thorough understanding of the ‘anticipatory nature of nature’ for it to adequately perform functions in its new role as ‘Biology Assessment’. Without a good grasp of the difference between living and non-living systems, current assessments are lacking with regard to their ability to anticipate and evaluate the future dynamics of synthetic biology. The reason that Technology Assessment is unable to anticipate these dynamics is due to 1) a lack of a clear definition of complexity within TA literature that is useful for understanding living systems such as synthetic biology and 2) a limited understanding regarding the implications of this specific type of complexity on our ability to generate formal models and determine the appropriate plausibility of future scenarios.