New: Biocoder, First DIYBio and SynBio e-newsletter
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Ryan Bethencourt
Oct 10, 2013, 7:53:32 PM10/10/13
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Dear All,
Let us know what you think of the First Free newsletter (available in multiple formats) at:
http://oreil.ly/1g3FYPG
Cathal Garvey
Oct 11, 2013, 9:29:31 AM10/11/13
to diy...@googlegroups.com
Congrats!
Will probably subscribe, looking forward to having regular reading
material for our field.
On the name; it's a classic O'Reilly-ism, rebranding something that
already has names in order to capture it. But, broadly, we've gotten
off light compared to stuff like the great Free Software downgrade, or
"Creativity" -> "Making".
However, I'm still not a fan. Biocoding emphasises mechanisation,
determinism, all the stuff we should be prepared to let go of as we
explore this alternative branch of technology.
DIYbio makes no assumptions about life, and is pretty broad as a label.
Biohacking is more narrow, generally implying genetic engineering, but
it's closer to the reality; what we do is all hacks, clever tweaks and
reshufflings of nature's hard work. We'll get to the point of "coding",
but that's not the reality right now, and I think it's oversimplistic.
You might say it's more media-friendly, but I disagree. While a few
people still find "hacking" threatening, the words don't carry an
objectionable ideology beyond that. But "biocoding" carries an ideology
that's proven very divisive between enthusiasts and detractors over the
years already; the deterministic view that living things are nothing
but programs or wind-up-toys. It's not a philosophical argument I have
much stake in, but I do think "biocoder" will be no more welcome in the
rhetorical soup of synbio/geneering than "biohacker".
Sorry to fork the conversation right away! ;)
On Thu, 10 Oct 2013 16:53:32 -0700
Ryan Bethencourt <ryan.bet...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Today is the launch of O'Reilly's Biocoder, a quarterly free
> e-newsletter for DIYbio, synthetic bio, and anything edge biotech
> related that we're all really excited to launch (a bunch of us have
> been working on it for a few months now), please do let us know what
> you think and also if you have any ideas for future articles, Nina
> and Mike welcome any suggestions!
>
> Let us know what you think of the First Free newsletter (available in
> multiple formats) at:
> http://oreil.ly/1g3FYPG<http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Foreil.ly%2F1g3FYPG&h=TAQFomnHFAQFRRiCKqEesd94-v5xYd9VTifKKookT1eFYCQ&s=1>
>
Will probably subscribe, looking forward to having regular reading
material for our field.
On the name; it's a classic O'Reilly-ism, rebranding something that
already has names in order to capture it. But, broadly, we've gotten
off light compared to stuff like the great Free Software downgrade, or
"Creativity" -> "Making".
However, I'm still not a fan. Biocoding emphasises mechanisation,
determinism, all the stuff we should be prepared to let go of as we
explore this alternative branch of technology.
DIYbio makes no assumptions about life, and is pretty broad as a label.
Biohacking is more narrow, generally implying genetic engineering, but
it's closer to the reality; what we do is all hacks, clever tweaks and
reshufflings of nature's hard work. We'll get to the point of "coding",
but that's not the reality right now, and I think it's oversimplistic.
You might say it's more media-friendly, but I disagree. While a few
people still find "hacking" threatening, the words don't carry an
objectionable ideology beyond that. But "biocoding" carries an ideology
that's proven very divisive between enthusiasts and detractors over the
years already; the deterministic view that living things are nothing
but programs or wind-up-toys. It's not a philosophical argument I have
much stake in, but I do think "biocoder" will be no more welcome in the
rhetorical soup of synbio/geneering than "biohacker".
Sorry to fork the conversation right away! ;)
On Thu, 10 Oct 2013 16:53:32 -0700
Ryan Bethencourt <ryan.bet...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> Today is the launch of O'Reilly's Biocoder, a quarterly free
> e-newsletter for DIYbio, synthetic bio, and anything edge biotech
> related that we're all really excited to launch (a bunch of us have
> been working on it for a few months now), please do let us know what
> you think and also if you have any ideas for future articles, Nina
> and Mike welcome any suggestions!
>
> Let us know what you think of the First Free newsletter (available in
> multiple formats) at:
>
Koeng
Oct 11, 2013, 9:38:38 AM10/11/13
to diy...@googlegroups.com
Awesome! I signed up
-Koeng
Biotech Ryan
Oct 12, 2013, 4:01:23 AM10/12/13
to diy...@googlegroups.com
Thanks Koeng and Cathal, Nina and Mike worked really hard to round people up and make sure the first e-newsletter shipped and they're also really looking for community voices to provide a platform :)
Cathal - I actually agree with you, not sure who came up with the title Biocoder, it's a decent name but I'm a big fan of Biohacker, seems more apt to what we're trying to do (plus edgier)!
Cathal Garvey (Phone)
Oct 12, 2013, 7:16:48 AM10/12/13
to diy...@googlegroups.com
Well name aside, I'm very pleased with what I've read so far! :) Thanks!
--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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