Document Actions

Living Technology

Living technology will soon have a huge impact on society. We should start thinking through the implications today!

Living technology is technology that is useful because it shares the fundamental properties of living systems. The fundamental properties of living systems include self-assembly, self-organization, metabolism, growth and division, purposeful action, adaptive complexity, evolution, and intelligence.

Our technology is becoming increasingly life-like, because this makes it especially powerful. Three examples of living technology are synthetic biology attempts to make living systems from scratch in the laboratory, ICT systems exhibiting collective and swarm intelligence distributed across the world wide web, and robots currently cleaning our households, providing companions for the autistic, and the like.

The ISSP’s project on living technology aims to take stock of the state of the art in living technology and recommend priorities for the socially responsible scientific pursuit of living technology.



Home About ISSP People Living Technology Regional Sustainability SAiNT Publications ISSP Events News Downloads Contact	Working Group Publications News Events	Document Actions Living Technology Living technology will soon have a huge impact on society. We should start thinking through the implications today! Living technology is technology that is useful because it shares the fundamental properties of living systems. The fundamental properties of living systems include self-assembly, self-organization, metabolism, growth and division, purposeful action, adaptive complexity, evolution, and intelligence. Our technology is becoming increasingly life-like, because this makes it especially powerful. Three examples of living technology are synthetic biology attempts to make living systems from scratch in the laboratory, ICT systems exhibiting collective and swarm intelligence distributed across the world wide web, and robots currently cleaning our households, providing companions for the autistic, and the like. The ISSP’s project on living technology aims to take stock of the state of the art in living technology and recommend priorities for the socially responsible scientific pursuit of living technology.