Zach Chapman
asked
Paolo Bacigalupi:
In light of new GMO technology like Golden Rice (a winner of the 2015 Patents for Humanity Award by the United States Patent and Trademark Office), and its potential to save lives in starving countries, have you adjusted your opinions of GMOs? What do you think of companies like Monsanto and Syngenta giving away these patents for free for humanitarian reasons? Will you address these issues in your future work?
Paolo Bacigalupi
I haven't really. GMO's, much like any technology, are simply a reflection of us. Overall, I think something like Golden Rice is more of a PR wedge to drive acceptance for other patented, modified, profit-oriented seeds in the future. Some of those are very likely to be useful or beneficial in some way.
But I'll add a caveat that whoever controls these technologies will have specific agendas of their own. Monsanto and Syngenta, aren't, at root, in the business of feeding people; they're in the business of maximizing profits. How they go about that in the future may not be in humanity's best interest. I tend to be cynical about profit-driven companies that beat the drum of human relief, while also being the same companies that developed the Terminator gene.
At root, I think that any given technology (think nuclear power, gunpowder, the written word...) has the potential to improve our lives, wound it, and also to create unexpected accidents. It's not the technology that's the problem, it's us, the users. However angelic or demonic, or thoughtful or thoughtless we happen to be is then amplified by our technologies.
I continue to think that GMO's represent a complexity that we don't yet fully comprehend, so I expect that there will be some surprises that come out of them.
But I'll add a caveat that whoever controls these technologies will have specific agendas of their own. Monsanto and Syngenta, aren't, at root, in the business of feeding people; they're in the business of maximizing profits. How they go about that in the future may not be in humanity's best interest. I tend to be cynical about profit-driven companies that beat the drum of human relief, while also being the same companies that developed the Terminator gene.
At root, I think that any given technology (think nuclear power, gunpowder, the written word...) has the potential to improve our lives, wound it, and also to create unexpected accidents. It's not the technology that's the problem, it's us, the users. However angelic or demonic, or thoughtful or thoughtless we happen to be is then amplified by our technologies.
I continue to think that GMO's represent a complexity that we don't yet fully comprehend, so I expect that there will be some surprises that come out of them.
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