Biomedia

As biotechnology defines the new millennium genetic codes and computer codesincreasingly mergelife understood as data flesh rendered programmable. Wherethis tre... » 

As biotechnology defines the new millennium genetic codes and computer codesincreasingly mergelife understood as data flesh rendered programmable. Wherethis trend will take us and what it might mean is what concerns EugeneThacker in this timely book a penetrating look into the intersection ofmolecular biology and computer science in our day and its likely ramificationsfor the future.Integrating approaches from science and media studies Biomedia is a criticalanalysis of research fields that explore relationships between biologies andtechnologies between genetic and computer codes. In doing so the book looksbeyond the familiar examples of cloning genetic engineering and gene therapyfields based on the centrality of DNA or genesto emerging fields in whichlife is often understood as information. Focusing especially oninteractions between genetic and computer codes or between life andinformation Thacker shows how each kind of body producedfrom biochip toDNA computerdemonstrates how molecular biology and computer science areinterwoven to provide unique means of understanding and controlling livingmatter.Throughout Thacker provides indepth accounts of theoretical issues implicitin biotechnical artifactsissues that arise in the fields of bioinformaticsproteomics systems biology and biocomputing. Research in biotechnologyBiomedia suggests flouts our assumptions about the division between biologicaland technological systems. New ways of thinking about this division are neededif we are to understand the cultural social and philosophical dimensions ofsuch research and this book marks a significant advance in the comingintellectualrevolution.Eugene Thacker is assistant professor of new media in the School of LiteratureCommunication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His writingson the social and cultural aspects of biotechnology and biomedicine have beenpublished and anthologi «