biotechnology and communication the meta-technologies of information - sandra braman

TeAM YYeP G Digitally signed by TeAM YYePG DN: cn=TeAM YYePG, c=US, o=TeAM YYePG, ou=TeAM YYePG, email=yyepg@msn.com Reason: I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document Date: 2005.04.28 08:56:44 +08'00'  GI      $ Biotechnology and Communication of Information Edited by Sandra Braman The Meta-Technologies  GI      $ BIOTECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION The Meta-Technologies of Information  GI      $ LEA’S COMMUNICATION SERIES Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann, General Editors Selected titles include: Berger · Planning Strategic Interaction: Attaining Goals Through Communicative Action Ellis · Crafting Society: Ethnicity, Class, and Communication Theory Greene · Message Production: Advances in Communication Theory Heath/Bryant · Human Communication Theory and Research: Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges, Second Edition Perry · American Pragmatism and Communication Research Salwen/Stacks · An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research For a complete list of titles in LEA’s Communication Series please contact Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers at www.erlbaum.com  GI      $ BIOTECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION The Meta-Technologies of Information Edited by Sandra Braman University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2004 Mahwah, New Jersey London  GI     $ Copyright Ó 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Cover photograph by Graham Murdock Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Biotechnology and communication : the meta-technologies of information / edited by Sandra Braman. p. cm. — (LEA’s communication series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-4304-3 (alk. paper) 1. Biotechnology—Social aspects. 2. Communication. 3. Information technology. 4. Information theory. 5. Bioinformatics. I. Braman, Sandra. II. Series. TP248.23.B56 2004 303.48¢3—dc21 2003059933 CIP Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America  GI      $ for Anne Wells Branscomb (1928–1997)  GI     $  GI      $ Contents Introduction ix Sandra Braman Acknowledgments xv I THE TECHNOLOGIES OF BIOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION 1 The Meta-Technologies of Information 3 Sandra Braman II THE CONCEPT OF INFORMATION 2 Information as Metaphor: Biology and Communication 39 David Ritchie 3 Conditional Expectations Communication and the Impact of Biotechnology 63 Steven S. Wildman 4 “Are Facts Not Flowers?”: Facticity and Genetic Information 97 Sandra Braman vii  GI      $ viii CONTENTS III THE OWNERSHIP OF INFORMATION 5 Justifying Enclosure? Intellectual Property and Meta-Technologies 119 Christopher May 6 Biotechnology, Intellectual Property, and the Prospects for Scientific Communication 145 Leah A. Lievrouw IV INFORMATION AND POWER 7 Transborder Information, Local Resistance, and the Spiral of Silence: Biotechnology and Public Opinion in the United States 175 Susanna Hornig Priest and Toby Ten Eyck 8 Biotechnology, Democracy, and the Politics of Cloning 197 Steven Best and Douglas Kellner 9 Popular Representation and Postnormal Science: The Struggle Over Genetically Modified Foods 227 Graham Murdock References 261 Author Index 281 Subject Index 289 [...]... chapter looks at the nature of meta-technologies, explores the shared spaces of digital information technology and biotechnology, and suggests 3 4 BRAMAN what the implications of the shared features and spaces of meta-technologies might be as digital technologies and organisms increasingly converge Of course biotechnology and digital information technology, and the types of information they handle, are also... C H A P T E R 1 The Meta-Technologies of Information Sandra Braman University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Against the long history of the use of tools and technologies, contemporary biotechnology and digital information technology together fall within a third category meta-technologies Their shared meta-technological characteristics make it worth examining them side by side because they often share economic,... developments, and the convergence of the biological with the mechanical all reflect and stimulate shifts in the understanding of the nature of life Although the cultural practices of breeding and the use of microorganisms for human purposes are premodern, as a science biology is very much the product of modernity and “new” biotechnology and its products are the stuff of postmodernity The notion of life as... accountants, etc.) and the professionalization of those practices Stage 3 The 1960s Perhaps the most vivid parallel between the two appeared at the point of transition from industrial technology to informational meta-technology during the third stage of the information society, 1 META-TECHNOLOGIES OF INFORMATION 9 loosely ascribable to the 1950s and 1960s By that point the convergence of computing and communication. .. printing press and the radio are examples of communication technologies Using fermentation to synthesize materials in a laboratory is an example of a biotechnology technology Meta-Technologies Meta-technologies involve many processing steps, and there is great flexibility in the number of steps and the sequence in which they are undertaken They can process an ever-expanding range of types of inputs and can... form and financial instruments, reconsideration of human communication processes as a result of what has been learned about cellular and biochemical communications, and legal and cultural implications of the merging of the digital and organic worlds A brief review of the major themes in the history of biotechnology should help contextualize and focus the work presented here, and that which is to come Biotechnology. .. Interestingly, the history of the treatment of germplasm as information has repeated some of the history of the treatment of the concept of information in human communication, such as the distinction between isolated bits of data and information that coheres into a narrative story (Oyama, 2000) Mediation Sunderland (2002) views biotechnology as a form of media because of its role in literally shifting and politicizing... a stand-alone discipline, on the one hand, and experimentation with organizational form, on the other INTRODUCTION xiii The chapters of this book approach this complex history and the issues it raises from a number of directions The opening chapter examines the shared features and spaces of biotechnology and digital information technologies as meta-technologies, qualitatively distinct from both the. .. 1994) The medical and artistic incorporation of technologies into humans, on the one hand, and the appearance of cognitive abilities, what appears to be creativity, and seeming self-consciousness and selforganization in electronic forms of artificial life, on the other, further challenge our understanding of just what life is and what it is not Meanwhile an ever-growing proportion of the communications... here that the possibility of a convergence between machinic and biological technologies was first suggested by Mumford (1934) in his book, Technics and Civilization 10 BRAMAN SHARED SPACES Today the meta-technologies of biotechnology and digital information technology share a number of economic, cultural, social, and legal features and environments The shared spaces of the two types of meta-technologies . Introduction ix Sandra Braman Acknowledgments xv I THE TECHNOLOGIES OF BIOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION 1 The Meta-Technologies of Information 3 Sandra Braman II THE CONCEPT OF INFORMATION 2 Information. developments, and the convergence of the biological with the mechanical all reflect and stimulate shifts in the understanding of the nature of life. Although the cultural practices of breed - ing and the. Lacey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Biotechnology and communication : the meta-technologies of information / edited by Sandra Braman. p. cm. — (LEA’s communication series)