Tuesday, November 29, 2005

By William Davis

In a pasture in Argentina, there resides a cow whose milk produces a chemical used to fight cancer. A chicken living in Massachusetts has grown a third wing. And in Quebec, a field of goats produces silk identical to that in a spider's web.

These animals are not freaks of nature, but the creation of scientists and engineers working in what Juan Enriquez, founding director of Harvard Business School’s Life Sciences Project, calls the language of the future. Speaking before an invited audience at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Warwick Center Nov. 28, Enriquez said the manipulation of genetic material will soon create a technological shift as widespread and life-changing as the industrial and computer revolutions.

"Genes are the design component of the future world economy," he said.

In the coming years, genetic advances will provide cures to a host of diseases, he said. They will turn farm animals into medicine factories. Treatments that now seem like science fiction will become commonplace.

"It is not inconceivable that your kids will be able to regrow their own body parts," he said.

Enriquez has built his career around proselytizing this coming revolution. He works as the CEO and chairman of Biotechnonomy LLC., a company attempting to develop alternative energy solutions by harnessing the ability of organisms like plants and algae to convert sunlight to energy. His book, As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces are changing Your Life, Work, Wealth, Health and Wealth, describes the manner in which the genetic code will replace the digital as the most important language for future generations.

Like the computer revolution, he said, genetic technologies will transform the world quicker than anyone suspects. Four decades ago, he said, only a handful of people used computers. Now, the ones and zeroes spoken by computers dominate daily life.

"The [digital] language that no one spoke in 1960 is now 98 percent of the data transmitted in the world," said Enriquez.

This shift has the potential to revolutionize not just medicine and agriculture, but nearly every other aspect of society, according to Enriquez. This change will create winners and losers.

The best way for regions like North Carolina to ensure they are prepared for this shift will be to invest heavily not just in biotechnology centers and university research, but also to drastically improve the way the public schools teach core subjects like math and science. Noting that scientists working in a primitive lab in Argentina have not only cloned cows, but turned one of the their herd into a living pharmaceutical factory, he said that North Carolina has as good a chance as any other to take the lead in this coming change.

"There is no reason why you cannot," he said.

The low barrier of entry to this technology means that, in his envisioned future, North Carolina will be competing not just against its neighboring states, but with the entire world, he said. Investing in the universities, even at the expense of other segments of social spending, will be key to this. The key to preparing for this change, though, will be to emulate the models of nations like Korea.

After a decade of war ended in the 1950s, Korea radically transformed its society from a nation of poor farmers to one of the biggest economies in the world by focusing on education. Like Korea, North Carolina could develop programs that train the best and brightest middle and high school students in math and science. Enriquez likens a successful program to a varsity athlete squad. It would cherry pick the best students from the state, expecting them to perform to the highest standards while giving them access to the best teachers and technological resources. With its commanding lead in economics and education, the United States has the ability to harness this new technology like no other society.

"It is the U.S.'s race to lose," he said.

North Carolina, like the rest of the United States, will have to change its educational priorities or face the prospect of losing its preeminence on the world stage, Enriquez said. In the past, changes less radical than the coming genetic revolution have turned empires into backwaters within a generation.

"You can make and unmake countries very quickly," he said.

For the necessary changes to take place, America must decide whether it wishes to lead or follow the pace of change. It must resolve its debates over stem cells and evolution, he said, since these questions lie at the heart of the coming change. Religion can provide answers to “how and why” to use these technologies, said Enriquez, but it should not have a voice in answering "what and how" science works.

"When religion tries to answer what and how, that’s why the religion tanks," he said.

Enriquez does not dismiss concerns over the misuse and dangers of genetic manipulation. Like the manner in which the Industrial Revolution led both to cheaper consumer goods and mass-produced weapons of war, the new technology will be misused.

"Every technology can have its dark side," he said.

The U.S. must take the lead in banning biological weapons, said Enrique, and ethicists must develop a rational basis for regulating the new technology. Whether it decides to lead or follow the coming revolution, Americans cannot stop the future. What it can do, he said, is attempt to lead the revolution in a way that benefits and not harms society.

"Can you stop it? No, I don’t think you can… Can you guide it? There I think you can," said Enriquez.