Bioconvergence

Bioconvergence is the merger of previously distinct technologies into a new form; requiring new theories, new products, and new practices.

The "Nanotechnology Age” is the first stage progenitor of what may become the phenomenon of bioconvergence.^[1] This phenomenon co-incides with the massive changes in agricultural processes along with the management of our bioresources.^[1][2] Eventually, humans may be able to bioengineer entire ecosystems from scratch.^[1][2] The actual scale of economic implications rivals even the Industrial Revolution and is likely to affect virtually every nation, geographical region, and their associated population bases; regardless of their role in this transitional process.^[1] Allowing several distinct technologies to converge into a single form of technology can also be considered a socioeconomic model of an completely irreversible nature.^[1]

Information technology in addition to nanotechnology and other key technological disciplines like robotics collectively play a role in today’s bio-based markets for humans, plants, animals, and the natural environment that surrounds us daily.^[3] Even plastic products are evolving into biological-based systems;^[3] plastic bottles for certain soda drinks are becoming plant-based. Most of the biotechnology sector incorporates and relies on workers from the other technology sectors; they create the services that enhance the sector.^[3]

Five primary vectors

There are five primary vectors of bioconvergence:^[1]

1. Human Genome Mapping
2. Applying Nanotechnology
3. Bioengineering of Crops and Ecological Systems
4. Cross Convergence of Microscale Fabrication Technologies and Biological Materials
5. Emergent Economic Ecology of Process-Based Intellectual Property Resource Development and Deployment

Summary

Health

People generally see the massive convergence of technology sectors in solving problems in human health.^[3] What is about to transpire is the rapid evolution into an era where health care, the very definition of “medicine,” and life itself is in a state of transition.^[1][2] Health care is shifting towards the path of applying the “human genetic mapping” to everyone, providing preventive medical strategies, therapies that are specific to an individual patient's needs, and the genetic targeting of disease and pathologies.^[1]

This convergence will change the way decisions are made about locating new corporations.^[3] As the technology matures, clinical trials will become more important, requiring companies to align themselves with the state-of-the-art hospitals.^[3] Pharmaceutical design relies heavily on software and computer systems talent that is now found in many regions of North America that are usually not associated with biotechnology.^[3] As the technological capacity and personal wealth of the world constantly increases, the health care sector will become even more specialized and demand for new services will increase.^[3] The current generation of knowledgeable adults (baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964) will continue to age out of the workforce and into retirement.^[3] As a result, the current generation of aspiring youth (most people belonging to Generation Y and all people belonging to Generation Z) will have to become savvy in the technological and scientific skills needed for the careers of the 21st century.^[3]

Medical regions that have never been considered to be technology hubs will require more specialized companies and talent in the near future.^[3] In effect, this will transform almost every community in North America with at least one active hospital into a miniature version of Silicon Valley.^[3] Even now, hospitals across the country are now undergoing massive investments in facilities to meet demand.^[3] This is to establish their dominance in regional and national markets for the emerging "bioconvergence industry.^[3]"

Agriculture

Agriculture is shifting ever more toward an arena of bioengineered plants and entire multi-functional “contained ecologies.^[1]” Economic sytems are driving the politicians of all nations towards adopting the polices of the emergent “biotechnology epicenter” driven global economy.^[1] Agribusiness now uses biotechnology to modify agricultural feedstocks to be more productive.^[3] This could either be an enhancement of crop productivity or increased resistance to disease.^[3] Nutraceuticals is the use of food or agricultural inputs to provide health and medical benefits.^[3] These food or agricultural inputs are frequently used to combat and prevent diseases.^[3]

New consumer products based on biomaterials and research will breathe new life in the continent’s agricultural regions^[3] after years of cutbacks and declines. These products may include in vitro meat and/or skyscraper farms. Research and development is heavily emphasized in the the field of bioconvergence.^[3]

Genetic applications

Molecular genetics, biomolecular and physiological modeling software, advanced genome cloning and synthesis technologies, in addition to developments in synthetic tissue and organs, are contributing to the bioconvergence process.^[1] This statement applies to bioconvergences as a business model in addition to a model of the global economy.^[1]

Ultimately, entirely new classes of synthetically contrived organisms, which would not evolve under “natural” circumstances, can be conjured up as protein-sequence codes, mapped onto a chip, and cloned out on demand.^[1] Artificially enhanced evolution, synthetic organisms, genetically derived and targeted pharmacopia, cellular cybernetics, intracellular systems, and bioengineering may become commodity resources in the future.^[1] “Biotech-dollars” may begin to drive the major economies of the world and influence the politics of the era instead of the current system of "petrodollars" that are generated from the oil companies.^[1] These events may reshape the economies of the world in the future, and perhaps even the very definition of life itself.^[1][2]

Economic realities

However, there is an acute shortage of research dollars and specialized workers of the life sciences profession in North America today despite the worldwide economic recession.^[3] Locating near a large research university, an institute, or a cultural incubator can allow new bioconvergence-related jobs to find employees and inexpensive laboratory space.^[3]

Research universities are one of the most important tools for allowing the "bioconvergence industry" to grow and prosper.^[3] These universities not only supply a workforce based around knowledge, they also plant the entrepreneurial seeds to apply the research in a more practical manner.^[3] Professors and students often transform technologies into their own business ventures when it's clear that the established employers will not grant them jobs due to the global economic slowdown.^[3] It is likely that these self-employed technology gurus may find themselves establishing the foundation of the post-recession economy thanks to a combination of ubiquitous computing, evolving computer networks, and an emergent virtual commodity resource domain.^[2] It has been noted that every major economic era has stimulated a global revolution both in the kinds of jobs that are available to people and the kind of training they need to achieve these jobs, and there is concern that the world's educational systems have lagged behind in preparing students for a possible age of nanotechnology.^[4]

Jobs, even those revolving around tomorrow's technologies, don't grow unless an entrepreneur spends his/her energies in the field of learning.^[4] The opportunity and lifestyles that middle class North American citizens have become accustomed to may disappear forever unless people are encouraged to get an education in the technological fields of tomorrow (including gifted and talented students, students with learning disabilities, at-risk students, recent immigrants, women in transition from homemaking to employment, in addition to senior citizens).^[4] Five million manufacturing jobs were outsourced several years ago to "low cost havens" like India and the People's Republic of China.^[5] This massive outsourcing of secondary sector jobs makes the search for traditional (non-bioconvergence) work nearly impossible;^[5] especially for people who only hold a high school diploma and for people who dropped out of high school.

These jobs will never come back to North America because wages are too high and the corporate taxes are too high. Workers are still replaced in the secondary sector after they retire. However, they are replaced by employees that are already employed with the system of a specific corporation rather than through "outsiders" with impressive résumés. However, it may be possible that the technological sectors end up recovering from the worldwide economic slowdown before most other industries, slowly thawing out the hiring freeze that has become a part of North American culture since the late 2000s. Employers are toughening educational requirements so that students are more prepared for the bioconvergence-related jobs of tomorrow.^[6] In 2011, an epidemic of university students at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada were prepared to learn the new jobs (66% of jobs created in the future will require a post-secondary education).^[6] Governments are pushing more students to have post-secondary credentials;^[6] so that the "bioconvergence revolution" will be led by educated people. An increasingly competitive job market (for high-tech jobs) is pressuring people to go to university just to get a job.^[6] The jobs of the future may also rely on three other factors - that require a post-secondary education for a complete understanding of the theories - genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics.^[7]

References