Shifting the boundaries
of technology and biology

Around the world, actors are already researching combinations of biological and technological systems. Many things that were previously unimaginable have since become a part of everyday life – neuroprosthetics, artificial organs, biocomputers, smart wearables, or cell research to produce artificial meat. The boundaries between biology and technology are increasingly dissolving. This blurring of lines is not a new phenomenon, but more recently there is a new dimension emerging with increasing numbers of companies developing products and solutions for this area. The combination of biological and technological systems is increasingly aimed at a mutual fusion.

The distribution and use, and thus the future dynamics of borderless technologies, requires an understanding of the future we want to live in.

Data protection and cyber security, the controllability of technologies as well as the – intentional or unintentional – external control of living beings, are central points for the necessary social discourse.

For our client, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), a Prognos team of foresight experts, together with Z_punkt, investigated how these new opportunities could impact the future. Current technological and societal developments that could contribute to the dissolution of the boundaries between biology and technology were illuminated.

For this purpose, six scenarios were created: For which areas of life could these technologies be used in the future? And what might people’s everyday lives look like as a result?

Application scenarios for the 2030s

The consequences of dissolving the boundaries between biology and technology were reflected in six application scenarios. They show a broad spectrum of boundary removal dynamics. But there are also elements that are consistent in all scenarios:

• Advanced forms of digital androids, smart wearables, and comfortable exoskeletons are used in all application scenarios. Digital androids and smart wearables are already widely used today. Exoskeletons, on the other hand, have only occasional, niche applications.
• In the future, biohybrids, living materials, and biosensors will become equally important. They are used in five of the six application scenarios. They play an important role, in particular, for facing critical environmental and energy challenges, for example, in increasing the energy efficiency of processes or reducing the emission of pollutants.
• In addition to the environment and energy, health and work are the most important fields of application for the delimitation of the technologies across the scenarios. In this context, they bring a significant increase in control, comfort, and physical and mental relief.
• The more the boundaries of a technology are dissolved, the greater the challenges associated with its use. The handling of this and the question of whether a technology is approved or socially accepted varies from scenario to scenario. The economic situation and the political environment within the respective scenario have a major influence on this. The boundary removal could take place primarily in the areas of health and the environment, but its development perspective is characterised by longer development times and challenges.

Links and downloads

Read study (PDF, in German)

More about our work in the Foresight process

Project team: Cordula Klaus, Lennart Galdiga, Jonathan-Aton Talamo (Prognos), Christian Grünwald, Max Irmer, Julian Sachs (Z_punkt)