Biology and technology: guarding, nurturing, and governing life

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed perceptions of human mortality. Statistics of infection and vaccination rates dominate news bulletins. An aphorism by the French poet and critic Paul Valéry captures the prevailing feeling of uncertainty, ‘The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.’ Whereas predictions of the future have often cele-brated technological advances and increased life expectancies, the pandemic now threatens to curtail peoples’ lifespans.