We’re raised to believe that right and wrong are fixed concepts. But the truth is, ethics change over time.

And technology moves the goalposts on what we consider to be ethical behavior.

Juan Enriquez is a leading authority on the economic impact of life sciences on business and society, and as Managing Director of Excel Venture Management, he sits on the boards of innovative healthcare startups like Openwater, WellDoc and Zipongo. Juan is the bestselling author of As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth, and his latest release is called Right/Wrong: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics.

On this episode of The Wiggin Sessions, Juan joins me to share his fears around antibiotic resistance in the aftermath of COVID-19 and discuss how the pandemic exacerbated the political and societal divisions he predicted in The Untied States of America as a long-term consequence of the financial crisis.

Juan describes the synthetic genomics powering our future, explaining how factory and agricultural systems are likely to transform in what he calls the Century of Biology.

Listen in for Juan’s insight on reinventing the American Dream and learn how technology changes our perspective of right and wrong—and why we need to judge our ancestors and each other through a lens of context and grace.

Key Takeaways

Juan’s fears around antibiotic resistance in the aftermath of COVID and the possible return of diseases like dengue, tuberculosis and malaria

How the pandemic accelerated trends around debt, inequity, societal division and risk-taking in the financial markets

How Juan predicted the political and social divisions we’re experiencing now as long-term consequences of the financial crisis

How technology changes our perspective of what is right and wrong (and why we need to judge our ancestors with context and grace)

What happens when societies or religions don’t support and adapt to innovation

Juan’s take on the evolution of capitalism and the need to reinvent the American Dream in a digital age

The work Synthetic Genomics is doing to edit genes within bacteria to produce methane (and how it benefits the environment)

The race between quantum computing and the biological storage of information

How the factory system and agriculture are likely to transform in what Juan calls the Century of Biology

How Excel Ventures enables entrepreneurs to solve big problems (i.e.: healthy food systems, medical imaging, diabetes management, etc.)

What Juan looks for in a healthcare or life sciences company and the startups that are part of his portfolio

The four factors that influence healthcare costs and why prevention vaccines are one of the most effective uses of public dollars

Why it’s dangerous to short-circuit the clinical trial process for vaccines for political purposes

Connect with Juan Enriquez

Excel Venture Management

Right/Wrong: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics by Juan Enriquez

Connect with Addison Wiggin

Consilience Financial

Be sure to follow The Wiggin Sessions on your socials. You can find me on—

Facebook @thewigginsessions

Instagram @thewigginsessions

Twitter @WigginSessions

Resources

Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans

As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth by Juan Enriquez

The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing and Our Future by Juan Enriquez

Synthetic Genomics

Openwater

WellDoc

Zipongo

Orionis Biosciences

InfoBionic

Mary Lou Jepsen’s TED Talk

Moderna

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Gilead Sciences

INOVIO Pharmaceuticals