It is my pleasure with an allstar cast with amazing brainpower and authors in the world so on behalf of the Atlantic Council and our host it is my honor and privilege to welcome you to this global event celebrating the highly revised paperback which means if you got the hardback by this one too because it has been changed and with jamie metzl incredible highly acclaimed bestselling book and genetic engineering and the future of humanity. And some bad wine perhaps. But now we can eat your favorite food. And your beverage of choice. This is a lot better and by the way this is also carried by cspan. So welcome everybody from cspan as well. And as cosponsors of this great event, this is a time where things could be shaped. We at the Atlantic Council are focused and in the four weeks of total work that is not social justice its geographic. We have galvanize the community to create more social interaction and closeness even at this geographic distance because we are galvanize by her time the biggest thinker of all joining a global conversation. We are concerned with corporate 19 for sure looking at the prism of our mission which is working with friends and allies to shape the future and democracy of the us role. Looking at the future and importantly at Climate Change and migration and finally how do we Harness Technology . That is hugely important for the Atlantic Council. In addition to being a senior fellow, jamie metzl has a lot of titles and there has been a few other things as well. A leading technology in healthcare futurist of Science Fiction and faculty members singularity exponential medicine and part of the genome project. Last year appointed to the who Expert Advisory Committee previously served in the Us National Security council, the state department and Senate ForeignRelations Committee and the United Nations in cambodia. Sometimes i think hes done so many things. Like bull riding and other things is a regular commentator on cnn and major media and hacking darwin is the fifth book and since he came bart back in part last year the reviews have been stellar and pr says writing with great clarity and a sense of urgency that we should all take to heart. Jamie metzl has clarifying granular and moral complexities and for seeing the big picture. Cnn says if you can only read one book on the future of our species, then read all of the books. If you dont want to read it at least buy it. We have a deal right now that you will not get out another time. Its a little bit like telemarketing. Sourcebooks is making hacking darwin ebook available today only 4. 95, one third of the regular price. Before asking jamie metzl to speak i want to tell you about the flow of the event and introduce you. After he speaks for about ten minutes our guest will do the same. George is one of the worlds greatest scientist. It is a safe backdrop and the Harvard Medical School and at the Massachusetts Institute of technology. The Us Department of Energy Technology center and the National Institutes of health for excellence in genomic science. With a Synthetic Biology where he oversees the directed evolution. And with those applications and with that bio production of chemicals. In 1984 that resulted in the first genome sequence. To help initiate the human genome project in the personal genome project in 2005. Those reflections on what she has heard to ask the first question for jamie and george to answer. The former president professor at Harvard Business school and senior associate the Harvard Business school online. It will be released in august. After that daniel kraft will moderate the question and answer session based on questions raised by you. Anyone can pose a question and the ones that are uploaded the most will rise to the top of the list. We encourage you to post questions throughout the session. And the stanford and harvard trained physicians and entrepreneur and innovator the chair of medicine for the founder and chair of program that explores rapidly developing technologies and the potential of biomedicine and healthcare. With that, what an incredible lineup i am passing to jamie metzl to kick us off. It is just an incredible honor for me to be here. I dont know if it is lebron with the dream team but if i could just imagine from everyone on earth if i would want to have joining me at the event like this would just be the people feel and to counsel. I dont know any authors is that i love my publisher but to be one all coming together as the crazy moment in the sense of sadness because there are very real meaningful people that are lost at the center there is a lot of pain going around. But we are also feeling that this is a new world on so many levels that is being created and trends that were already happening are accelerating in profound and incredible ways and new communities so these days for everybody it feels like they hard to differentiate because so many things are happening with these types of collaboration and i always tell people its not like a snow day or a storm and waited out. This is a fundamental change of our communities and societies and as fred said of National Security and geopolitics a lot of people reference this year 2001 of the 9 11 attacks but for me it feels more like 1941 where there was a huge battle ahead and it wasnt clear if that battle even would be one. Even in the early dark days of the war there were people and leaders like churchill who came to gather to say we have to know what we are fighting for then we can organize around building that world. We may not have the fdr or churchill right now in our political world but what is exciting about this moment is it feels like we are dividing up the task and all coming together it is a little piece and we are doing things our governments may have done. Because the networks are moving at the speed of globalization. Everybody is forming and reforming communities to solve these kinds of problems. So the genome assessed and those who are coming together around the world to solve this problem so we see the genetics revolution in all the tools for the crisis so let me say a few words about each of that but with that revolution among the billions of species that ever lived one species suddenly has this ability to read and write and hack the code of life and its incredible when we think about it. And its almost like a godlike power we can imagine god telling with that power comes a great responsibility most cherished ethics and values and most powerful technology the whole conversation what that is about it is racing forward the focus from the transition to the precision and then predictive healthcare. As humans we are a massive data set so there will come a time when the sophistication of our tools matches and succeeds the complexity of our biology. We are developing incredible capabilities that dont let us treat people individually based on biology but either from their moment just after birth then that will change the way we think about healthcare. But not Just Healthcare thinking about genetics in the context that is the primary interaction. We dont have a disease or health care genome so they are the blueprint but to have that potential and then experiencing genetics outside the realm of healthcare thats already hoping the direct to consumer eugenics but it will get much bigger and cover more challenging issues like identity and parenting in the most profound application will be how these technologies change not just the way we shift toward embryo screening and the book is coming out in august talking about this but also it will change ultimately over time the nature of the babies that we make. This is a very profound conversation and it feels like its a conversation withouts one was science and without that we would have the conversation but ultimately this is a conversation about ethics. Because no Technology Comes in with their own builtin value system it is up to us to infuse our values into the most significant application of those technologies. This is a hardcover version that came out last april for the babies who were born but since then you know that there are at least three of these babies. There could be more. We just dont know and then after that experience the World Health Organization created the International Advisory community and i was selected to be an 18 Member Commission working extremely hard. And with these ways to maximize benefits and other members of the commission are here in the meeting. And then to speak at the vatican and in my view, this is about the future of our species. We need a table thats big enough for everybody. We are all human and we are all in this together. And that genetics revolution is intersecting the growing virus crisis. If you have these pandemics in the past we never been able to sequence the viral genome or guess the digital readout to understand the virus. We never have computer models to allow us to test different responses. Weve never been able to develop testing despite the monumental screwup in this country. Now we watch as viral genome you today as it spreads around the world. And for tracking it. And those who are also on this call will bring together the bio from around the world to say are there genetic patterns we can use to understand what kind of people may be prone to increased resistance to viral infection or maybe at greatest risk to make smart decisions around that kind of knowledge. Or with a vaccine. Saying maybe we can do it in a year. Some say two years. Was talking to a very Senior Scientist in los angeles the other day. And he said he didnt know if we ever could achieve it. George is the scientist of the possible. And then all things surveillance system. All of these tools are essential and we wouldnt have them but for the incredible science that we have. That comes with significant and ethical challenges and so the owners is on us to optimize the benefits to minimize the harm. Living in an abstract world for you could just make the smartest decisions possible we live in a world that was defined by politics that political context in which we live. And certainly we have seen that in the political failures of china especially the first three weeks of this outbreak to get on top of the crisis. The failure of the United States to test and have adequate information that could be provided to the american people. I wouldnt say the failure of the who but the failure of all of us over decades to build the who to resource and empower and have mandates to do the job for every human on earth. And in the science exist of a global power structure between the United States and china. I think everybody around the world that we havent gotten since sputnik. Everybody needs to understand the science. So we can make smart decisions and protect the people that we love. Thats the origin of hacking darwin i was working on the National Security council 23 years ago. And with all that we have to focus on terrorism and that was president george w. Bushs desk but to say to be effective we have to try to see what is coming that i have to get through the crisis. s is not just this virus but all of those that are existential harms to address. To be organized around states and International Organizations that are control that are not empowered to do what needs to be done and so the book tries to pull all those pieces together in a package for everybody. Im a Science Fiction writer. I wanted to feel like a story because its the greatest story of all time the past and present and future of the species but the full story of the first three babies there is more and to get into the coronavirus happened but to understand my feeling is there is a package of things people need to understand. s i hope they read the book and talk about it. I have spoken about this as a Senior Scientist and the seventh and eighth graders at the hero academy and everybody got it. Everybody gets these issues are human issues. We have to be asking elected officials and government officials what are they doing . And once you deliver it and everybody else owns a. And i hope whatever the digital equivalent is to rip out pages whatever it is and as they said it practically giving it away. It is 4. 35 its like 3. 50. Nobody in the history of the world other than john grisham ever made money off of writing books. We share ideas and to bring people together. We all have the tendency to hunker down in moments like thi this. But the world is changing in such a huge and fundamental way that while we do that, we have to challenge ourselves , to take a step back to see the big picture because that will allow was to develop , together identify the where we are heading. We can evaluate those decisions along the way based on our goal. If there is anybody that sees the big picture of the science and what it has to be is my friend george church. Its an honor to have all of these that are speakers but george is special. I think most people believe one of the greatest living scientist on this planet. But certainly is among the most creative and forward thinking scientist because not everybody is trying to resuscitate the woolly mammoth. And people have said he is todays Charles Darwin plan just in case you had any doubts he looks like him it could be a coincidence but judge for yourself. So as we discussed, we would love for you to share your thoughts on how these incredible tools of the genetics revolution in your view could be address the Current Crisis and beyond. Thanks. What we need to embrace about the threat but we also have to think about the Silver Lining. And for example lower activity of flu and all of those other things and in addition so this boost the commitment to have better medicine in the future. We see a spike of collaboration we just did not see through sars and ebola but we finally got it right to collaborate and also with being under fire and those diagnostics that couldve saved us 2 trillion as we are spending anywhere tens of millions of dollars per year so just think what we could do Going Forward to do that proactively. But just on the topic of hacking darwin so it doesnt have to be in the rna we are engineering life with those ancestors. We are part of nature but it is engineered. And those that we are on right now. And the caffeine and cosmetics and they all can be considered enhanced . And that allows us to have the help that we have right now . And that it takes six decades to program and what we are seeing right now it with covid19 is something that goes much faster. So applying Synthetic Biology broadly is the engineering of our life. Going on the order of eight things. With the therapy and vaccine. Even though we know those may take a team is to deliver its very fast to most new drugs that take a decade for those of us that are locked down. So in the therapy category are like those antibodies with sars 2003 and those receptors. And those molecules that can be adapted. Many have been approved for the reuse that we already have 40 different vaccines in the pipeline and thanks to all medical volunteers and workers who are really on the frontlines of this to be injected either intentionally or through their patients. So i want to take a moment to thank them. But the vaccines are not tested even though they have been tested on other viruses. They are phenomenon antibodies that enhance and make it possible for the infects cells and then go to the immune system. We need to be very cognizant of the antibodies in the vaccines. And in thinking about what could happen next with the next wave. It only takes one mutation or one immune problem to put us at risk. And with humans. That may take 18 months to deliver but to delineate the problem or just to flatten the curve in a matter of weeks over 18 months, that is the way we interact with ourselves and the environment. Every time we see another person outside getting close to the 6foot limit we should have a mask on if we see politicians in the same room they should all be wearing a mask. Whatever we go to a Grocery Store we should be documenting just how well we are showing up. That is a challenge that we are making progress on this. We are developing rapid home test coming down to a dollar or less. Some of them can happen in five minutes and some happen in more samples and even taking variations or mutations. And with that serological reaction. You ideally want to be have a very sensitive to detect a small number of viruses and then with that false positive you can look like you have antibodies to the coronavirus the third is the common cold. So there were these positive tests. But all of the vaccines and therapies and agnostics that we can share from beyond 2005 and anybody can participate. And this is the moment for that kind of project. We need to have diagnostics that are not just for the moment and to shuffle around its not clear to have that high enough exclusivity. So in any case we need to be looking in advance of the respiratory distress and so in addition that is my list of what we can do and what we are doing it is wonderful a seat on to see it and even to be further off is we have a way to make any organism resistant. It is not going to solve our problem in the next couple of weeks. But this is an interesting thing that we can do. So i look forward to the conversation coming up. Thank you both so much. Let me try to pull this together a little bit. I agree with a lot of what you say jamie. With the people are dealing with is crucial and science matters. And without Reproductive Technology is driving change we are fun