We Dream You Up

Summary

This paper combines Indigenous knowledges, postcolonial and new materialist theory with fictional vignettes and drawings to examine the biological synthesis of psilocybin through yeast. It addresses ethical, cultural, and ecological implications of this technology, charting potential ramifications on relationships among space, time, and matter. Speculative narratives explore non-human/human relationships and postcolonial perspectives on commodification of beings embedded in Indigenous practices. New materialist perspectives inform discussion of matter's agency and entanglements with human interventions, contributing to psychedelic and onto-epistemological discourses.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This interdisciplinary research paper recombines Indigenous knowledges, postcolonial and new materialist theory, as well as fictional vignettes and drawings, to critically examine the biological synthesis of psilocybin through yeast. Against the backdrop of the “psychedelic renaissance” and consensus in the synthetic biology industry that generally, edited genes are “beyond containment”, the study addresses emergent ethical, cultural, and ecological implications of this nascent technology. The article charts potential ramifications of synthetic fungi on the intertwined relationships among space, time, and matter. Speculative narratives serve as conduits for exploring the multifaceted dimensions of non-human/human relationships and engage postcolonial perspectives on the commodification of beings traditionally embedded in Indigenous cultural practices. New materialist perspectives also inform discussion of matter’s agency and its entanglements with human interventions. This research contributes to ongoing onto-epistemological and psychedelic discourses, posing critical provocations to the ethical boundaries of synthetic biology frontiers, encouraging nuanced approaches to this new field.

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