Andrew Hessel

Biotechnology has experienced previous booms that have proven unsustainable. In fact, as an industry, is a lot like the airline industry, crucial but not profitable as a whole. Few realize that biotechnology returned its first profit ever just in 2008. Since then, it has struggled along with other industries affected by the ongoing global economic challenges.

However, Andrew Hessel believes the biotechnological future is brighter than ever. Over the last decade, biotechnology has gone digital. It is on the cusp of delivering truly disruptive technological changes. And because biotechnology is central to all living things, this could bring societal shifts as well. Humanity entered 1900 largely as an agrarian society, without heavier-than-air flight, without computers, and with virtually no biological understanding of disease. We exited the century with nearly half of all people living in cities, exploring space, globally networked, and holding a draft of the human genome. What’s ahead? Noted futurist Ray Kurzweil says that compared to the last 100 years, we can expect 20,000 years of relative progress. If you’re not preparing for this change, you’re going to be swept away by it.