9:48 AM, That Fateful Day, The Future

A.

I run out of the lab, out of the building, across the street, past some person coughing their lungs out (not literally), into the mall across the road. It’s a monster of a building, hosting offices, shops, restaurants, even a large conference hall. Get in the elevator, push the button. The screen lights up: ‘Based on previous purchases, we think you might like this skirt, which is now on sale at XBlack’. Screw you elevator, stop telling me what to wear. ‘To the funeral of humanity’, a dramatic voice in my head says. I chuckle at the thought. If each suspected bio-terror attack would turn out to be truth, we’d all be dead by now, several times over. They told me to act casual, there’s no reason to incite panic when we don’t know what we’re up against. I casually step out of the elevator and see that several people have, not very casually, fallen over, coughing up blood. So it’s true, the coffee had indeed been spiked with modified Thermobacter. I wish I could have at least worn gloves. Gloves, a breath mask, an entire goddamn hazmat suit. I’m not keen on getting killed by something some junkie high on god knows what biosynthesized crap cooked up in order to rid the world of the human pestilence. I hold my breath and hurriedly step back into the elevator. Hopefully, this thing isn’t airborne as well. ‘Lock down the street and send in a team’, I tell the Boss over the phone as I run back across the street and into the building. ‘Have them bring me a cup of that coffee, I want to see what this thing is capable of’. (‘How do you take your coffee?’ ‘With a smattering of death, please’. Oh, brain. Focus.)

11:24 PM, The 9th of August, The Future

K.

That was one wild night I will never forget. I'm not sure if I quite believe in what happened. People dying in a glimpse of an eye, me nearly becoming a part of organised crime... What have I gotten myself into? Maybe my friends were right when they told me I shouldn’t get involved in any of that “outlaw biology”. Get a job, pay your bills, act normal and obey the law. Leave your dreams behind, accept the world as it is, an immovable object. Instead I left behind my friends and their opinions, believing synthetic biology to be the irresistible force able to change the foundation of the world.
Maybe I was wrong, maybe not, the game is not over yet. Either way, until now I had no regrets. But that fateful night might have changed everything. I don’t know what I’m standing against, I don’t know who to trust and I cannot fight this battle alone. What is right and what is wrong when I’m standing against both the law and the outlaws? What if while walking among shadows I’ll turn into a shadow of a human being just like the nameless gunner from the other night?
Maybe it is the time to give up?
Never.

7:42 PM, The 7th of August, The Future

A.

It is beginning to dawn on people that if they clone their deceased pets, they will only get their old companion back in shape but not necessarily in behaviour. As such, companies that offer pet cloning are starting to come up with other ways of making money, such as producing glow-in-the-dark pets (rabbits make for great fluffy nightlights!) or developing your favourite type of animal with a cocktail of growth factors that alter its physical shape to make it look like something from a fantasy novel or a sci-fi movie. Gruesome as that sounds, they swear it does not harm the animals and that the side effects of exposure to these growth hormones is minimal. Animal rights groups, of course, are having a field day with this whole thing, but their protest budgets have got nothing on the amount of cash the companies are forking in for each dragon-dog or alien-cat they sell.

I personally don’t have the time to take care of a pet that requires a lot of attention, so I limit myself to fish - the walls in my house all have strips of transparent, heat stable plastic in them which serve as aquariums for all kinds of glowy and colourful fish. My house reminds me of the lighting on runways at night. 

11:10 AM, August the 2nd, The Future

K.

I wasn’t prepared for that! The cops are still only a few steps behind, I can hear them shouting. I can’t outrun them, I can barely see, my  augmented vision is jammed, I’ve got to figure something out fast. I try to find a way through but its a dead end. There is some sort of ledge on the right, if only I can get the right grip... Hell! It’s all so slippery after the rain. Now there’s nothing I can do, with all the noise I made there’s no way I’m gonna get away.
- I told you to stop when you had a chance! Now it’s gonna hurt.
The first one did. I’m not sure if I could feel the next ones. A hit to the head leaves only silence. Then a sudden gunshot. Warm blood starts covering my jacket. Yet I feel no pain, I hear voices, I can see the light... It’s not my blood for god’s sake! There’s someone else in the alley, holding the gun. The voices get louder and more real as I regain consciousness.
- Alex! Isn't that the guy you were talking 'bout?
Someone shakes my arm as I start to recognise the familiar face next to me.
- You alright, mate?
- Yeah, I'm good.
Of course I'm bloody not. I just saw a cop get gunned down. What the hell! And Alex seems to be with the guy. What's going on?
- You know, we could probably use someone like you, you're a biohacker right? - the man with the gun asks me casually, completely ignoring the dead cop.
- Uh, wha? Yeah, look I really need to go back home, get my shit together.
Who the hell is this guy and why would I want to have anything to do with him?!
- Sure, you know where to find Alex, right? You owe me one mate.
Slowly walking away, it's time to end this madness. And I think I need to find a new dealer.

18:48 PM, August the 3rd, The Future

A.

DIY biology has really become part of all our lives. If you want to do something with bacteria, there is probably a protocol for it somewhere and if there isn’t, you can just ask for help online. I mean, who doesn’t like to do a little tweaking here and there, whether it be for a more pest-resistant vegetable garden, to get that bacterial paint the perfect eggshell colour for your walls or, in my current case, to help marinate my dinner faster and bring out the flavours with the help of enzymes. Even everyday British food, not very famous for its flavour, tastes a lot better now that you can just throw packets of flavouring and enzymes into it and just leave it to cook for a specified amount of time. No muss, no fuss, perfect for the lazy and the herb-and-spice illiterate alike. And what’s a lazy dinner without a cold one? ‘For best results, keep on ice at all times when not in use’. Funny how the instructions for storing enzymes are exactly the same as the instructions on this beer can. Thanks to my connections from back in the non-government-work-days, I now have a lifetime supply of BeerGen beer. Technically, I’m a flavour and consistency tester. Practically, I get free beer for life and since they keep coming out with new flavours all the time, it doesn’t even get boring. Plus, in lieu of a morning tea, I could always have a can since some contain enzymes that neutralize the alcohol before I’m even out the door. A driver’s best friend.

11 AM, August the 2nd, The Future

K.

Same time next week... Alex is a nice guy, and can gets things done. It's good to have him and similar people around. Without them and the network my work would be much harder, impossible even. I don't really like coming to this part of town to get things sorted. Being pushed away from the safe shelter of society like a damned criminal. And what have I ever done wrong? Whenever the innocent are left to suffer because of the fear of progress every move is a fair game as long as it leads the society back on track.
Something's not right here - the streets are more busy than usual. I have a bad feeling about it.
A sharp smell, and odd cry in the dark... shit, is that pepper spray? Right around the corner, the shouts are getting louder and I can see what’s going on. A whole squad of riot police with top-tier equipment. I better get out of here.
- Hey! Where the hell do you think you’re going? Stop right where you are.
I freeze as I spot one of the cops - he’s got one of these powered exoskeleton arms that could snap my neck before I could spell “citizen rights”. But I cannot risk being searched, not with so many plasmids in my pockets. Bloody protesters couldn’t have picked a worse moment to start a riot. Just leave me alone...
- Just leave me alone!
- I’ll leave you alone to rot in jail if you don’t get on the ground right now!
I leg it. I can hear shouts behind me, I can barely see where I’m going as the tear gas fills the alley. I must get out...    

8:45 AM, July the 31st, The Future

A.

A weekend off and then it’s back to work for the both of us. We can’t just jump on a motorbike and ride out into the Highlands to explore all the sparkling lochs and ancient castles like we used to, duty calls, there are pathogens that need containing here and criminals that need detaining on the other side of the world. At least we can enjoy time together even while we’re apart with personal virtual reality kits - it’s like the 4D cinemas except without all the other people loudly chewing popcorn and pouring soda down your neck. You just load up a preset scenario or custom build one and smells, tastes and sights will start to inundate your senses. I can feel the wind tearing against my leathers, smell the exhaust fumes mixed with fresh mountain air, see the sun’s glare over a mountain high up in the distance and taste that beer we shared at our last stop. If I wanted to, I could also get electrodes that stimulate specific neurons to artificially induce some emotions but I think that this is realistic enough. There are enough people who say that this is not real happiness and people can get addicted to it and just waste away and forget about real life. Of course, the thing actually senses who uses it and how often and it automatically locks you out after an hours’ use each day. I also disagree with it not being real happiness, it is still something you feel, even if it is artificially induced... just like painkillers artificially reducing your pain, but you don’t hear people complaining about having to feel less pain.

7 PM, July the 30th, The Future

K.

Just a few more minutes in the sequencer and I’ll know whether the assembly worked as intended - with the conditions I have in my “lab” you can never be sure about the results. I’m actually growing curious of the possible effect that these BioBricks may have on dehydrogenase. That’s one thing I like about the whole biohack business - you can never be sure of the results and possible combinations are endless, even now when the technology is better than ever. What starts as a side project can become much more, simply by accident.
In my case however, its sole purpose is to cover for the more complicated stuff. I'm pretty sure that security people have a huge file on me but they could just as well throw it out a window. Once they find out you're a harmless biohacker they may keep an eye on you - but who's got enough eyes to watch all the people who try to get some moonshine from bacteria? Thanks to this subproject I'm free to experiment with the good stuff - as long as I'm careful. Feint within a feint within a feint - a complicated life but one that is worth living. And I need all the cover I can get if I want to mess with human stem cells. Genome modifications may be fairly well developed (I've even got a few upgrades myself, after all) but the endless potential for human augmentation using stem cells is just overwhelming. It's hard, it's time consuming and it's risky - but I'd rather go down in flames than sit in the shadow.
 

7:50 PM, July the 27th, The Future

A.

I adjust the colour of my dress with the push of a button. Got to get that deep red hue to match the hair, the shoes and the nails. The bacteria woven into the silk recognize the change in nutrients at once and start to produce the appropriate pigments. Saves having to get a different coloured dress to match each of my shoes. In addition to colour, the bacteria can also produce various scents. The perfume industry had a little to suffer because of it but they quickly changed direction and now they are inseparable from the textile industry.

The Flesh of Fallen Angels Bar and Grill. An apt, albeit dramatic name for this restaurant. The sombre decor complete with black candles and black velvet chairs and the 80’s rock and metal playing in the background go very well with cocktails called Ragnarök, Aesir and Asgard and menu items called Spicy Valkyrie Wings, Jörmungandr steak and Flesh charred by Fafnir’s breath. The whole atmosphere is like a bubble out of time that evokes memories of the years when life depended less on the synthetic. What makes this place truly special, though, is that they serve actual meat. While one can easily forget that the ‘meat’ in their everyday dinner is synthetic, an anniversary still calls for a special meal and it is these meals that remind me that no synthetic analogue can fully reproduce the taste and feel of a good steak. Sweet wine fermented by enhanced bacteria is, however, a significant improvement over that which has come before it.

10 PM, July the 26th, The Future

K.

Whatever you say about the registry - at least it's easy to access. A relic, a prototype and a thing to remember. It's still fairly useful though, someone must have done a really good job of organising it and sorting out all the BioBricks. The fun part is that it had reached its peak then fallen down already before the Outbreak and the whole regulatory shenanigans. This had a whole lot of implications but most importantly it has been long forgotten by the system. It has it flaws, the methods behind it are outdated but the data is still there. I've been looking through it since last month and I'm growing increasingly fond of it, kicking it old-school. The fun times when I had been an undergraduate are rather blurry at best but you cannot deny the creativity behind this whole project. Creativity which means piles of junk DNA making my work harder. I've got a hunch that today may be the day. Something to get me started without getting too much attention. Another hour or two with tea and the database and then I’ll call it a day. "Thermobacter-infused tea", seriously, who comes up with that kind of stuff.

5PM, July the 24th, The Future

A.

The building I work in used to be an old hospital that was converted into a series of labs as the need for quite so much hospital space declined. Implants that can sense the presence of pathogens, identify them and deploy the right drugs became available as soon as bacteria-based bioelectric interfaces were cleared for human use. Most of these implants use non-antibiotic methods to kill the pathogens, so the tide of antibiotic-resistant organisms has ebbed. Add to this the fact that all experiments use non-antibiotic markers, so even the most careless release will not cause a relapse in resistant bacteria. As a direct consequence of these things, even those who could not afford the implant could easily be treated with the (carefully moderated) use of antibiotics that were previously ineffective. Problems only arise when some paranoid hypochondriac keeps pumping his body full of antibiotics to get rid of the supposed plague infecting him and in so doing, causes a small surge of antibiotic-resistant organisms. As soon as such a rise is noticed, the resistant strains are tracked back to their source (handy that we can now track bacteria efficiently) and the area is decontaminated. 

11 PM, July the 23rd, The Future

K.

This is not a good moment to run out of polymerase, damn it. It'll take some time before I can get my hands on some more. Advanced as we are, we still can't make DNA replicate itself out of thin air. And it all goes back to the Outbreak. It seems like it all started not so much time ago. Everything was going fine, technology improving, prices dropping and synthetic biology flourishing. Of course it didn't last long.

First it was that poor fellow from a university, can't even remember which one. A sloppy mistake that contaminated the lab and cost a few people their lives. That kind of stuff makes the news, maybe creates some new legislation but it's never world-changing. Unlike a precise, well organised bioterrorist attack that happened 2 years later. Back in the days some experts assumed that pathogens cannot overcome their limitations while facing the exponential growth rate of our technology. Clearly someone didn't account for the same technology working in favour of the enemy. All it took was a good place to start with.

1,163,743 deceased, many more severely debilitated for the rest of their lives. I remember this number well. However much sympathy I felt for the victims and their relatives, I could easily see how it would affect me and everyone else. No more free access databases, sequencing or synthesis. No more synthetic biology. A new dark age for technology. However, the new regulations were messy and people already got a taste of the change they so desperately needed. You cannot stop progress. Unfortunately, for now the progress still needs the damned polymerase!  

3PM, July the 20th, The Future

A.

You either had good connections and got a high-end job or you started tinkering with things on your own to try and make a name for yourself on the open source front. At least it was like that before the bioterrorist attack of 2020 killed around a million. It’s funny (in a sick way) how the death of one person is tragedy, but the death of one thousands is a statistic. Regulations were rapidly put in place to limit access to databases and materials, so self-styled, honest biopunks had to either go underground, take a sharp left turn in their career prospects and start doing something else or fill the jobs vacated by those who died. Where one door closes, another opens...

This is when the government decided that it needed more people to work on controlling the directions garage biology could take, to prevent such events ever happening again. The Biosafety and Biosecurity Division was set up and was tasked with developing ways to predict, model, prevent and remedy any bioterrorist attacks that could occur, as well as carry out periodic scans of most synthetic products that get released. We have shown some success, in that nothing so big has occurred again (yet?) and things have been quiet, save for a few isolated cases that we managed to contain quickly enough. Honest biopunks probably hate us for severing their access to the large databases, but even they must understand that we are fighting the good fight.

1 AM, July the 19th, The Future

K. 

I used to love late evening strolls around the streets but the habit grew less appealing with time. The city has changed just like everything else. Or maybe it's just me - for most people the streets are safe and because of that they don’t mind all the restrictions and supervision. However, I have good reasons to hide in the shadows as one man’s safety may very well be a trap for another. Back in the flat, 3rd floor. I open the fresh tank of water and take a sample - nowadays everything is contaminated with all sorts of genetic material so I prefer to run some tests. After all, it only takes seconds to detect DNA and get a readout on a computer. It seems that this one has got some funky DNA - nothing dangerous but I probably want to use water from another source for experiments. I'll set the sequencer in the morning and see what’s there. There's a good chance I'm being paranoid, with all that neuropeptide conspiracy it's easy to believe that our own military is cooking up something big. On the other hand simple incompetence can be much more detrimental than any conspiracy. By simply "overlooking" the problem of DNA contamination, the government makes biohacking a real pain sometimes. With all the power that they have and want to take away from us, who's the real biopunk here?

6PM, July the 18th, The Future

S.

Dear diary,

I forgot and told mummy about puking all over the cinema and she sent me to go play with Baby and I heard her shout at daddy. Mummy doesn’t like 4D, she said it is not natural. I asked Miss Green what that means and she said mummy was right, that 4D is bad for girls my age (even though I am the oldest in my class), but that other people use it. She showed us about bio electricity and how it is good and it helps people who are sick but then Simon hit me but Kate says its only cos he likes me but I don’t like him, I like Paul.

I told mummy what teacher said and mummy said Miss Green is too young to understand. Mummy took me to see grandpa today. I like grandpa even though he smells like old person.

3 PM, July the 17th, The Future

A.

Cataloguing and characterizing an infinitely long list of bioparts submitted to the Registry can be a gruelling task. It’s the kind of job that could easily be automated but then it takes some thinking to interpret the results, so humans still need to be part of it. With how quickly computers and synthetic biology are co-evolving, however, I’m sure that we’ll soon have computers that will accurately interpret all that data, resulting in a fully automated process that only needs a fraction of the current manpower to maintain. It was not  a dream-job.

After that came a job of making new parts for a small flower shop. Tweaking plants with biosensors that keep them fresh and alive for longer by infusing them with hormones based on environmental conditions. Improving their genes to make them more colourful, smell better, make bigger flowers, resist more pests and flower more frequently. This was fun for a while (and smelled a lot better than all those bacteria in a lab) but it lacked the sense of satisfaction one gets from doing something that does more than improve things aesthetically.

I was looking to change my direction slightly and actually start helping people. That’s when morbid circumstances brought me a great opportunity.

9PM, July the 16th, The Future

K.

Huh, yet another failed PCR, what a fun. Well, that's DIY for you, there's a good reasons why the big guys get results and I don't. The gap between the industry and common people is growing daily, with corporation fighting over every single patented piece of high-tech. They are always at the leading edge with an ace up the sleeve. But what they don't have is the network. For each of my failed tests, there are hundreds of people who succeed. Each small piece of information goes online and if you know where to look - you'll find what you need.  I say let the corporations have their patented secrets - we don't need them. Let the big guys fire their big guns at each other while we work out how to fix the world - million small steps at a time. But a failed PCR is still a failed PCR and not even a million people can change that. Time to give it another spin before midnight.

11AM, July the 14th, The Future

A.

I landed this job after exploring many unyielding avenues. As synthetic biology became more and more commonplace, everybody flooded all the universities that taught it in the hopes that they could strike gold by starting or joining a synthbio company that would produce something that would replace or augment existing things or create something new and world-changing. This turned out to be a very fruitful avenue for the first few generations of graduates, but then the unemployment sky-rocketed as the well of novel ideas started to run dry and no new jobs were on the horizon. A synthetic biology diploma was about as good as a job application for a fast-food joint. At least you’d know all about the intricacies of the production of the synthetic meat burgers you’re flipping and about the genetic modifications of the plants that they use to make the oil for your fries. That’s how graduates like me (who were actually interested in the concept of synthbio itself, not just enamoured with promises of riches) ended up doing menial jobs. Even with all this cheap food, I still needed someone to give me the money to afford it.

7PM, July the 13th, The Future

K.

Turn left, then right, a quick look behind. The augmented vision keeps recalculating the route - good, it means I'm still keeping the pace. Not the first time this EPO upgrade pays back. I can still remember my first genome modification as if it was yesterday. I had it applied for medical reasons, obviously. Then it became more restricted - and more accessible in...certain circles. First it was some minor adjustments but it soon became...addictive, just like tattoos for some people, you just can't stop.

- Stop right there, punk! You're under arrest for possession of restricted genetic material!

Bloody coppers! I wonder what's the restricted genetic material - the tube I've got in my pocket or just me. Either way I'd rather not have them PCR my ass to jail.

Turn left, jump over the fence and then comes the hard part. Climb up the dumpster, jump across, catch the ledge over the gate.

Done, now it should take them a few minutes to find me and get around the security lock. And my motorcycle is just where I left it, sweet. I'm sure I'll have some more lovely meetings with law officers but today's pleasant encounter is over.

4PM, July the 12th, The Future

S.

Dear diary,

I went to the animal park today and I saw lots of animals. I saw a tiger and a sheep and a dinosaur and an elephant and a hippobotomus. Daddy showed me the cows and they were big and silly and smelly. Daddy said that a long time ago the cows made milk and the human beings drank their milk!!!! I said I would never drink that milk. I will only drink milk from biofarms. Smelly cows. Then we went to the cinema and daddy got us ice cream and I got to see a 4D film! Daddy told them I was old enough even though I am not, but I am not to tell mummy! I got a pill to swallow just like the one I get at school and then the lights went off and then the film started and I got cold when there was on the ice and warm when things went BANG ! and happy when the goody and his friend kiss (yuck!) and then I was sick all over my new dress and daddy took me home.