ABSTRACT
Almost overnight, it seems things have become smarter: smart cities, smart phones, smart clothes, smart cars, and smart home appliances abound. Drawing from examples in biotechnology and biomedical engineering, this chapter theorises a less discussed, but no less prevalent smart innovation: the smart body. A smart body is one whose biology has been modified, either directly or through the creation of environmental incentives, in order to achieve a particular, sometimes heritable, behavioural change at the cellular level with the intent of cultivating an intended relationship between and within biological matter. Locating this technological development within the broader discussion on resilience as governance, the chapter asserts that the creation of ‘smart’ bodies signals new, micro-level political and social sites and strategies for managing complex life now and into the future. It also facilitates unprecedented levels of biological sovereignty. As engineering and design increasingly influence the field of biology, theorising the political potential of this development is vital.
