Science Fiction as Anticipatory Governance: Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Emerging Technologies through the Lens of Star Trek

On September 8, 1966, Star Trek first aired in the United States, launching a cultural and technological imagination that has profoundly shaped public expectations about scientific progress, biomedical innovation, and human futures. As the franchise approaches its 60th anniversary, this research topic of Frontiers in ELSI uses Star Trek - and science fiction more broadly - as an analytic and normative lens for examining the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of emerging technologies, with particular attention to genetics, biotechnology, and human enhancement.Long before many contemporary innovations became technically feasible, Star Trek explored core ELSI questions that now sit at the center of real-world governance debates. Genetic engineering and human enhancement appear repeatedly across the franchise, from selective breeding and engineered intelligence (e.g., the Augments and the legacy of Khan Noonien Singh) to population-level genetic stratification, disability, and exclusion. These narratives anticipate modern controversies surrounding gene editing, polygenic risk scoring, germline interventions, enhancement versus therapy, and the potential re-emergence of eugenic logics under the guise of biomedical progress.Beyond genetics, the franchise has engaged deeply with neurotechnology, cognitive enhancement, autonomy, and mental privacy; artificial intelligence, synthetic life, and the moral status of non-biological persons; algorithmic decision-making and command authority; medical triage, consent, and public health emergencies; end-of-life care, identity, and personhood; and environmental stewardship, planetary protection, and the ethics of terraforming. Taken together, these themes form a rich speculative archive that parallels-and often precedes-today’s ethical and regulatory challenges in genetics, medicine, AI, and space science.This research topic invites interdisciplinary contributions from bioethics, law, genetics, science and technology studies, sociology, philosophy, medicine, computer science, and public policy. We particularly encourage submissions that foreground genetic and genomic technologies as central case studies, including but not limited to:- the ethics of genetic enhancement versus therapy;- governance of gene-editing technologies and heritable interventions;- genetic discrimination, stigma, and stratification;- disability, diversity, and genetic “normalization”;- population genetics, public health, and collective responsibility;- intergenerational justice and the long-term consequences of genetic modification.Contributors are encouraged to connect speculative narratives to real-world regulatory and governance challenges, including translational pathways from imagination to innovation, the role of fiction in shaping scientific agendas, public trust, and risk perception, and the implications of anticipatory governance when cultural artifacts precede formal oversight frameworks. Science fiction is treated here not merely as entertainment, but as a form of distributed ethical reasoning that influences how societies conceptualize technological possibility, moral responsibility, and legitimate intervention in human biology.By engaging science fiction as both a predictive and normative framework, this special issue aims to illuminate how societies negotiate the boundaries of personhood, responsibility, equity, and technological legitimacy-on Earth and beyond-while offering practical insights for ELSI scholarship, policy design, and innovation governance in an era of accelerating scientific and genetic capability. Topic editors: Dov Greenbaum Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77728/science-fiction-as-anticipatory-governance-ethical-legal-and-social-implications-of-emerging-technologies-through-the-lens-of-star-trek