Lysenkoism Warns on AI Governance

Lysenkoism shows how political orthodoxy can replace empirical methods inside state science, with catastrophic social effects. That historical pattern should be treated as a precedent when states or powerful actors push ideological or strategic priorities into emerging fields like AI or synthetic biology. — Framing Lysenkoism as a governance caution connects a visible historical failure to modern policy: it argues for institutional safeguards (peer review, plural funding, independent oversight) to prevent ideology from corroding high‑stakes science.