FIGURE 1 Current global political, economic, demographic, environmental and technological future-shaping structural forces are driving an extended period of significant uncertainty, insecurity and instability in today’s unsettled world. Although this ‘permacrisis’ of disharmony, fragmentation, disequilibrium, contestation and need for continual adaptation brings daunting challenges at multiple fronts, it too also might reveal great unexpected potential opportunities for technological developments and breakthroughs that could advance synthetic yeast research and human development over the next few decades.