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This study reports and problematizes three findings from multiple texts on the science-technology-society triad that refer to the knowledge and practices of biotechnology and synthetic biology, two fields that aim to optimize what is alive and life. Said findings reveal the modes of operation of biology and biotechnology as life technologies. For that purpose, this paper used the methodological notions of government and counter-conducts taken from Foucault's toolbox because they focus on finding solutions that maximize human performance by accepting practices related to the transformation of vitality. The first finding questions the applications of biotechnology; the second one reveals the positioning of synthetic biology in the industrial sector; and the third one, related to bioart, problematizes the implications of the government of that what is alive and life from an economic perspective. Therefore, this article stimulates a reflection on biotechnology and synthetic biology as part of our daily life, which encourages us to be concerned about the acceptance of well-established practices regarding human and environmental wellbeing, question the truths that constitute us, and express ourselves based on personal choices that reveal our ethical position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]