Saturday, April 08, 2006
More Human Less Human
At a recent conference in London, organized by the think-tank DEMOS and the Welcome Trust, the topic was the politics of human enhancement and life extension.
Human enhancement describes a family of related technological developments, including drugs and implants, which will significantly enhance mental and physical performance. Life extension relates to the drive to understand and slow the process of aging.
Much of what is written and talked about in respect of these topics describe futures, which are populated by designer babies who grow in to super-intelligent super-athletes with a life expectancy of well over a hundred years.
While it is certain that we are many decades from such a possible future, it is no longer certain that such a future will not come to pass.
This possible future is being made more likely by the emergence and convergence of key enabling technologies; including biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology. Together these technologies offer the real prospect of developing drugs and devices that will alter our bodies allowing them demonstrate enhanced performance for longer.
One high-profile actor in this future is the US Army, supported by leading US universities, which is funding programs such as the Future Force Warrior. A particular focus of this program is on enhancing the mental and physical abilities of the soldier and on negating the adverse effects of stress and fatigue. It has been said that if the US military could operate at peak performance for a two-day period that they could win any war.
Another high-profile advocate of this possible future is Aubrey de Grey. He is a researcher at Cambridge who believes that it will soon be possible to control the biochemical processes in our bodies that lead to aging, and that this will result in our living much longer. He has even gone so far to suggest progress in this field will be so rapid, that the first person to live to the age of a thousand may already have been born.
However we ourselves are not innocent bystanders, as evidenced by the increasing use of plastic surgery to enhance our appearance and drugs to improve our exam performance.
The number of people seeking plastic surgery in the UK has increased dramatically, with operations in BUPA hospitals up by 32% last year. The British Association of Aesthetic Surgeons reported an overall increase of 50%, with the number of men undergoing procedures more than doubling. In case we feel this trend does not apply here, Irish based aesthetic surgeons are all increasing capacity ahead of an expected SSIA bonanza.
The US National Institute of Drug Abuse recently reported that more than 5% of students in the final year of high school were abusing methyphenidate (Ritalin). It also estimated that about one in six of these students stole Ritalin from fellow students who had been prescribed this drug for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Their willingness to abuse this prescription drug stems from experimental and anecdotal evidence that it can significantly improve exam performance. In light of these developments, many eminent educators are suggesting that it is only a matter of time before students, like athletes, are tested for performance enhancing drugs.
While we may not be happy the US military is investing in enhanced human capacity to fight a war, the same research will also contribute to enhancing the performance of a pilot flying a plane that has developed engine trouble or a surgeon undertaking a long and difficult life-saving operation.
While we may be hugely concerned at the implications for all living things on this planet of significantly increased human life-expectancy, it is very likely that most of use would welcome the increase quality of later life this would likely enable even if this was associated with a cap on lifespan.
So in contemplating the potential that the emergence and convergence of the key enabling technologies has to enhance humanity, what principles could guide us as we attempt to come to terms with this possible and even probable future. I would suggest two.
One principle, repeatedly stated by philosophers since David Hume, that should guide us is the following: Nothing can be inferred about what humans ought to be from what they are. This is different from arguing that nothing can be inferred about what human can be from what they are. For example, because we currently have a life expectancy of close to eighty in this country, does not allow us infer that this is what it ought to be in the future. However, our growing understanding of the process of aging means we can expect to radically alter life expectancy.
Another principle is that scientist, engineers and technologists alone can not be allowed to define what humans ought to be based solely on what they can be. This is clearly the role of the wider community, engaged in a process that engages all the stakeholders.
Already, it is clear that the issues surrounding human enhancement are set to be hugely challenging. And, not surprisingly, it is a topic that has attracted the attention of social scientists and economists. Of late, governments and their agencies have started to take an interest. It is now time to initiate a debate on these issues in Ireland.
Donald Fitzmaurce
Human enhancement describes a family of related technological developments, including drugs and implants, which will significantly enhance mental and physical performance. Life extension relates to the drive to understand and slow the process of aging.
Much of what is written and talked about in respect of these topics describe futures, which are populated by designer babies who grow in to super-intelligent super-athletes with a life expectancy of well over a hundred years.
While it is certain that we are many decades from such a possible future, it is no longer certain that such a future will not come to pass.
This possible future is being made more likely by the emergence and convergence of key enabling technologies; including biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology. Together these technologies offer the real prospect of developing drugs and devices that will alter our bodies allowing them demonstrate enhanced performance for longer.
One high-profile actor in this future is the US Army, supported by leading US universities, which is funding programs such as the Future Force Warrior. A particular focus of this program is on enhancing the mental and physical abilities of the soldier and on negating the adverse effects of stress and fatigue. It has been said that if the US military could operate at peak performance for a two-day period that they could win any war.
Another high-profile advocate of this possible future is Aubrey de Grey. He is a researcher at Cambridge who believes that it will soon be possible to control the biochemical processes in our bodies that lead to aging, and that this will result in our living much longer. He has even gone so far to suggest progress in this field will be so rapid, that the first person to live to the age of a thousand may already have been born.
However we ourselves are not innocent bystanders, as evidenced by the increasing use of plastic surgery to enhance our appearance and drugs to improve our exam performance.
The number of people seeking plastic surgery in the UK has increased dramatically, with operations in BUPA hospitals up by 32% last year. The British Association of Aesthetic Surgeons reported an overall increase of 50%, with the number of men undergoing procedures more than doubling. In case we feel this trend does not apply here, Irish based aesthetic surgeons are all increasing capacity ahead of an expected SSIA bonanza.
The US National Institute of Drug Abuse recently reported that more than 5% of students in the final year of high school were abusing methyphenidate (Ritalin). It also estimated that about one in six of these students stole Ritalin from fellow students who had been prescribed this drug for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Their willingness to abuse this prescription drug stems from experimental and anecdotal evidence that it can significantly improve exam performance. In light of these developments, many eminent educators are suggesting that it is only a matter of time before students, like athletes, are tested for performance enhancing drugs.
While we may not be happy the US military is investing in enhanced human capacity to fight a war, the same research will also contribute to enhancing the performance of a pilot flying a plane that has developed engine trouble or a surgeon undertaking a long and difficult life-saving operation.
While we may be hugely concerned at the implications for all living things on this planet of significantly increased human life-expectancy, it is very likely that most of use would welcome the increase quality of later life this would likely enable even if this was associated with a cap on lifespan.
So in contemplating the potential that the emergence and convergence of the key enabling technologies has to enhance humanity, what principles could guide us as we attempt to come to terms with this possible and even probable future. I would suggest two.
One principle, repeatedly stated by philosophers since David Hume, that should guide us is the following: Nothing can be inferred about what humans ought to be from what they are. This is different from arguing that nothing can be inferred about what human can be from what they are. For example, because we currently have a life expectancy of close to eighty in this country, does not allow us infer that this is what it ought to be in the future. However, our growing understanding of the process of aging means we can expect to radically alter life expectancy.
Another principle is that scientist, engineers and technologists alone can not be allowed to define what humans ought to be based solely on what they can be. This is clearly the role of the wider community, engaged in a process that engages all the stakeholders.
Already, it is clear that the issues surrounding human enhancement are set to be hugely challenging. And, not surprisingly, it is a topic that has attracted the attention of social scientists and economists. Of late, governments and their agencies have started to take an interest. It is now time to initiate a debate on these issues in Ireland.
Donald Fitzmaurce
# posted by Donald Fitzmaurice @ 00:20 
