SATURDAY June 28, 2003
1:30-3:00pm
Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 62
High St., New Haven CT
"Transhumanist Bioethics"
Nick
Bostrom Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy, Harris Manchester College
Oxford University
"Our
Human and Posthuman Dignity"
[LISTEN HERE]
Opponents
of transhumanism sometimes appeal to the idea of human dignity as a
ground for resisting proposals to use technology to modify human nature.
Genetic engineering, life-extension technology, psychopharmacology, and
anticipated future technologies such as nanomedicine and artificial
intelligence, are seen as threatening to undermine our human dignity. I
argue that these objections to human enhancement rest on a narrow and
misguided understanding of what human dignity is. Technology has already
changed humanity profoundly. Our lives, concerns, abilities, thoughts,
beliefs, and activities are vastly different from those of our
"technologically naked" ancestors of a hundred thousand years
ago. In this sense, we are already transhumans. Yet these developments
have not made us less human. Rather, the use of technology to expand our
human capacities and to develop ourselves in accordance with our ideals
can be seen as a central aspect of our humanity. Furthermore, it would
be naive to suppose that we have reached the endpoint of this long
process of human self-transformation. It is much more likely, provided a
species-destroying catastrophe is avoided, that we will one day in a not
so distant future use technology to make ourselves posthumans beings
with much longer lifespan, and vastly greater intellectual, emotional,
physical and spiritual capacities than any currant human. This
transhumanist perspective, I argue, suggests a different idea of human
dignity and a family of ethical principles to go with it. We need to
expand our concept of dignity to encompass also posthuman dignity, and
we need to apply this broader concept when evaluating possible
directions of current technological developments.
James
Hughes Ph.D.
Public Policy Studies
Trinity College
"Transhumanist
Bioethics: An Overview"
[LISTEN HERE]
A
summary of the emergence of transhumanism as a bioethics viewpoint, and
its principal arguments.
James
Hughes teaches health policy at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut,
and serves as Secretary of the World Transhumanist Association, a
nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging the use of technology to
transcend the limitations of the human body. His weekly radio program,
Changesurfer Radio, can be heard in streaming MP3. You can reach him at
secretary@transhumanism.org.
Twyla
Gibson Ph.D.
McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology
University of Toronto
"Philosophical
Foundations and Methodological Framework for a Transhumanist
Bioethics"
[LISTEN HERE]
This
study considers the moral choices and ethical dilemmas raised by the use
of technology to augment the human body. It presents the philosophical
foundations and methodological framework for a transhumanist bioethics
that is grounded in the Platonic definitions. The study offers this
definitional framework as a basis for establishing a dialogue among
transhumanists, bioethicists, anti-technology activists, and critical
social theorists of science and technology. Emphasis is placed on
understanding how the definitions can be mutually accessed and applied
to the core of identified problems and to an expanding range of issues.
Twyla
Gibson is a senior postdoctoral fellow at the McLuhan Program in Culture
and Technology at the University of Toronto.
She is concurrently pursuing postdoctoral work on the history of
ideas at the University of Michigan.
She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto,
where she also earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy, religious
studies, and education. Gibson
is an award winning writer with numerous credits in film, television,
and print media. She
recently developed a bioethical framework for dealing with privacy
issues stemming from genetic information for a study commissioned by the
Canadian Biotechnology Secretariate.
She has also been a researcher and conference organizer for
topics related to the future of Canada's health care system for U of T's
department of philosophy and Center for Bioethics.
As senior research associate for Vocational Rehabilitation
Associates and Robert D. Katz (Canada's leading expert witness on issues
of employment and employability) she prepared over 200 legal briefs
aimed at defending the rights of disabled workers in the Canadian law
courts.
