Human Enhancement Technologies
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Transcript of Human Enhancement Technologies
HUMAN ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGIESHow to ensure early adoption?
ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART | 05.10.09
PROFESSOR ANDY MIAH, PHD | twittercom/andymiah
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/01/body-enhancement-cosmetic-surgery-genetics
Washington Post 2008
This is Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins, photograph by Nick Knight
disabilityability
uncertaintyDealing with
So, how can we Promote early adoption?
public reaction
Image by Andy Miah
How does the story of Steve Kurtz inform how we think about the ethics of science and its regulation via policy?
public confidencepublic engagement
I’m a cyborg, but that’s ok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karla_k/2776839587/sizes/l/
CANDIDATE ENHANCEMENTS
From chance to choice
HUMANENHANCEMENT
CONTESTED
VALUE ACCEPTED
VALUE
TRANSHUMAN b)i) flight
ii) Teleportation
TRANSHUMAN a)
super height
life-span
intelligence
memorydrugs
health-span
PGD (non-disease)
cosmetic surgery
leg lengtheninginnoculations
flouridizationof water
ritalin
PGDiagnosis/PGSelection
Image from GATTACA courtesy of the director
1. Accepted ValueFor selecting out genetic disease2. Contested ValueFor selecting preferred characteristics (sex)3. Radical Transhuman Enhancement3a) selecting a healthier embryo3b) i) selecting an embryo whose characteristics extend what is humanly known3b) ii) perhaps transgenic or chimeric embryos, where species are crossed yielding unhuman-like characteristics.
‘human gill adaptation’ (Annas, G.J. ‘Perfect People 2020’ In Miah, A. (2008) Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty (Liverpool University Press)
Enhancement as function?
AESTHETICInteventions
Image courtesy of Pipilotti Rist
WHAT IS ANEnhancement?
Image by Eduardo Kac
ACCUMULATION OFTHECAPITALBIOCULTURAL
BIOCULTURALCAPITAL
The term 'cultural capital' refers to the knowledge of and skills in the discursive realm relating to society, the arts, leisure, sport, science, politics and all the other elements recognised as 'culture' in society at large (Rojek 1995: 68).
BIOCULTURALCAPITAL
Bourdieu recognises that acts of labour are required to turn
bodies into social entities and that these acts influence how people develop and hold the
physical shape of their bodies, and learn how to
present their bodies through styles of walk, talk and dress. Far from being natural, these
represent highly skilled and socially differentiated
accomplishments which start to be learned early in
childhood. As it develops, the body bears the indisputable
imprint of the individual's social class (in Rojek 1995)
ECOHUMANENHANCEMENT TODAY MEANS MAKING SURE WE
MINIMIZE OUR IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT and
EVEN ENSURE OUR EXISTENCE PROMOTES THE HEALTH OF THE ECOSYTEM
How to promote early adoptioN
1. Reduce public FEAR
2. PROMOTE EMPOWERED ACTION
3. CREATE YOUR OWN NARRATIVE
4. IMBUE DESIGN WITH MORALLY APPEALING VALUES
5. PROMOTE the IDEA THAT THERE IS
NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THERAPY
AND ENHANCEMENT