Dr. Jeanann Boyce

Professor of Computer Science and Business

Montgomery College, Takoma Park Campus

Bioethics and Technology:Bioethics and Technology:A Look at the Present and the FutureA Look at the Present and the Future

Presenter

• Dr. Jeanann Boyce– Professor of Computer Science at Montgomery College

and Adjunct Professor of Information Science at Johns Hopkins and Bowie State University.

– Member of Robotics International, Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

– Teaches AI programming and Information Systems, ED Chair District of Columbia Engineering & Architectural Societies

– Developed and implemented first Ethics in the Information Age courses at University of Maryland University College and Montgomery College

Purposes of the Presentation

• Current Issues in Biotechnology

• Consider some Ethical Questions regarding the development of current Biotechnical advancements

Part 1: Current Issues in Biotechnology: The Three Faces

of AI

Divergent Paths of Intelligence- Hardware, Software, Human

Three Distinct Areas of Internet Evolution

• Sentient Machines

• Disembodied Entities

• Human Technogenics (or Cyborgs)

1. Intelligent Equipment:Cogito, ergo est?

Sentient Machines

• HAL of 2001• Robotics with Positronic Brains- neural networks

versus expert systems. Norseen of Lockheed Martin has proposed mathematical constructs “semiotic reality”,emergent process of biochemical induced, electromagnetic field mediated interaction of information with uniquely configured neural structures, and expressed

into work via protein reconfiguration, under the term BioFusion.

• Computers that think like Humans? When Things Start to Think- Neil Gerstenfeld 1999

Expert Systems

• Easy to do the “hard things”, hard to do the “easy” things

• Expert systems working closely with human

• Robotics, partial mechanicals

• Problem solving, menial tasks, decision-making

• Marketing through PDA’s

TechnicalBoyce rule of time/machine transference

As machines have become faster, our patience has become less. Will our brains adjust?

2020

1975- 4 Mz

2001- 2 Gz

3 Trillion transactions/sec ???

Ethical Questions?

• Is it possible that machines will develop attitudes on their relationship towards humans?

• Is this what we want?

• If not, what should we do to prevent this from happening?

Disembodied and Distributed Intelligence: The Web as Neural

Network

Devices connecting you to the Technology

• Full sensory vs. Desktop• Head Mounted Display System Display System

Wearables

• VR based technology

• MIT• The Phantom MIT-WAM arm

• Mini-Macro actuator

• JPL FRHC

• The Salisbury Hand

• The Talon Force Sensing Fingertip

• Stephen Mann’s Haptic Interfaces

Professional Applications

• Medical - Surgeons can practice surgeries before operating on live patients Robot assisted surgery, Sept. 20, 2001 Transatlantic gall bladder removed from NYC surgeon in Stasbourg France

• Engineering & Architecture Engineers and technicians can design parts and assemble parts in simulations

• Military personnel can train pilots and use synthetic theaters of war

• Scientists • Financialists • Education bridging the gap of time and space• Excellent for those with Disabilities

• Imagine a world in which knowledge can be shared in real time within simulations that can integrate information that spans the course of history.

• Real time interactions promise unlimited opportunities for people from diverse cultures to communicate.

Definitions of the Internet

• Unstructured network of servers

• Non-regulated, communications mechanism

• Cross-cultural, non-academic knowledge base

• No TRAFFIC MANAGERS

• No RUBBISH COLLECTORS

Disembodied Online Entities

• Corporate Persona - Legal Entity

• Avatars – Virtual Egos (see www.kurzweilai.net)

• Virtual Reality and the Internet Interface

• Perceptual Realities of Time, Space, and Ownership of Data

Wallace and the Talking Dolls

• Alice – the online AVATAR

• Digital Animation and Acting models, Voice Puppets-

Distributed Intelligence

• Using the Power of the Internet for Cultural and Technical Problem solving

• Data collection and analysis

• Tracking

Ethical Questions?

• Is there any right to privacy of information?

• What does this do to our communications with other humans?

3. Technogenics – Human/machine interfaces

Human Technogenics• Computer scientists predict that

within the next twenty years neural interfaces will be designed that will not only increase the dynamic range of senses, but will also enhance memory and enable "cyberthink" — invisible communication with others.

• This technology will facilitate consistent and constant access to information when and where it is needed.

Cyborgs and such…

• Kevin Warwick head of the Cybernetics Department at the University of Reading is the first guinea pig. (www.kevinwarwick.com)

Yorick – FDA Kids Web Site

• Electronic devices and mechanical parts

• Glass eye, silicon nose, gel-filled chin

Yorick cont’d

Alas, More Yorick

Hip Joint

Pacemakers

BioChips

Implantable computer or organic chips that can monitor, control, provide

feedback on different body functions, including neural activities

Implants

• Other work in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) develops miniature structures that can be used to communicate directly with neurons without harming them.

• Peter Fromherz and Alfred Stett at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich have succeeded in making a silicon chip that can directly stimulate a single nerve cell without damaging the cell.

• 1997 Nagoya University, Japan--Eye of Newt used in artificial retina design that combines semiconductor components with living nerve cells from newts. Light sensitive photoconductors.

* Companies such as AVID (Norco, Calif.), Electronic ID, Inc. (Cleburne, Tx.), and Electronic Identification Devices, Ltd. (Santa Barbara, Calif.) sell both the chips and the detectors.

Brain Circuitry Chips

• Brain Pacemakers - FDA approved 1997 Neurochips for other controls as well as

assisting in treatment of depression, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, etc

• Neurochips with Robotic interface—monkey controlling computer mouse by thought 3/2002

• Artificial Stimulants, e.g.Provigil

Tissue Engineering

• 4 Brothers—Jay, Chuck, Marty, and Frank Vacanti

• Cartilage molded around a

biodegradable polymer,

impregnated with

patient’s own cells

• Scaffold, surgical coral

Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative:University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Health

System • McGowan Institute on Regenerative Medicine• Biomedicals• Medical devices and Artificial Organs• Cellular Therapeutics and Hemodynamics • “Researchers at the McGowan Institute are developing a tissue-

engineered patch that can replace a section of damaged heart muscle, allowing reconstruction of functional myocardium in dysfunctional regions of the heart. This patch will consist of cells seeded onto a bioerodible matrix that has been designed to transmit appropriate stresses to the cells through their in-vitro training period and after placement into the diseased myocardium. Vascularization of this implanted construct will be achieved by a proprietary surgical procedure.”

Welcome to the Tissue-Engineering PagesSince, 22.07.2002  

• Portable pancreas promises diabetes reliefResearchers developing a portable "artificial pancreas" for people with diabetes claim to be only a few months away from completing the world s first working prototype. Posted on 2002-06-25 @ 01:43:56

• "Functional" kidneys grown from stem cellsThe "New Scientist" reported that US scientists claim to have grown functional kidneys using stem cells taken from cloned cow embryos. Posted on 2002-06-13 @ 10:37:51

• Spinal cord recovery hurdle clearedAn enzyme that clears a path for growing nerves can help damaged spinal cord to repair itself, researchers have found. For treating paralysing injuries Posted on 2002-04-17 @ 00:09:18

Tissue Engineering (cont’d)

Transgenics and Genetic Manipulation

Disembodied Tissues

Current Developments with Chimeras

Nonhuman Animal – Nonhuman Animal interface

“Spidergoats”: a Canadian biotech company has spliced the genes of spider’s genome that spin spiderwebs (one of the strongest fibers known to mankind) into the genome of a goat, creating a product called BioSteel®

Flying Pigs?

Alternate View of Humanity, continued….

Biological species? –Homo Sapiens? But members of the same genus can interbreed if the correct number of chromosomes is present, and although the offspring are often sterile, this is a statistical probability, not a steadfast rule. Also artificial reproduction may change (see ANDi, the transgenic monkey) the statistics.

Implications of Creating New Life Forms

• Further advances in the blending of nonhuman animal and human DNA could result, intentionally or not, in chimeric entities possessing degrees of intelligence or sentience never before seen in nonhuman animals

• Similarly, the blending of biological and cybernetic materials could result in sentience never seen before in machines

Plant/Human Interfaces

• Tobacco as Vaccine Producer—Personalized Medicine WP 7/15/2002

• KY project sponsored by the California company Large Scale Biology Corp..

• Australian tobacco

• Tumor fragments inserted into DNA

• Harvested, vaccine for lymphoma extracted

Designer Pills

• MIT Pharmacy on a Chip—ChipRx prototype

• Microchips pockmarked with drug-filled reservoirs each sealed with a gold cap and wired to a power source-Microfluidics

• “Smart pill” adjusts timing and dosage, as well as functioning as 24 health monitor

• Size of a matchstick

Chococeuticals

Ethical Questions?

• Where does the person/machine interface end?

• What is the definition of what it means to be human?

What Does It Mean to Be Human?

The Next Biotech Hero?

• Washington Post April 26, 2002 - The Next Generation: Biotechnology May Make Superhero Fantasy a Reality

• Moving into the popular culture • Who will decide what kind of humans we create?

Human Technogenics

• The Next Wonder Woman and Superman?

The Race to become the first human cyborg

• Kevin Warwick head of the Cybernetics Department at the University of Reading claims to be the first human guinea pig. (www.kevinwarwick.com)

Race for cyborgs,cont’d…

• University of Toronto professor Steven Mann describes himself as the world’s only full-time cyborg.

Gene Machine

• DNA Sequencer—dissects and catalogues DNA

• Celera Genomics Group and Applied Biosystems

• In corporate lawsuit with MJ Research, Inc of Massachusetts

An Obligation of Stewardship

• What is our role on the planet?

• Who gets the parts?

• Who decides who gets the parts?

• Who pays for the changes in the human condition?

Biotechnology meets Jerry Springer – the Ted Williams debacle

Tarnishing Ted's Legacy: Now That's Coldblooded

By Sally JenkinsSaturday, July 13, 2002; Page D01

The black comedy that is the passing of Ted Williams gets blacker with every passing moment. Can we bear to learn another macabre detail, without barking hysterically through our nostrils? He has been drained of blood and filled with preservatives. Alcor reportedly will hang him upside down in a steel vat. His son, John Henry, supposedly wants to "harvest" his DNA and sell it for a price.

Ted Williams cont’d

• Is his body merely property?

• If so, who owns it?

• California – Moore Case

As different forms of Artificial Intelligence* in the technical

environment emerge, the courts must determine where

these creations fall on the continuum of personhood.

*Including transgenic humanoids?

For the future:For the future:

Expect intense cross-Expect intense cross-disciplinary debate, disciplinary debate,

discussion, as new intelligent discussion, as new intelligent life is created through life is created through

biotechnologybiotechnology..

For the Future???

NBIC – the synergistic combination of 4 major areas of science and technology

• Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

• Biotechnology and Biomedicine

• Information Technology

• Cognitive Science

Carbon Tubes

• Carbon nanotubes are fullerene-related structures which consist of graphene cylinders closed at either end with caps containing pentagonal rings .

• tubes can be opened and filled with a variety of materials including biological molecules.

Nano-Info

• Products such “Smart Dust”

• Remote sensing • “Lifelog”sensors • Nose Chip

Nano-Bio-Cogno

• Brain Pacemakers - FDA approved 1997 Neurochips for other controls as well as assisting in treatment of depression, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, etc

• Neuroprostethic devices aimed at restoring or augmenting performance of the brain.

Cogno-Bio-Info

Medical imaging such as:

• CT scans

• PET (positron emission tomography) scanning

• fMRIs

Professional Uses of Bio-Info (Surgical VR)

• Medical - Surgeons can practice surgeries before operating on live patients Robot assisted surgery, Sept. 20, 2001 Transatlantic gall bladder removed from NYC surgeon in Stasbourg France

• Computer Motion Corporation, Santa Barbara California

• Not US approved, $900,000

Nanotechnology of Metal Manipulaion

• Layers at the atomic and molecular level

• Produce a variety of devices and materials

Check Out On The Web

• Google “nanotechnology” and tissue engineering

• www.nano.gov