transhumanist bioethics james j. hughes ph.d. executive director, institute for ethics and emerging...
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Transhumanist Bioethics
James J. Hughes Ph.D.
Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesLecturer, Public Policy Studies, Trinity College, Hartford CT
June 16, 2014 – Yale University
These slides: ieet.org/archive/20140614YaleH+Bioethics.ppt
Ancient Aspirations
Abstract thought -> imagining radical improvement to human condition
Medicines and magical practices to improve health and grant wisdom
Myths of times and places without toil, conflict, or injustice, a more perfect world
Radically improved social and corporeal life possible in the immediate future
The Enlightenment
Origins of secularism, secular humanism and modern bioethics in 17th/18th century
Descartes, Locke, Pascal, Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet, Rousseau, Franklin
Principles of the Enlightenment
1. Autonomy of reason from faith and authority
2. Human perfectibility and social progress
3. Empirical optimism: sapere aude!
4. Legitimacy of government based on free association
5. Tolerance of diversity, freedom of thought
6. Ethical universalism – beyond nationalism, racism, sexism
Translation:Autonomy
JusticeBeneficence
20th Century Politics
Progressives
Conservatives
Conservatives Progressives
Populists
Libertarians New Right
Social Democrats
Cultural Politics
Economic Politics
Populists
Libertarians New Right
Social Democrats
20th century politics shaped by the ongoing battles for/against Enlightenment values, or between various interpretations of Enlightenment values
Marquis de Condorcet 1744-1794
Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind
Reason liberates from church, authoritarianism, nature
Women’s suffrage Opposed to slavery Freedom from work Radical life extension
Marquis de Condorcet
Other Proto-Transhumanists
HG Wells and Olaf Stapledon– portrayed future evolution of humanity
JBS Haldane, 1923, "Daedalus: Science and the Future“ – in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering
JD Bernal, 1929, "The World, the Flesh and the Devil” – first projection of cybernetic implants JBS Haldane
Emerging Technologies
Tech that will radically change the human brain:PsychopharmacologyGenetic engineeringNanotechnologyArtificial intelligenceCognitive science
The accelerating convergence of all these“for improving human performance”
Prospect of Human Enhancement
Curing disabilities Health Longevity Intelligence Emotional control Heightened senses Spiritual experience Moral sentiment and cognition
Biopolitical Battlefronts
Who is a citizen with a right to life?: abortion, stem cells, great ape rights, brain death, chimeras
Control of Reproduction: contraception, abortion, fertility treatments, genetic testing, germline gene therapies, cloning
Fixing Disabilities to “Human Enhancement”: cochlear implants, prosthetics, eye and brain chips, gene therapies, cosmetic procedures
Extending Life: from treatments for aging-related diseases, to anti-aging drugs and therapies
Control of the Brain: Ritalin and Prozac, psychoactive drugs, brain chips
Biopolitical Battlefronts
Who is a citizen with a right to life?: abortion, stem cells, great ape rights, brain death, chimeras
Control of Reproduction: contraception, abortion, fertility treatments, genetic testing, germline gene therapies, cloning
Fixing Disabilities to “Human Enhancement”: cochlear implants, prosthetics, eye and brain chips, gene therapies, cosmetic procedures
Extending Life: from treatments for aging-related diseases, to anti-aging drugs and therapies
Control of the Brain: Ritalin and Prozac, psychoactive drugs, brain chips
21st Century Politics
Economic Politics
Biopolitics
Progressive
Conservative
Progressive Conservative Cultural Politics
Bioconservatism
Transhumanism
From Bioethics to Biopolitics
Intellectual debates meet mass politics
Contraception
Roe v. Wade
Stem cells
Terri Schiavo
BioConservatives
Religious Right
CS Lewis The Abolition of Man
Deep Ecologists, Romantic Luddites
Aldous Huxley Brave New World
Jeremy Rifkin Algeny
Left-wing/Feminist Critics of Biotech Gena Corea The Mother Machine
Center for Genetics and Society
Pro-Disability Extremists Not Dead Yet
90s: Libertarian H+ & Extropians
Extropy Institute http://extropy.org Extropian
Principles
Max More
Ron Bailey
2002-3: BioPolitical Landmark
Leon Kass appointed Chair of President’s Council on Bioethics
Fukuyama’s Our Posthuman Future (2002)
Greg Stock’s Redesigning Humans (2002)
Christian Right’s Manifesto on Biotechnology and Human
Dignity (2002)
Vatican’s "Human Persons Created in the Image of God“ (2002)
Bill McKibben Enough (2003)
PCB’s Beyond Therapy (2003)
Leon Kass
Chair, President’s
Council on
Bioethics
BioConservatives
Religious Right
Deep Ecologists,
Romantic Luddites
Left-wing/Feminist
Critics of Biotech
Human-Exceptionalists
Pro-Disability Extremists
Christian Right BioCon Network
Millions of dollars poured into “conservative bioethics”
Center for Bioethics and Culture (Jennifer Lahl, Nigel Cameron, Prison Ministries, etc.)
Trinity International University/Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
Discovery Institute (Wesley J. Smith)
Ethics & Public Policy Center’s BAD (Eric Cohen, New Atlantis)
American Enterprise Institute (Leon Kass, J.Q. Wilson)
National Catholic Bioethics Center (John Haas)
Hudson Institute (Michael Fumento)
Leftist Opponents of H+
Leftist, feminist and anti-racist opponents of “technoeugenics”
Marcy Darnovsky, Michael Sandel, George Annas, Lori Andrews, Jurgen Habermas
Pro-Disability Extremists
E.g. Not Dead Yet
Opposed to:
Efforts to “cure” or “fix” disabilities
Parent’s right to terminate disabled fetuses
The right of sick and disabled to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment
Human enhancement medicine
“Trans-humanism” and “Transhuman-ism”
Julian Huxley first director of UNESCO "Transhumanism“ "the human species can transcend itself."
“FM-2030” (FM Esfandiary) popularized term “transhuman” in the 1970s
H+ Movement
(World Transhumanist
Association)transhumanism.org
30 chapters, 5500 members
Dozens of affiliated, albeit mostly
ephemeral, chapters, groups,
organizations, projects
Transhumanists BioConservativesPersonhood, cyborg citizenship
Human-Racism; human exceptionalism
Humanism, reason, individual liberty (body, brain, repro), progress
Sacred taboos, communitarian, “the natural”, yuck factor, romanticism, status quo bias
Tech Optimism; risks are manageable; “proactionary principle”
Tech Pessimism; risks are unknowable; punishment for hubris inevitable; tech should be banned; “precautionary principle”
Central Biopolitical Disputes
Beyond Therapy/Enhancement
Status Quo Bias Would it be better to
have….Shorter lives?More disabilities?Less intelligence?Less memory?Less happiness?
Ten Question Diagnostic
95% of H+ agree with 7 or more
H+ Yes
Ten "Are you a Transhumanist?" Questions
Do you believe that people have a right to use technology to extend their mental and physical (including reproductive) capacities and to improve their control over their own lives?
95%
Do you think human genetic engineering is wrong because it is "playing God"? 95% No
Do you think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it?
94%
Do you expect human progress to result from human accomplishment rather than divine intervention, grace, or redemption?
93%
Do you think it would be a good thing if people could become many times more intelligent than they currently are?
93%
Do you think it would be a good thing if people could live (in good health) for hundreds of years or longer?*
87%
Do you believe women should have the right to terminate their pregnancies? 83%
Does your ethical code advocate the well-being of all sentient beings, whether in artificial intellects, humans, posthumans, or non- human animals?
82%
Would you consider having your mind uploaded to computers if it was the only way you could continue as a conscious person?
80%
Should parents be able to have children through cloning once the technology is safe? 77%
Beyond Human-racism…
Human-racism = Humanness as basis of rights-bearing
Humans have souls or crypto-spiritual “human dignity”
Fetus to cremation
Embryonic citizens?
Boundaries of Humanness Animal-Human:
Chimeras & “uplifted” animals
Perinatal: Totipotent cells and artificial wombs
Perideath: Brain repair
Machine-Human: AGI & neuro-prosthetics
Human-Posthuman: ?
Five Moral Intuitions
Liberals:Harm/careFairness/reciprocity
ConservativesIngroup loyaltyRespect for authorityPurity/sanctity
JonathanHaidt
In-betweens are Dirty
Purity and DangerWhy aren’t pigs kosher?
Cloven hoofs, don’t chew cud
Mary Douglas
Race-Mixing Panic
Rights Based on Racial Identity?
Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (UNESCO, 1998)
“The human genome underlies the fundamental unity of all members of the human family, as well as the recognition of their inherent dignity and diversity.” Sorry – no rights!
Is hairlessness one of the human traits necessary for citizenship?
“They” Want Your Jobs
Inevitability of Race War?
"The posthuman will come to see us (the garden variety human) as an inferior subspecies without human rights to be enslaved or slaughtered preemptively. It is this potential for genocide based on genetic difference, that I have termed "genetic genocide," that makes species-altering genetic engineering a potential weapon of mass destruction." (Annas, 2001)
Violent Defenders of Human Nature
“Human nature has in the past put certain limits on the development of societies. But … technology is developing ways of modifying human beings…. Getting rid of industrial society … will remove the capacity of … control over human nature" - the “Unabomber Manifesto”
Agar: Humanity’s End
Human “local values” trump individual freedom claims to enhancement
“Those who want to become posthuman …want to create a circumstance in which our interests, and the interests of our human children, are morally subordinated to their own or to their posthuman descendants. It seems to me that we are entitled to prevent them from doing this.”
…to Personhood
Persons: “conscious beings, aware of themselves, with intents and purposes over time”
You can be human and not persons: fetus, braindead
You can be a person and not human: great apes, AI, posthumans
H+ Politics
Left H+ outnumber libertarian H+
Conservative H+ 2-4%
Which of these best describes your political views? 2003 2005 2007 Left 36% 39% 47%
Technoprogressive -- -- 16% Libertarian socialist 7% 7% 7% Progressive 6% 7% 4% Democratic socialist 4% 6% 5% Social democrat 5% 5% 4% Green 4% 4% 4% US-style liberal 4% 4% 3% Left anarchist 2% 3% 2% Radical 2% 1% <0.5% Communist 1% 1% 1%
Libertarian 22% 22% 20%
Libertarian 11% 10% 10% European Liberal 6% 7% 5% Anarcho-capitalist 4% 2% 2% Randian/Objectivist 1% 2% 1% Minarchist 1% 1% 1%
Other 17% 16% 14%
Upwinger/advocate of future political system
8% 10% 7%
Other 9% 7% 7%
Not political 15% 12% 11% Moderate 7% 8% 7% Conservative 4% 3% 2%
Christian Democrat 1% <0.5% <0.5% Conservative 2% 2% 1% Far right 1% <0.5% <0.5%
Technoprogressivism
Core Ideas: Equality and solidarity, as well as liberty
Tech needs regulation and universal access
Tech unemployment and basic income guarantee
“Technoprogressives” Technoprog! French Transhuamanists
Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies ieet.org
Technoprogressive Self-Determination
The right to use technology to control our own bodies and minds
The right to know how safe and effective technologies are
The right of equal access to technological empowerment
Progressive Pushback
New willingness to defend enhancement on autonomy grounds
Progressive Bioethics Network Art Caplan, Glenn McGee, Alta Charo, Hank Greely,
Peter Singer, Maxwell Mehlman, Allen Buchanan Women’s Bioethics Network Center for American Progress
European Bioliberals John Harris, Julian Savulescu, Jonathan Glover, Sarah
Chan, Ingmar Persson, Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg, Stefan Sorgner, Rebecca Roache
Massification of Biopolitics
Pew Surveys of U.S. 2013-4 H+ BioCon
Tech progress will improve most people’s lives 59% yes 30% no
Medical treatments that slow the aging process and allow the average person to live decades longer, to at least 120 years
38% want
41% good for society
56% don’t want
51% bad for society
Parents can alter DNA of prospective children to produce smarter, healthier, or more athletic offspring?
26% positive
66% negative
Would use a brain implant to improve memory or mental capacity
26% yes (37% of college graduates)
72% no
Human cloning 13% OK 83% Not OK
Ensuring Safety, Universal Access
Majority of U.S. think life extension should be universal, even though pessimistic about safety, social/ecological effects and equal access
Dems more positive aboutradical life extension than Republicans
2008: Biopolitical Fragmentation
Economic crisis displaces nascent biopolitics
Progressive bioethics sidetracked by 2009 demonization, technocratic Obama bioethics
Re-assertion of libertopian hegemony within H+
Technological unemployment
Conservative H+ Hegemony
Singularity University Peter Diamandis Abundance Entrepreneurs’ summer camp
Peter Thiel Christian conservative Paypal, Facebook, Clarium Dominance in H+: SIAI, SENS,
Seasteading Ron Paul, Hoover
Gingrich’s ‘Futurism’ Glenn Harlan Reynolds Employment doublethink
NeoReactionaries
“Dark enlightenment”
Mencius Moldbug, Michael Anissimov
Reject democracy, libertarianism, egalitarianism, ethnic pluralism
Advocate monarchy, aristocracy, city-state separatism, unregulated capitalism
Defend “traditional” racial, sexual differences and hierarchies
Biopolitical Polarization
H+ BioCons
A-TechnoprogressivesB-Libertarian transhumanistsE-BioliberalsF-Neoreactionaries
Economic Politics
Biopolitics
Progressive
Conservative
C
A
Progressive Conservative
B
D
Cultural Politics
Bioconservatism
Transhumanism
C-Left bioconservativesD-Right bioconservatives
E
F
Emerging Developments
Biopolitical Polarization
Biopolitics and Millennialist Narratives
Religious Transhumanism
Non-Western Biopolitics
Moral Enhancement
Growing Apocalypticism
Growth of radical militia/survivalist subculture
Sales of survivalist supplies and guns spiking
25% of Republicans say Obama may be AntiChrist
Millennialist/Apocalyptic turn among H+
H+ & Singularity feed apocalyptic narratives
The Singularity
Millenialist Kurzweil
Apocalyptic Hugo de Garis
Fatalist, Inevitabilist
Messianic Yudkowsky Purity of code,
danger of DNA
Religious H+ & Singularitarians
One quarter of H+ are religious Mormon Transhumanist
Association largest H+ group in US
Non-Western Biopolitics
Techno-optimism w/o Enlightenment liberalism
India, Thailand, China, Japan
Abrahamic ideas of body vs. Hindu/Buddhist
Confucian communitarianism
Africans and enhancement
Enlightenment/modernity on steroids
Moral Enhancement
Empathy: Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson
Parental/Marital Love: Julian Savulescu, Anders Sandberg, Matthew Liao
Personality/Mood: David Pearce and Mark Walker
Psilocybin: Michael Tennison
Moral Reasoning: John Harris
Virtue Learning: Barbara Froding
Stimulants: Andrew Fenton, James Hughes
For more information
These slides: ieet.org/archive/20140614YaleH+Bioethics.ppt
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologiesieet.org
Me: [email protected]@ieet.org