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