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Human Enhancement
I’m really excited to announce my involvement with a remarkable new tv series titled “Man 2.0” Across a number of episodes, I talk about how the human condition is being transformed by technology and what this means for our future. It’s currently being distributed worldwide, so may not yet be in your country, but you can see a trailer here.
Zoltan Istvan has attracted a lot of attention in recent years for being the world’s first transhumanist politician. This thoughtful article gives some insight into how transhumanism gained momentum over the last 20 years and what it still needs to go further.
Great to have recorded this episode with the Level Up Human crew and the amazing Sarah Withers from Salford.
Great to see this article in The Week focus on a subject close to my heart. Hard to believe I’ve been writing about this for 20 years now. So much has happened over that period and this article captures a number of the crucial viewpoints across this subject.
It was fantastic to be at Bluedot again this week, alongside Tom Shakespeare. I’ve known Tom for over a decade now and it’s always such a delight to be in his company. One of the rare academics who can use comedy within public talks to great effect.
Our discussion took us deep into the realm of transhumanism and spanned such areas as artistic practice and elite sport. I tend to be pretty liberal in how we approach this subject, not hell bent on humans having to embrace all technologies, but having the opportunity to do so. This means being allowed to choose a life that minimises the experience of biological suffering, while also transcending our species typical functions, notably the duration of our life span.
Sadly, I was only at Blue Dot for the day, but the real highlight was catching Rebecca Taylor perform, just before my session.
Last week, I featured in a podcast series associated with the new BBC Radio 4 Drama Forest 404. You can check it out and discover more about the drama here
After a full on week of doping controversies with the Fancy Bears website hacks, I gave a talk at Future Fest this weekend on the future of sport and the use of human enhancement.
There's a major problem about to explode with the Therapeutic Use Exemption and this could change a lot about how we make sense of the distinction between therapy and enhancement. As always, sport is at the forefront of figuring out crucial bioethical problems that will confront our radical transhuman future.
This week, Gizmodo wrote a piece which really sets out why the anti-doping problem is far greater than authorities imagine and why they cannot begin to tackle the extent of it with a mediocre budget available to the World Anti-Doping Agency. The piece does not get too focused on the ethics, but the wider culture of human enhancement that surrounds sport. Take a look here.
This weekend, I had the chance to speak at the BlueDot Festival, an amazing science, art, and music festival at the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre. My talk was part of a programme of events curated by Josh McNorton at FutureFest and I focused on the era of human enhancement and how it's playing out in the world of sport.
This week, I was in Cheltenham for another amazing science festival. It was a fantastic chance to share a stage again with Emeritus Professor Kevin Warwick, whose company I have enjoyed many times. I also met the fantastic Mark Miodownik. Together, we unravelled the world of superheroes and explored how closer we have come to making them a reality. I talked about the promise and peril of technology, the number of ways in which we are already superhuman, and how the idea of what it is to be a superhero has changed over time. Here's what I did.
This week, I am in Lausanne for the Sport Future Rendezvous 2016 conference, organized by good friend Professor Jean-Loup Chappelet at the University of Lausanne. I took the chance to talk about the biodigital interface, the growth of e-sport, biotechnological change, ingestible sensors, and virtual realities. But the big controversy, as always, was my views around doping, which did hijack the futures debate a little. In any case, here's my presentation.
Thanks to Michel Filliau for the photograph.
A big story broke this week on Sky News, which has been investigating the rise of DIY steroid labs around the UK. It tells a story of how body building and performance/image enhancement is not just a matter for the world of elite sport to address.
My arguments focused on the cultural shift towards enhancement and the need to re-appraise the morality and law surrounding such practices. If so many people are doing it, it's hard to still claim them as morally bankrupt.
If we can just address the health risks more effectively, then we need not worry. This means a harm reduction model and supervised doping.
As I start at Salford University, there is an opportunity for a talented producer and research assistant in a new Digital R&D For the Arts project for which I am the research lead. The fund is jointly awarded by Nesta, AHRC, and Arts Council England. Please find the details below:
"An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced academic researcher and creative producer to join Project Daedalus, a new, Nesta project led by Abandon Normal Devices (AND), Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), and the University of Salford (UoS). Project Daedalus aims to liberate geographic constraints on artistic experiences and live events, using quadrotor technology (flying drones), combined with custom-made applications, to test new ways of engaging audiences remotely with content in real-time. Project Daedalus will test the limits of non-linear storytelling by creating interactive environments, which allow audiences to engage remotely by creating and sharing content in real-time.The position will be based across Salford’s School of Environment & Life Sciences (ELS) and AND’s office in Manchester, with some presence in Media City Salford, an exciting, state of the art destination, which fosters new, creative connections between scientists, the media and various publics. In 2014, the School of ELS invested into 6 new appointments, including a Chair in Science Communication & Digital Media, with which this post will be associated.
AND is a catalyst for new approaches to art-making and digital invention, commissioning ground-breaking projects which challenge the definitions of art and moving image. Inviting artists to hijack the imagination, by developing projects which abandon traditional settings and partnerships, with a distinct emphasis on creative enquiry and provocations, AND brings together an eclectic mix of academics, filmmakers, scientists and anarchists to actively push the boundaries of audience experience and arts production.
Informal enquiries in the first instance to Professor Andy Miah email: email@andymiah.net"
Application deadline: 18th October, 2014.
Hours: 0.5 FTE, 12 months
A couple of weeks ago, the Scotland on Sunday published a 4-page profile piece about my work. It was written by the awesome Anna Burnside, with whom I've been in dialogue about my research for a few years. It's a really lovely article and a real privilege to have given so much space to explain what I do. It's certainly the most in depth and personal examination of my background, motives and interests. Here's the link to the full piece. The portait was taken by an amazing photographer called Ian MacNicol, who turns out to be (we think) the only Scotland based photographer accredited at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Small world!
Find below some live blogging notes from today's 'Brain Gear' conference in Groningen on Neuroscience. There were many interesting talks, but stand out findings for me were about science communication and journalism and the absence of scientific underpinning to commercial neurofeedback clinics.
Human Enhancement European Parliament
Martinjntje Smits, Ratheneau
What is new about human enhancement
Laissez faire Pro-enhancement Case by case Restrictive Total ban
Human Enhancement: A Reasoned Restrictive or (Cautionary Permissive?) Approach Roberto Mordacci
HE under the idea of Public Reason - HE: poltical not metaphysical - Improving t human condition not - Equality, freedom and integrity of individuals as public goods - Framework for justice as fairness in health issues (Rawls, Daniels)
Principle of respect -in a cooperative society, reasonable individuals woul agree..treat others with respect
5 principles fundamental for our self respect and mutual cooperation - recognizably human body - naturally unrestricted desire - complex theoretical and practical rationality - freedom of the will - equal dignity permissible iff - does not intentionally disfigure human body - does not intentionally restrict width of human desire - does not intentionally impair t ex of human rationality - does not impede t human ability to choose freely - does not violate equal dignity of indivs ie does not generate discrimination or unfairness
Tsjalling Swierstra techno-moral change
-what should be europe’s goals? - not passively following trajectory defined by most powerful technology actors
-habituation - techno-moral learning - what morals, what technology?
Accept contingency: in a technological world, fewer natural givens
Local experimentation, global evaluation
Issues to regulate - should be reversible - HUMAN ENHANCEMENTS values and negative freedom - Gap between blue-print-technology and technology-in-practce (unexpected) - Political and ethical - Moratoria rather than absolute bans
Thought experiments - stimulate techno-moral imagination by providing rich descriptions – need morality fiction not science fiction - what is god life, etc
organize deliberative forums
epidemic of accountability issues on the horizon
defining a good society is in the end a political issue
communicate diverging positions widely
value lasting diversity
Hans - Mr Buscani’s assistant
Questions & Answers
Q: Why are we still discussing enhancement in such broad terms Q: Recognizable body necessary? Q: NSF and DoC in USA – first workshop on this – used term ‘launch and learn’ (conservative politican), recommendation was to advise US government asked professors in humanities and sciences to spend time on the issue – and in schools too – how balance it compared to this politics in USA?
Dorette Corbey - lots of political issues - - developing technology for enhancement, rather than just for therapy
Tsjalling: neoliberal agenda behind enhancement debate – need more social perspective on converging technologies including enhancements. Do we really want to make people more compassionate, or greedy?
4 march – science in developing countries
Anders: public opinion in Sweden – many people accept enhancement to help others, though low for self-enhancement.
DISCUSSION
Is there a red line, beyond which we should not fund.
Is there a tool box?
Are there distinct European values
Framework of public policy, not defining human nature
Values that protect good of mutual cooperation
Job is to remove discriminating practices not just alter the circumstances.
Danish Council of Ethics: case of lorry driver – might be an argument in favour of necessity to discuss different specifics – lorry driver, main problem is that the brain chip means that others would have to have it too.
ME: but we stipulate how many hours people can work, so this becomes an issue of regulating working conditions.
Danish Coucil on Ethics – subcommittee on human enhancement – invited to a conerence held by Danish Union of Optometrists since new technology in USA related to fight against terrorism has made it possible to make implants thinner, giving ability to look through things.
Anders: values important, but also need facts to make important facts – many forms of enhancement becoming realities, but limited knowledge – eg. cognition enhancement – prevalent among higher academics – is a paper written under influence of modafinil worse? – need to research ecological properties – need efficacy and saety
Antonio: medicalization and enhancement are beyond traditional politics – this morning – obesity gene in newspaper – concern will lead to individualization of probles – haven’t heard much about corporate interests – in US direct to consumer influences perceptions of normality – media role in shaping social needs
Marshall, NTL: human dignity –should it be so important that we know what this is, isn’t it more important that individuals make this decision for him/herself –not all social pressure is bad
Chair: I’m deciding dignity, but are you? It’s dependent on how others react to me.
ME: but my conception of dignity is shaped by our common laws at least.
Marshall: but a man should be free
Roberto: yes, you have given an idea of dignity
Tsjalling: don't think there is hope for red line in the sand. General principles is that past experience doesn't necessarily guide us. – lorry driver – new technology shifts responsibilities – before it, we consider whether chair is too comfy, or working too much?
Roberto: overlapping consensus
Reverent from NL: human nature is relevant.
Jordi (MEP): Case by case approach with minimum standards
Chair: what if we create a working group, how create connections with citizens? Or should it be done by emmberstates?
Jordi: it is possible, we have an ethical board already. This q needs a broader discussion. Red line says taboo, but before red line, case by case approach, wth discsussion – want to allow pursuit of happiness, not make them happy (US constitution). What is able to make us all happier.
Chair: EU level committee.
Francois , EU: keep in mind dual dimension – enhancement of soldiers.
Jordi: or for disabled people.
Political scientist in Vienna: governance question – who is setting the agenda – citizen conferences in Denmark – who is framing the problem – is it really participatiory/deliberative/representative?
Manchester:
Should form a council where everyone is amateur
Peter, Free Uni of Brussels:
It also should not contribute to its criminalization through policy making.
Jordi: health literacy is EP buzzword.
Malcolm Harbour: need broader platform, engagement and citizen participation. At last workshop was about converging technologies. Had some debate about transhumanism. Our role is to inform politicians here and to get them engaged. Other is about global reach and issues – in Europe – eg. stem cell research – we do not have homogenous research. In UK and others, set up own bodies and practices, to approve work around genome. Though many regard UK as dangerously liberal. Human dignity and quality of life issues. One of biggest challenges on human dignity and old age – fact that already significantly prolonged life expectancy at a rate faster than any other decade – what this means for society as a whole – if elderly people can stay at home and live in domestic environment on own, this is a major enhancement of their dignity and their quality of life. European elections on 4 june in uk and vote.
