Oxford forumOxford forum 1
Wednesday 2
Tom Kirkwood 2
Rally curing aging: the other sociological obstacle 4
Aubry DNJ de Grey 4
Jay Olshansky 5
How would you assess current aging research, and the prospects for significant breakthroughs in any of its major branches 5
Extending Life Span: Scientific prospects and political obstacles 7
Richard Miller 7
Discussant 9
Paul Hodge 9
Sarah Harper and Kenneth Howse 11
Is more life always a good thing? 11
Stronger? 14
Ellen Heber-Katz 15
Stem cell research and its ethical considerations in china 16
Pei Xuetao, Beijing institute of transfusion medicine, stem cell research center 16
Thursday 19
Cognitive Enhancement 19
Nick 19
Happier 21
Susan Greenfield 21
Professor Lord Richard Layard 23
nick baylis 23
Donald bruce 23
Fairer? 25
Enhancement and Fairness, 25
Julian Savulescu 25
When /if Longer, faster strong, smarter life is happier: reflectins on slower, sustainable and more inclusive life experiences 28
Anil Gupta 28
Gregor Wolbring 29
Enhancement, Justice and rights: immortality 29
John Harris 29
Utility pets 31
Elio caccavale 31
Governable? 31
Baroness Sally Greengross 31
Suzi Leather 32
Creativity and Governance 32
Christopher Newfield 32
Wednesday
845-1030
Tom Kirkwood
Oeppen and Vaupel, Science, 2002 – shows continuing increasee in life expectancy
Idea that ageing is genetically programmed is fundamentally wrong
- illustrated in 1950-s – david lack – zoology in oxford: wild animals never show any intrinsic sign of ageing, because they die young – do not have a chance to become old
thus, no potential…
peter medawa and george Williams
selection shadow – animals die young because environment is dangerous – don’t need to grow old
disposable soma theory – Kirkwood, nature 1977
- animals invest only what they see to be necessary to remain competitive
how much should animals bother in maintaining and repair
shouldn’t talk about natural selection in these terms
geens make choices
dawkins – imperative on genes
regardless of thesis, realities exist
how much invest in reproducing or repairing
there is no genetic programme for ageing. We age because in evol past…
ageing process model
age related frailty, disability, and disease – accumulation of cellular defects, caused by random molecular damage
build bridges between biomedical and social sciences
- because we know influ of environment
we know that healthy lifestyle and food can affect this
malleiability of the ageing process
- by decreasing exposure to damage (nutrition, lifestyle, environment)
- enhance natural mechanisms for protection and repairt ( nutrition, novel drugs, stem cell)
traditional view of ageing
- is biololgically determined with inbuilt limit
- progressive, irreversible capacity
- ageing distinct phase of life style
- disases of ageing distinct from intrinsic underlying processes of healthy ageing
dismiss the first
- we are programmed for survival not death
- ageing intrinsically malleable
- youth and age are continuum
- intrinsic ageing and many age related diseases share common underlying
successes and limitations – managing expectations
- current success
o good ustdg, but more to learn
o beginnings of ustdg of underlying mechanisms of ageing and age relationship disease
o can modify longevity in some animal models – fruit fly, etc – but in nearly every case is uncertain
- Current limitations
o V little evidence for effecicaly of drug/nutraceutical effects
o Cannot yet perform successful gene therapy for well-defined targets such as cystic fibrosis
o Cannot yet perform successful stem cell therapy for well defined targets
o Potential future discussions largely speculative and unacceptable in other biomedical spheres
Meeting
Education and public engagement- education and professional training
- expand research capacity in ageing science
- inc professions and industry
Public engagement- government
Public engagement – Citizens
- challenge and change negative atts to ageing
Ageing: scientific Aspects – select committee publication from last year
Rally curing aging: the other sociological obstacle
Aubry DNJ de Grey
Strategies for engineered Negligle Senescene (SENS)
Jbs haldane, 1963
Four stages of acceptance
i) worthless nonsense…
Arthur c Clarke
New ideas pas through three periods
Tom Kirkwood
The rejuvenation dividend: the precepts
- stretching frailty is v hard, luckilty
- the faster we delay frailty without stretching it, the fewer people wil be frail
o rate, not extent, of progress is key
- partial repair gives more delay than partial prevention
o how achieve? – eg. Someone aged a lot, only so much we can do – concept of reserve: amount of additional damage your body can afford to accumulate before things go wrong. How help: start sooner – be healthy earlier;
- when a plausible rate of medical progress is presumed
o even better repair is possible!
Promising progress or arrogant nonsense
Embo reports 2005 nov 6,(11) 1006-=1008
- None of us believes tht plans to ‘engineer’ the body to prevent ageing indefinitely or to turn old people young again have the remotest chance to success’
Reasons given for dismissing SENS
- is unscientific: ‘ easily recognized as a pretence by those
- ‘nnoneof pthe sens]
- T
Technology and science differe in how they best evaluate evidence
- goal: powered flight. Solutions?
o Engineer vs scientist
Scientists way of analyzing evidence is misapplied in context of technological goal
‘if an expet cant explain something in his field to an educated laymen…’
the sens challenge
with MIT Technology review – www.technologyreview.com
- offered $20,000 to discredit de Grey – open to any molecular
- editor of technology review thought high profile panel
- panel is: craig venter, rod brooks, Nathan myrvhold, vikram kumar, anita goel
- two entries submitted, another threatened
sens is following Gandhi
- firs tthey ignore you
- then they laugh ay ou
- then they oopose you
- then they say they were with you all along
de grey, adnj, embro Reports 2005; 6(11): 1000
- offer no apology for using media interest in llife extn to make the biologiyt of ageing an exception to planck’s observation that science advances funeral by funaeral, lives lots of them, are at stake
life extension not just science, a biomedical prob too
causes considerable suffering
spoke
himsworht and goldacre, 1999, bmj, 319: 1138-1339
- the older you are, the healthier you’ve been (Perls)
Jay Olshansky
How would you assess current aging research, and the prospects for significant breakthroughs in any of its major branches
(background in sociology, but leading biodemographers)
now at Uni of Illinois
was at US President’s council in 2002 on ageing
in answer to that, prefer question
can we justify theattempts to slow ageing and how?
answerL yes:
March ‘The Scientist’
- co author with Daniel perry, Richard a miller, Robert n. butler
if can extend healthy life, it would pay longevity dividends, far in excess of anything we could imagine, for indivs and nations
ME: how nations?
Brendon Mayer – editor support for scientist publication
Rationale for pursuing the ‘longevity dividend’ is already in place
- current medical model will not work in long run
current medical model
- biological limit to life
pharmaceutical industry
surgical procedures
early detection of disease
already commited ourselves emotionally, financially to extending lifelonglearning
the value of life at every age
- we value it at every age
by slowing aging we willl do what no drug, surgical procedure, or behaviour modification can ever do – extend your years of youthful vigor and simiulatenously postpone all t costly, disably, and legal conditions expressed at later ages
‘in pursuit of the longeviry dividend’ – TITLe
operative word is: DELAY
not searching for fountain of youth
not proposing transformation of older people to younger
not stopping or reversing aging process
the words, ‘stopping’ and ‘reversing’ should not be in vocabulary
not dramatic extension of duration of lifelonglearning
‘pursuing health extension’
- improvement in public health
- extension of period of youthful health and vigor
- reductions in frailyy and disability at all ages
if we succeed in delaying aging, bonuses will likely be extn of life and dramatic….
Target
- 7 year delay in boil process of ageing
why 7?
- it tooko 100 yrs for the total mortality risk of a 74…
- Olshanksy, carnes and grahn, 1998 – confronting t boundaries…
- Brody, 1983, prospects for an ageing population, nature
- The7 is associated with great impact to reduce everything associatd with ageing by half
Longevity dividend
- calling on congres to invest 3 biillion dollars annually
o dividends
• compression of mortality and morbidity
• reduction in age-specific risk of all diseases
• reduction health care costs
• inc indiv and national wealth
• benefits will occur for lifespan and across generations
• health and economic benefits will exceed elimination of cancer or hearth disease
if we don’t do this?
For those pushing immortality – this is how you would start doing it
Don’t want people making it too old age extremely frail
Extending Life Span: Scientific prospects and political obstacles
Richard Miller
ME: first says should not talk about radical etension,
Traditional approach to medical research – one disease at a time
But conquering one cancer, for eg, would have limited yield
Antiaging interventions. Solid facts
- seer caloric restriction increases mean and maximal life span in mice
- with ex they get old later
now 10 gene mutations that can accomplish same effect
other mutants with lover igf-1 levels also live longer than controls
- dogs too: low igf-1 and long life span
treat later life diseases as a group
ageing can be delayed by two diets and by each of > 9 genes, in laboratory animals that repsont o many of the same drugs and hormones that we do
ME: comments that those making biggest claims about extension get headlines
Longevity projectopn: the reality Based ™ approach
- calorific rstriction: 30-40%
- small dogs: 40%
- methionine..
thesis: the obstacles to finding a ‘cure’ for aging are 85% political and 15% scientific
research on the ageing process
- for every $100 us congress spends on medical, 6cents goes to ageing
why haven’t we cured aging yet? (ie learned how to slow)
- most ‘public’ gerontologist are crackpots and who wants to hang out with that sort of person?
We don’t want to be associated – gi
Eg. Deepak Chopra
DHEA
Growth Hormne
Mealtonin Miracle
This is clearly a scheme for making money
Why haven’t we cured ageing yet?-
-= is viewed (incoorectly) as incurable
voters relatives died of some diseas, os diseassa have lobbies, so congress spends money on diseases
aging research lobby v small
drugs that actually slow aging cannot be tested in time to show a profit within the ceo’s lifetime
drugs purported to slow aging are highly profitable even though they don’t work
a poiticaian who wants to conquer cancer or conquer aids is a hero
a politician who wants to slow aging is a nut case
people don’t unstd that quickest way to help diseas
socioo of science
scientists follow money
young scientist follow high tech and need papers NOW, alas key biogerontology expts are often low tech and take a few years
to be honest, it’s not that easy to cure..
gerontologiphobia n: a syndrome charac by a fea of what antiaging might do to soc
‘how far could we go. Too far is one possible answer…like drunks with drink, enough is…
the ‘lynch’ position
- ‘stop research on aging because we don’t want t world to fill up with old people’
- ethical
if presented to people 200 yrs ago – would people say we don’t want insulin, etc
ethically when:
a) me only
b) well ok, you too
c) but not them. We don’t want the world to fill up with old people, now do we.
Discussant
Paul Hodge
Thanks peter healey
Baby boomers
Nothing done after this
2005 whitehouse conference dec 14, was asked to testify on policy issues and mentioned baby boomers, but first point was longevity
Questions and Answers
Question from Scot: key issues is delay, but if can do repair, that is better. Why isn’t repair possible?
Jaye: similar concept to Aubrey
Aubrey: difference are to do with feasibility of approaches.
Alex Kalasha from WHO: was at whitehouse conf and disappointing that such advanced nation presented such a poor public debate around science. How optimistic are you with the $3billion?
Jaye: agree with Bob Butler’s conclusion that we need to be ambitious. Buit relative to amount of money on medicaare - $300billion, going ater one disease at a time, is miniscule. This is just the beginning of full court press to go after aging in a much more aggressive way thant we have gone after diseases previously
Tom: must be more connectivity between science and political/social agenda. I don’t think we are saying same thing. I think Aubrey is trying to generate enthusiasm that sidesteps practical problems facing problem. We all want the science to come through, but it doesn’t serve any usefl purpose to extrapolate beyond immediate. No great exptn about extn but might change profile of health.trying to find better way to age, and if that leads to life extension, that’s great.
Jay: aging research should appeal to people. Same goes for why should talk about delay rather than sudden immortaility
Aubrey: cross agency cooperation. In my own work, many exptl scientists not gerontologisty, many working on repair and regeneration technology. Not simply lines on graphs but collaborations. On political side, emphasise that actually it’s perfectly ok to have signif life extn as side benefit to addressing frailty and decline.
Chaotics, Philidelphiaa.: historical fallacy, several speakers say we are in a special age. Food, etc. no reason to believe we are in any special time or place. In time of Copernicus, Einstein, etc, every time is special. Advances occurring no diff. Aubrey pointed out max planck’s progress thesis, but he might have chosen Voltaire: I have only made but one prayer…please render my enemies ridiculous, and
Donald Bruce: some speakers mentioned the ‘sales pitch’. What is real in this debate? Question of Shakespeare 7 ages of sans…. All the idea of whatever it is you will do, must have so many things right all at once. Getting one or two bits right not enough. Seems a matter of belief rather than evidence.
Tom: how do you know you wont mke things worse? The rate of progress on research on aging is quite slow. Need to know aims and objectives and priorities. You might say it’s a terrible thing to die of heart disease, but it is quick and if solve, then will leave vulnerable to other degenerative diseases, such as alzheimers etc. it is an imp q.
XX: imp but not answerable in rational way 20 years ago, but middle part of talk was about that. What is evidence. By delaying, one does create animals which postpone, together, these diseases.tf, hypothetical worries about creating people that might have other probs is imp, but are ways that we can begin this.
Jay: what happens if we don’t intervene.
11-1200
Lecture Theatre 5
Sarah Harper and Kenneth Howse
Is more life always a good thing?
Sarah: I am an anthropologist by training, interested in demographic and social. Kenneth has a philosophy background.
Discuss both extending max life span, but also extending normal active healthy life span for everyone in world.
IT is better for everyone to live slightly longer than a few much longer.
Now have 4 or 5 generations alive at same time.
Kenneth
2 scenarios
- on one side, Jay, Richard and Tom: best prospect of reducing burden of ill health is to go straight for biology of aging
- everyone endorsed that and concerned to get across to you that this was a good thing, otherwise stick with what current medicine can offer, which is not so useful.
- They suggested that nobody would argue against this
- Next to this, is Aubrey’s ideas:
Must consider continuities and discontinuities of these 2 projects.
Not just a feasibility debate.
Must confront gerontophobia
I will lay out the case on behalf of gerontophobia
The question Richard miller flagged up is one that a lot of people have taken very seriously
For eg. Jay mentioned US President’s Council Beyond Therapy, they said ‘let’s suppose we can double life expectancy’ would it be a good thing? General conclusions of that report were mainly sceptical. Commissions report did not come down on one side.
ME: should it have? I don’t think this was its remit. Would we have wanted it to? Public debate. Ethical engagement.
Does Jay’s commitment lead to Aubrey’s vision.
ME: we continually refer to Aubrey’s view in a same way to how we refer to Huxley’s
David Sarfadi, Chaotics: husband of working scientist, when they go into lab, don’t have goal to double lifespan of mouse, for instance. You are altering genes that have effects. Don’t choose which route, it’s what the science renders. If scientist thought was bad idea, would have to kill mouse and tell nobody. Never happens, usually scientist runs to NYT. Society will deal with those choices. Always be confronted with maximal of possibility.
Kenneth: but policy makers decide how much we pay.
David: capital will demonstrate: private funders will begin.
Kenneth: in Europe, worry of inequalities
Bill Baingridge, national science foundation: certainly rtrue that long term goals do shape funding. Rhetoric is that start up companies is on short term goals rather than longer term ones.
XX: do not find 2 approaches mutually exclusive. They will feed each other.
Evelyne Bull, ox student.
Kenneth: if I say yes to Jay, am I committed to Aubrey?
Sarah: public privte us Europe divide.
Raphael Ramirez, oxford: advising on patenting. If life becomes a bnusiness, acceptability of that differes. Nobel prize winner in ox who said whoever igns TRIPS agreement, signed death warrant of tens of thousands of Africans. Human rights vs property rights. Even today can patent mouse in USA. Who owns the findingsa. Is it a good thing? What criteria and ‘for whom’. Who frames this? Not good for some poor somalian.
Kenneth: choice as indiv and collectively.
Rachel Hurst, disability and human rights: assumnption that health is absence of disease and disability. I don’t agree. Whichever side we go down, we need to recog that is humans that we are talking about and are they going to be contained. Whatever way you choose, does it matter, if retaining ethical premise that are dealing with human beings.
Sue (Oxford): assumption that longer means happier.
Anil Gupter: is strongter, etc a better life. Health not absense of sickness, it is well-being. What is a good thing? When communities. Society not appreciated handicaps of those who do not see those of others.
ME: allocation of resources as assertion about what is happiness.
Robin Hanson, Economist: often float into abstractions. Prospect of doubling. We have already doubled our lifespan.
ME: is is thte same kind of doubling. Is doubling the issue?
Question: disting ‘whether’ from ‘what if’. Policy has tendency to react to convergent of diff hells. What are hells and heavens in traking this forward.
Donald Bruce: anthropology: what is our ustdg of the human. Premise is based on functional part of us. Diminished view of human. I was once on a sci fi programme – ‘what would it be like to live forever’ what do you do after 2000 years. Ok, stupid scenario. Fact that prince charles not king at his age, phenomenon exponential in this situation.
Sarah: finality, goals, - must keep that within human condition. Mustn’t negate that side.
ME: a ritual death?
Question: reproductive span should go to 80-90 yrs old.
Wolfgang Luca: don’t think will hit 9billion level of population, because birthrate decline. Glad that reproduction has been added to reproduction. Why gerontophobia is with diffciculty of imagining. If assume 3-4 yrs inc per decade, then in west Europe, third of entire population above 80. Prob for legal pension. V little poss for change. Life expectancy goes beyond state increase in retirement age.
Jerry Rav, JMI: is there a culture where is accepted for people to dcide when to go. People in good health.
Gupter: in border of west Bengal and Bangladesh, is custom that go to forest and death by tiger eating you is most devine death.
Sarah: aboriginal – indivs do decide that burden they place on society means they should die. But these are problematic discussions.
James (JMI): by what criteria do we measure a good life. Having discussion about people as indivs planning to life extend as long as poss. Not sure psychologically a good idea. People make choices that involve a whole range of issues. One of obvious techniques of life extension is constrained calorifgic intake – opposite side of prob with obesity. Raises prob. People make choices in that context – taking too much, which makes you live less. These are issues of preventative medicine and public health. People don’t choose to make choices. Am I reasding this issue of calorific intake right. Biggest medical issue at moment is absolute opposite of that. Food and life choices and risk taking in a social context.
Kenneth: fair amount of disagreement
James: healthcare funding so stilted towards treatement rather than preventionl
??: if we’re right about fertility decline in developing countries, major prob not aging but reproduction.
Srah: various myths about aging. By 2050 2 billion people in developing nations over 50.. not just a developed world problem.
Bill SharpE: continuity/discontinuity thesis. Systemic prob. Community in formation here. Contention over goals. None of them know degree of continuity between 2 goals. They are self admitting that we cant tell. Is it worth it? Clearly yes. I have had pleasure watching parents move into 90s. every year has been worth it for them. Only issue is when problems become insurmountable. Tigers as good as some alternatives. Living and learning has indefinite pleasure and learning. Gandhi: live as if you die tomorrow and learn as if you will live forever.
Kahn, oxford: main issue arising for devle countries. What would be the healthy life expectancy, not expectancy at all.
Michael Morrison, Uni of Nottingham: medical and social ideas of health. Strong strteam of technological determinism.
1300-1500
Stronger?
Chair: Zhanfeng Cui
Ellen Heber-Katz
Regrowth of tissue
Tissue remodelling during regeneration
DL Stocum
Transfer cells across scar tissue
If can identify cell might be able tccccccccccccccccc
Kevin Warwick
I, Robot with Will Smith
Last implant was chip into nervous system. 100 electrodes fired into medial nerve in left arm – 10,000 nerve fibres, receive sensory signals.
Not as reported in guardian that fits into top pocket, but it was fired into nervous system. Each pin is 1.5mm long. Nerve fibres are 3.5-4mm in diameter.
What could we do with it.
Link with computer
Human senses 5% of world around them – stats from CERN.
ME: how is this different from extra sensory experience through drug use?
Ultra sonic and infrared
What is difference between tv having it and you having it, ethically?
Future of research
With wife, did direct telegraphic nervous system link – brain to brain
Remaining humans will be sub-set.
Stem cell research and its ethical considerations in china
Pei Xuetao, Beijing institute of transfusion medicine, stem cell research center
Selfrenewal (Extensive or unlimited)
Clonal
Multilineage differentation
Plasticity
Engraftment and repopulation
Stem cells can undergo self-renewal
Stem cells – foundation of regenerative medicine
Big problem with aging in china
Number of stem cell and regen med research projects funded by NSFC annually from 199-2005
Two projects for stem cell research and another two projects for tissue engi neering supported by t Chinese national key project of basic research
Ethical considerations of human embryonic stem cells big issue now
Basic principles of life ethics
- respect, non-mal, beneficience, justice
use of stem cell technology
- replaceable tissues/organs
- repair defective cell types
- gene therapy
- chemotherapy
- drug discover
- tumour therapy
ethical debate – i: derivation of ESCs
- harvesting es cells destroys t blastocyst
- ‘this is murder’
- how to think about embryo, t dispute tht if embryo is a living life has become focus question on each side of dispute
human life, hnumanbeing or human person
definition of personhood
- conscio0usly performing personal acts elmi
worldwide cloning research legislation
illegal in china
ethical debate III
- any kinds of
etihical debate in chona
- gov: against reprod cloning, support therapeutic
- scientist: balance sci freedom with erthical constraint
public: hESC should not be banned
Confucian: human embryo not a person
Buddhistic: reincarnation occurs at birth
Ethical Guidelines and regulations for Human ES cell research in china
Promiulagated by the ministroy of sc I and technology
Principled stance of china gov
- support biotech
- acknowl and observe international basic principle
- banning human clopning
image of person standing by wal with shadow projecting. At top of wall is apple. Person is reaching for it.
Human Assistance/Function Augmentation/Capability Enahncement by Robotic Advanced Technologies
Nagoya University
Toshio FUKUDA
Safety, security health
- environment, daily life, war and terrorism, product, health, ITS, communication, plant
Transition of work area
- manufacturing industry
- sensing, recognition, adaptation, learning, security
- service industry
o medical robot
o care robot
o transfer system
o security
o competition (RoboCup, Sport)
Humanoid Robot
Vs
Rehabilitation Robot
Society in 21st century
Comfortable space using Robot Technology and Information Technology
- in home or
human support technology
1. physical support, sensory/actuation augmentation
2. skill support; dexterity/experience, language
3. intelligence support, information, communication, knowledge, augmentation, enhancement, decision making
human machine symbiosis
1. cell level
2. human and unit level (arm leg)
3. multi human and indiv level (multirobot)
4. organic device level (stomach, heart)
5. human and indiv level (one to one)
6. network level (multi robot and multihuman through network)
Robots:
WE4, SAYA, KISMET, CRF1
CRF3
- quiz, Questions and Answers
- email retrieval
- reaction of touch sensor
communication with CRF
multi-scale bio-operations
engineering, bio, medical
Summary: stronger?
- human friendly robnotic technology to be advanced ofr aged society
- physical/skill/intelligence supports realizable in near future
- domains for applications: experts in medical and others. Daily life support for disabled and aged
- usage: depends on human decision back to society
natika XXX: amazement and alarm; only available to only those who can afford it
Donald bruce:
Norton, uni of dankstedt: interested in japan and robotics. What do you think about Kevin warwick. You want to make robots work for us, he wants to be one. Who is better off?
Response:
The Nature of Human Natures?
Chair: James Tansey
James Hughes, James J.
Lee Silver
Thursday
845-1030
Smarter?
Cognitive Enhancement
Nick
Forms of enhancing intelligence
Stimulants (Lee and Ma, 1995)
Nutrients and hormones (Martinez and Kesner 1991)
Cholinergic agonists (McGaugh and Petrinoc 1995, Levin 1992, Buccafusco, et al 1995)
Piracetam famly
Ampakines
Consolidation enhancers
Learning enhancement for unlearning phobias and addictions (Pittman 2002; hall 2003)
Animal models
Genetic enhancement of memory
Pre- and perinatal enhancement
- giving choline supp to pregnant rats improves performance of pups (Meck, Smith and Williams 1987; Mellott et al 2004)
external software and hardware enhancements
multielectrode recordings from more than 300 electrodes (Nicolelis et al 2003, Carmena et al 2003, Shenoy et al 2003)
Kennedy and Makay 1998
Alteheld et al 2004, von Wild et al 2002
Uploading
Neuromorphic engineering
Classical AI
Psychopharmacology of cognitive enhancement
Dr Danielle Turner, Uni of Cambridge
An espresso at three in the morning is just so last year, article form Stephen Phillips (THES, last week)
Most people engage with some form of enhancement almost every day
Effective cognitive enhancement for patients
- quality of life
- benefits to patient, family, society
drugs as tools to investigate how the normal brain works
to improve cognitio0n in healthy indivs
for eg
- military
one-touch tower of London planning task
modafinil
Questions and Answers
Daniel Reynolds
Jennifer Swift
Lucy Kimble, SAID: will robots be smart enough to bring up children
James Tansey – ‘dyfunctional’ people often are most high performing
Joel: why would an athlete want to use modafinil?
Danielle: when Kelly white took, was not a specifically banned substance. Not sure if would enhance. Perhaps makes less impulsive.
Question
Danielle: first time take Ritalin, performance improves. Only helps in novel situation. When familiar, it drops.
Chris, nanotech, Santa Barbera: cognitive effects of hockey stick (graph curve)
David Wood (Scottish, mobile phone industry)
Alfred nordmann – nordmann@phil.tu-darmstadt.de
Happier
Susan Greenfield
Healthier and longer lives
Increased leisure
Expectation of happiness
The thin line…between therapy and lifestyle
Drugs work by
- increasing chemical messewnger (speed)
- slow down removal (cocaine)
- empty stores (ecstacy)
- block it acting (trancquiliers)
- act as imposter (heroin)
- making trarget more /less sensitive (addiction)
cure for life experiences
- flu
- feeling blue
- about to pig-out
- moody
- shy
- need energy?
- Too much energy
- Stupid
Taking a drug might not make you better
Efficacy of smart drug determined by baseline – ie more XX your attention more effective they willl be
So called transhumanist idea probc
Difference between well-being and happiness
Depression
- if medicate, not making them ecstatically happy
- outside world remote
- colourless
- emptionally numb
- little movement
- anhedonia
opposite of this ‘active happiness’
screen induced as well as drug induced – plays some computer game footage.
Are we going to live in this cyberworld which will not giove us the kind of happiness that we really want
Total abandonment
Susan Greenfield – Tomorrow’s People
Alleviation of suffering
Active abandonment
Fulfilment
Options
- Techno-ism: no indiv, no fulfilment
- Fundamentalism: fulfilment, no individual
- Consumerism: indiv, no fulfilment
- ..or we could use to development new technology
o eureka moment! Basis for happiness.
Professor Lord Richard Layard
LSE, Economics, Centre for Economic Performance – Programme on Well-being
Welfare to work; chaired UN Universities Economic ; Happiness: lessons from - published march now translated into 11 languages
Happiness is simpler. A single dimension of various emotions.
David Nutt
Already there?
- happy pills
o pejorative term by both right and left wing media with antipathy to t drug treatment of depression
o refer usually to antidep especially new ones, aprtic SSRIs (Prozac, Seroxat, Lustral)
o previously benzodiazepines (Valium, Ativan)
o but none of these make people happy
potential routes for inc happi
- decrease stress
o amines – 5HT (noradrenaline) etc
o peptides – especially hpa axis
- active ‘happiness’ circuits
o opiates, alcohol-like, ecstacy-like, drugs
o intracranial stimulation (deep brain stimulation)
nick baylis
not happiness, but improvement – in life.
Invest in healthy relationships
Donald bruce
Broken shower story
Nuclear energy industry
Computers
What can go wrong….
Athletics
- would have known that he cheated if he had used a pill to beat dave Bedford
would we see drug induced athlete as epitome of human ability or something else.
Are there rules about human race? If we step outside, are we less human?
1530
Stem Cell research
Current Policy in Europe
China, loose standards of ethical review.
Problems.
Human genome project progress through huge global collaboration
Not poss with stem cell because some countries ban it
One of probs is
English researchers want to collab with china or India, but heldback because funding bodies concerned about how the research is carried out in development world
- woo sung wong controversty (korea) – were supposed to come to the conference
Jerry Shatens
Flexible regulation with respect to research
Australia initially rejected cloning research and is now revisiting that
Has had a lot of attention in the media
‘funding bodies must take adequate steps to satisfy themselves that those they fund intend to carry out their research ethically and in accordance with relevant national regulations and appropriate international guidance as it emerges’.
Questions and Answers
Question: if woman consented to organ donation, would it be ethical to remove her eggs.
Julian: healthy young eggs better for research than older eggs. Science would like eggs from young healthy women, but many people’s intuition. Risks of donation eggs, small but real. Superobviation drugs associated with rare but lethal conditions
What risks can healthy individuals undergo for research? I say ‘quite significant’, but others say much less.
John harris and savulescu: like a horse race. What matters is which horse crosses the lline first, but cannot and should not back just one horse – must be collaborative.
1630
Fairer?
Enhancement and Fairness,
Julian Savulescu
George Annas ‘improved, posthumans would inevitably come to view the ‘naturals’ as inferor, as subspecies….
Francis Fukuyama
- ‘the first victim of transhumanism might be equality…underlying this idea…
Bill McKibben
- these would be mere consumer decisions – but aht also means that they would benefit the rich far more than the poor’
nothing new about enhancement
- rich buy better
o education
o health care
o technology
these can alter biology
direct biological intervention raises no new ethical issues
- just a question of which theory of justice goven socity
4 concepts
- 1. Fairness or justice
2. enhancement
3. natural distribution of capabilities and disabilities
4.
1. fairness/justice
- util
egal: strict equality; rawls maximnl
prioritarian
john Mackie ‘rights, utility, and universalisation’
- right to fair go
maximising version of giving peoplpe a ‘fair go’
- give as many people as poss a decent (reasonable) chance of decent (good) life
enhancement-
- makes our lives better
- increases t chance of us having a good life – instrumental goods (health, wealth)
biological – mor beautiful, stronger
psychology – better person
social, incliuding socially determined environment – cleaner air, better osiac secuiorty
controversial – biological or internal technological enhacenemtns – focus on these
enhamcement, disability, and capability
well-being: how well a life goes (goodness); difficult to distribute well-being
capability: state of person that inc probab of achieving a good life
disability: state of person…
what is a disability?
Typically, deafness etc
But is context dependent
Atopic tendency
- asthma in developed world
- potection against worm infestation in devl world
need to fix or predict social or other environment circums
biology/psychology as capability/disability
- biological or psychology state can be predicted as ether
- biologica contributes to health but how well life goes
- we are all disabled
eg self control
- in 1960s Walter Mischel conducted impulse control, 4 year old children with marshmellow, request resist, but if not give two. Followed up and the ‘delay gratification’ more likely to succeed – impulse control
other categories
capacity to work hard or be lazy – gene therapy in monkeys
Buchanan, Brock, Daniels and Wikler (‘all purpose goods’
- intelligence, memory, self-discipline, foresight….
Autonomy enhancing traits
Social
Moral character
Genes, not men, may hold the key to femal pleasure’- genes accounted for 31% of the chance of having an orgasm during intercourse and 51% during masturbation
3. distribution of capabilities and disabilities
not distrib equally
eg. Intelligence. – normal distribution
example performance enhancement in sport: EPO
- natural hormone produced by kidney which stim red blood celss prod
- Eero Maentyranta: 3 medals, had 40-50% more red blood cells
Correcting natural inequality
- increase red blood cell level
o natural
capability
we could efficiently set red blood cell level
- safety
- performance
sport
- test of natural biology?
- We want to reward naturally best
In sport, only one winner
No reason why there has to be a person who comes last in life
If unit not red cells, but units of the good life
- is it really just that there is a natural distrib in how well life goes
social not biological enhancement
- good reasons to prefer social rather than biological
o if safer, more likely to be successful, if justice requires it, etc
o but vice versa – sometimes cheaper, easier, and fairere to alter biology
responses to bioconservatives
- nature alots advantage and disadv with no mind to fairness
- enhancement improves peoples lives
- how well t lives of those who are disav go depends on
conclusion
- fairness requires enhancement
- failing to enahcnce may result in signif injustice (supervaccine)
- conservatives guilty of social detemrinism
When /if Longer, faster strong, smarter life is happier: reflectins on slower, sustainable and more inclusive life experiences
Anil Gupta
anilg@sristi.org
disabled or differently abled?
When live longer do we exp more?
What is purpose of more meaningful lifelonglearning
- accommodates community happiness
- sensitivey towards children
what is human capital?
- depth of social networks fo which one is a aprt
- how do we enhance this depth
- are we afraid of being in company of other normal impulsive, intuitive and inspirational people
ways of knowing
- knowing, feeling and doing
who is smarter, stronger and stable?
- smartness lies in sharing opps
Towards a Fairer Distribution of Technology…
Zhao Yangdong
Inequality and immunisatin
Gregor Wolbring
Enhancement would be doping
Link enhancement products to health
2 chjoices
WHO definition – complete social well-being not just absence of disease
- social well-being still part of health
more common now is well-being above and health is a determinant of it
for today, health is seen as just medical health
transhjumanist model of health
- no matter how conventionally medically healthy, body is defined as limited and in need of modification
‘everyone is impaired’
- Rachel also said this, but with diff connotation
Amatyra sen
David nutt
- pharma not going into happier drugs – cannot sell in medical framework so too many probs
transhumanisation of medicalisation
1830
Enhancement, Justice and rights: immortality
John Harris
Art Panel
Teresa.dilon@polarproduce.org
Theatre/psychology
Polar produce, mixed media experiences
Ma, music within therapeutic context
What kinds of knowledge do art/design practitioners have?
Why – it’s I the mix, baby’
Interdisciplinarity
Slippage
Languages and knowledges
Lens and frames
Fun
Difference between artist and scientist
Approach, language, tools, privileging certain types of knowledge, methods, outcomes, reception, interpretations
Comparisons
- cyclic creative processes, question finding, depth and explorationh, knowledge generation, outputs/outcomes, transformations
ME: artists believe they are the only ones who are marginal
Blurring the traditional ‘audience-spectator’ relationships – where the audience becomes part of the performance – and the performer becomes a member of the audience
Tina Gonsalves
UCL Cognitive Sci,
AHRC, ACE fellowship
She had read some pieces
Mobile phone project with University of Toronto
Rama gheerawo
Research fellow and programme leader
Designing the future through working with users
The Helen hamlyn research centre
Royal College of Art]
Inclusive design
Disability discrimination act 2004
Video ethnography
Utility pets
Elio caccavale
GM pets that do not give you the allergy
Translator for dog
Cloning pets
Genetic saving and clone, inc
Transgenic, ornamental fish, taikong corp
Utility pet memento form
- request part of animal to be preserved
www.eliocaccavale.com
social fiction scenario
1100-1230
Governable?
Baroness Sally Greengross
Can we make it fair
What is role of state (government bodies)
Poss to do it without them?
Wolfgang Lutz
Vienna Institute of Demography
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Suzi Leather
Spain, compensation of €900 for egg donation – how consistent with altruism?
Last year, euro parliament raised profile on Romanian clinic – led to government intervention
Concern about people trafficking
If we could only enhance one charac or trait, which one would we choose if we wanted to enhance the greatest benefit for humanity as a whole?
Creativity and Governance
Christopher Newfield
Uni of California, santa barbera
Cultural theorist and anti-dualist
Centre for nanotechnolo
Disjunction between economic thought and cultural thought
The Innovator’s Dilemma
- clayton m christenen
open science model
minimum proprietary, peer review, open pub:
1. tell the people
2. listen to the people
better model
governance is governmentality, not just regulation (Foucault)
- care for all t elements of a system in their relations
flourishing
- Coleridge: intventions are ‘proofs of original genius only as far as they are modified by a predominant passion, or…when a human and intellectual life is transffered to them from the poet’s own spirit’
The creative process
- mihaly csikszentmihalyi (+CN)
o preparation
o incubation
o insight
o evaluation
o elaboration
governance (governmentality) must support this for community members
governing collaborations
- Simonton, rhotgen, 2003, seibold, henwfield
Maximising innovation is to set up a social system
Better model
1. governance is governmentality, not just regulation
2. better modelled as collaborative creativity than as markets, regulation or top-down management (but includes these)
3. collaborative creativity works much better with equality in relations , in labs (valued ‘bridges’)
4. analogy among nations: innovation cannot be separated from justice
5. governance via global institutions promoting egalitarian communication among the diverse knowledge of all stakeholders
better model
- from ‘the lexus or the olive tree’
to innovation via justice
Questions and Answers
Question: egg donation is uncomfortable and not without risk, if no compensation, why would a woman do this?
Suzi: sheer altruism is one, but v few people. All donors extensively counselled. Physical and emotional risks. In uk, we do allow egg sharing – in exchnge for reduce cost. Ie woman using ivf to give away some of eggs to 1 or 2 other women and recompensed in kind with reduced cost for treatment. If open system of donation, poss that fewer people will come through, but might deal with by targeting donor. Earlier, sperm donation was 18-24, now are 35-40 yr olds.
James Hughes:
Suzi: challenge your view that regulation restricts. In uk, not true. Clear benefit. What does restrict is that this is not available on NHS and this is by far most imp issue. Most generous country is Israel. – all about state funding. Perhaps with ageing popultion this will improve elsewhere.
Anders: if free innovation is needed in governmentality, if have more bridges, prob is that transdisciplinarity, but gov structure wil have prob getting solutions, restfucture government? Complementary institutions?
Chris Newfield: practical construction effort
Donald Bruce: is there distinction between enhancement and medical? HFEA has embodied that on sex selection for family balancing. Council of Europe has embodied on convention on human rights and biomedicine – sex selection only for serious gender related genetic disease. What is rationale for the distinction? It is one I support, but is it valid as result of distinction?
Suzi: evidence is that public does think can draw clear distinction between selection for family balancing and disease, for instance. Do I think this will hold? No I don’t. I thjink it will be increasingly difficult to do that. One of the reasons is because any kind of disadvantage that can be conceived of as a disability, parents will say ‘I must have this’. I must be able to have a child that doesn’t suffer from x, y or z.
Shefield institute for biotech:
Dave Wood: which charac should we enhance? If spread too far, get nowhere. becom
