Transhumanist Bioethics

James J. Hughes Ph.D.

Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesLecturer, Public Policy Studies, Trinity College, Hartford CT

James.Hughes@trincoll.edu

June 17, 2013 – Yale University

The Enlightenment

Origins of secularism, secular humanism and modern bioethics in 17th and 18th century

Descartes, Locke, Pascal, Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet, Rousseau

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

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

Emerging Technologies

Tech that will radically change the human brain:PsychopharmacologyGenetic engineeringNanotechnologyArtificial intelligenceCognitive science

The accelerating convergence of all these“for improving human performance”

Human Enhancement

Curing disabilitiesHealthLongevity Intelligence Emotional controlHeightened sensesSpiritual experienceMoral sentiment and cognition

Why Human Enhancement?

Status Quo Bias Would it be better to

have….Shorter lives?More disabilities?Less intelligence?Less memory?Less happiness?

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

Public health and universal insurance

Access to contraception

Rights to refuse treatment, confinement

Roe v. Wade Stem cells

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

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

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)

Progressive Pushback

Progressive Bioethics Network Caplan, McGee, Charo, et al. Women’s Bioethics Network Appigniani Bioethics Center Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Center for American Progress

Pinker “The Stupidity of Human Dignity” New Republic

Stephen Pinker

What is Transhumanism?

An intellectual and cultural movement that affirms

the possibility and desirability of transcending the limitations of the human body through applied reason

especially by using technology to

eliminate aging and enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.

“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

Growing H+ Movement

(World Transhumanist Association)transhumanism.org

30 chapters, 5500 members

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

ieet.org

H+ Politics

Left H+ outnumber libertarians

Conservatives 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

“Technoprogressives” Institute for Ethics & Emerging

Technologies ieet.org

Biopolitical Coalitions

H+ Coalition BioCon Coalition

A-TechnoprogressivesB-Libertarian transhumanists

Economic Politics

Biopolitics

Progressive

Conservative

C

A

Progressive Conservative

B

D

Cultural Politics

Bioconservatism

Transhumanism

C-Left bioconservativesD-Right bioconservatives

Transhumanists BioConservativesPersonhood, cyborg citizenship

Human-Racism (or Deep ecology)

Humanism, reason, individual liberty, progress

Sacred taboos, “the natural”, yuck factor, romanticism

Risks are manageable Risks are unknowable; Punishment for hubris inevitable; Tech should be banned

Central Biopolitical Disputes

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: ?

Human Nature and the Embryo

"The uniqueness of human nature is at stake. Human dignity is indivisible…every human being is possessed of an equal dignity…at every stage of life…"

James Dobson

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 but

don’t chew cud

Mary Douglas

Uncanny Valley

Masahiro Mori’s robots

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)

Enhancement a Crime Against Humanity?

George Annas & Lori Andrews: make human enhancement “a crime against humanity”

Senator Kelly: "Are mutants dangerous? We license people to drive."(X-Men) Dr. Grey: "But not to live."

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”

…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+ = Radical Human Rights

Personhood, not race, gender or species, defines citizenship

Citizens have a right to control own bodies, brains & reproduction

Goal of governance should be to help each person fulfill her potential John Locke

1632-1704

Technological Self-Determination

The right to know how safe and effective technologies are

The right to use technology to control our own bodies and minds

The right of equal access to technological empowerment

Legitimate Risk Concerns: Safety, Efficacy, Equity

Ensure technology is safe and effective

Make tech accessible to all

Yuck Factor Stops Critical Thinking

Bioconservative risk estimates are grounded in yuck factor so that tech bans seem only logical policy

Tech is not the problem Greed, racism, inequality,

patriarchy, authoritarianism,

ignorance and superstition

are the problems

Technology only opens new

ways to pursue virtue, reason,

democracy, equality, and liberty

The Crossbow was invented to oppress peasants. But it became the perfect tool for knocking knights off horses.

2008: Biopolitical Fragmentation

Economic crisis supplants biopolitics

Progressive bioethics sidetracked by 2009 demonization, technocratic Obama bioethics

Re-assertion of libertopian hegemony in H+

Fukuyama’s turn to the Left Nigel Cameron turns to tech

elites

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

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 doublethinkInstitute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

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

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Religious H+ & Singularitarians

One quarter of H+ are religious Mormon Transhumanist

Association largest H+ group in US

Dmitry Itskov

Nikolai Fedorov (1829-1903) Russian H+: Pro-Putin v. liberal

reformists v. anarchists Itskov’s Global Future 2045

For more information

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologiesieet.org

Me: james.hughes@trincoll.edu

director@ieet.org