http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2011/session_detail/5727/
12:30pm
Lecture Theatre 1 Battle for our Brains
Speakers
Professor Andy Miah
director, Creative Futures Research Centre, University of West Scotland
Marilyn Monk
emeritus professor of molecular embryology, University College London
Susana Soares
designer and senior lecturer, London South Bank University
Over the past decade, dramatic advances have been made in synthetic biotechnology, neuroscience and digital technology. Engineers of brain computer interfaces predict headbands that will deliver digitally enhanced cognition, letting us talk without speaking, see round corners, and drive just by thinking about it. In 2010, Craig Venter made headlines with his (partially) synthetic cell, and, as he plans to patent an entire manmade lifeform in the future, work continues on the creation of smaller DNA constructs known as bioparts. This year a man in Austria voluntarily had a (damaged) hand amputated so he could be fitted with a bionic limb controlled by brain signals. Stem cell science and synthetic biology bring the prospect of replacing flesh with ‘synthetic’ flesh rather the creating crude cyborgs. So is the long-awaited ‘Singularity’ – that sci-fi dream/nightmare of merging man and machine – finally upon us?
The use of technology to replace damaged faculties is widely accepted: fitting prosthetic limbs to amputees raises no moral objections. Will anyone object if doctors manage to grow new hearts for transplant rather than depending on donors? Perhaps ethical questions arise if we imagine voluntary enhancement of limbs with stronger, faster models? How might we respond if designers invite us to upgrade to Arm 2.0? Or even Brain 2.0, with a live internet feed directly into our consciousness and, potentially, the entire body of human knowledge fitted on a biochip? What about being able to synthesise drugs within your own body to alter your emotional state? What will happen to those who cannot afford such enhancements? Will they be less, or more, human than the new ‘transhumans’? What about the civil liberties issues? Would you, a protective parent, fit a biochip to your child? To criminals?
What it means to be human isn’t a new question; we share half of our genes with a banana and have ten times more bacteria cells in our bodies than human ones. Are we already less human than we think? Is our intuition that there is even a ‘me’, which retains its identity whatever the body is made of, any more than an illusion? To look at the question another way, society and culture already shape our consciousness in various ways. Might sweeping changes in society change who we are more than any amount of bio-tinkering? What will be the role of design in shaping our future? Should we use technology to surpass nature? What do we do with this technological knowledge, and how is it transforming what it means to be human?
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