IEET White Paper Series

An IEET White Paper by By George Dvorsky and James Hughes.

This essay is forthcoming in an edited book on gender and reproductive technologies, but in a shorter, revised form. So we wanted to share this IEET White Paper version with our readership for comment and improvement that we can use in revising the book chapter.

Abstract: Postgenderism is an extrapolation of ways that technology is eroding the biological, psychological and social role of gender, and an argument for why the erosion of binary gender will be liberatory. Postgenderists argue that gender is an arbitrary and unnecessary limitation on human potential, and foresee the elimination of involuntary biological and psychological gendering in the human species through the application of neurotechnology, biotechnology and reproductive technologies. Postgenderists contend that dyadic gender roles and sexual dimorphisms are generally to the detriment of individuals and society. Assisted reproduction will make it possible for individuals of any sex to reproduce in any combinations they choose, with or without “mothers” and “fathers,” and artificial wombs will make biological wombs unnecessary for reproduction. Greater biological fluidity and psychological androgyny will allow future persons to explore both masculine and feminine aspects of personality. Postgenderists do not call for the end of all gender traits, or universal androgyny, but rather that those traits become a matter of choice. Bodies and personalities in our postgender future will no longer be constrained and circumscribed by gendered traits, but enriched by their use in the palette of diverse self-expression.

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Abstract: Most agree that our lives and our world are better if we are happier. So linking the moral goal of greater happiness with our biological understanding of happiness seems obvious. Let us think of the position that it is permissible for individuals to make this linkage—to use pharmacology and other technologies in the service of increased happiness—as the ‘bio-happiness’ proposal. Several different technologies might be used in pursuit of this goal, e.g., pharmacological agents (“happy pills” ) might be developed, or pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select embryos with genes associated with a high level of happiness, or genetically engineering embryos for happiness.  Most of the paper is devoted to defending bio-happiness against criticisms. The field of which may be characterized as follows:

(1) Happiness is not of moral importance.
(2) Bio-happiness cannot increase our happiness.
(3) Bio-happiness will come at too great a cost to other moral values.

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As the potential for enhancement technologies migrates from the theoretical to the practical, a difficult and important decision will be imposed upon human civilization, namely the issue as to whether or not we are morally obligated to biologically enhance nonhuman animals and integrate them into human and posthuman society. Precedents for intra-species cultural uplift abound in human history, providing both sobering and edifying episodes showcasing the possibilities for the instigated and accelerated advancement of technologically delayed societies. As a number of scientists, philosophers and futurists have recently argued, there is mounting evidence in support of the suggestion that these historical episodes are symptomatic of a larger developmental trend, namely the inexorable and steady advancement of intelligence. Civilizational progress necessarily implies increasing levels of organization and refinement across all realms of activity. Consequently, the status of nonhuman species and the biosphere will eventually come under the purview of guided intelligence rather than autonomous processes. That said, a developmental tendency towards uplift does not imply that it is good or right; more properly, it can be argued that uplift scenarios do in fact carry moral currency. Through the application of Rawlsian moral frameworks, and in consideration of the acknowledgement of legally recognized nonhuman persons, it can be shown that the presence of uplift biotechnologies will represent a new primary good and will thus necessitate the inclusion of highly sapient nonhumans into what has traditionally been regarded as human society. In addition to issues of distributive justice, the Rawlsian notion of original position can be used to answer the question of whether or not there is consent to uplift. Finally, it will be shown that the presence of uplift biotechnologies in the absence of the legal recognition of nonhuman persons and a mandate for responsible uplifting will ultimately lead to abuse, adding another important consideration to the uplift imperative.

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Journal of Evolution and Technology

Recent Books by IEET Fellows and Staff

A global catastrophic risk is one with the potential to wreak death and destruction on a global scale. In human history, wars and plagues have done so on more than one occasion, and misguided ideologies and totalitarian regimes have darkened an entire era or a region. Advances in technology are adding dangers of a new kind. It could happen again.

In Global Catastrophic Risks 26 leading experts look at the gravest risks facing humanity in the 21st century, including natural catastrophes, nuclear war, terrorism, global warming, biological weapons, totalitarianism, advanced nanotechnology, general artificial intelligence, and social collapse. The book also addresses over-arching issues - policy responses and methods for predicting and managing catastrophes.

Sir Martin J. Rees: Foreword Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic: Introduction Background Fred C. Adams: Long-term astrophysical processes Christopher Wills: Evolution theory and the future of humanity James J. Hughes: Millenial tendencies in responses to apocalyptic threats Eliezer Yudkowsky: Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgememnt of global risks Milan M. Cirkovic: Observation selection effects: the Fermi paradox, the Doomsday argument and the simulation argument Yacov Y. Haimes: Systems-based risk analysis Peter Taylor: Catastrophes and insurance Richard A. Posner: Public policy toward catastrophe Risks from Nature Michael R. Rampino: Supervolcanism and other geophysical processes of catastrophic import William Napier: Hazards from comets and asteroids Arnon Dar: Influence of supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and cosmic rays on the terrestrial environment Risks from Unintended Consequences David Frame and Myles Allen: Climate change and global risk Edwin Dennis Kilbourne: Plagues and pandemics: past, present, and future Eliezer Yudkowski: Artificial Intelligence as a positive and negative factor in global risk Frank Wilczek: Big troubles, imagined and real Robin Hanson: Catastrophe, social collapse, and and human extinction Joseph Cirincione: The continuing threat of nuclear war William Potter and Gary Ackerman: Catastrophic nuclear terrorism: a preventable peril Ali Nouri and Christopher F. Chyba: Biotechnology and biosecurity Chris Phoenix and Mike Treder: Nanotechnology as global catastrophic risk Bryan Caplan: The totalitarian threat

One hundred short stories, each about one hundred words long, reflecting on the near future. You can also subscribe to Marcelo’s Hectowords blog for regular installments. 

Examines the link between health and identity, and cybercultural identity. The medicalization of many aspects of social life, from childbirth to diet to housing, has become more and more apparent at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The involvement of ‘cyberspace’ in this new medicalized world is significant; as medical advice and medication is now easily available on the Internet, e-communities of sufferers and users abound. However the relationship between health, medicalization, cyberculture, the body and identity has been little explored. This book explores these complex social interactions and addresses topical issues, looking at specific aspects such as reproductive rights and technologies, gender and sexuality, cyber identity and non-humanness. 

Etica della scienza pura è un poderoso volume di circa 600 pagine che ripercorre la storia del pensiero occidentale alla ricerca dei presupposti etici dell’impresa scientifica. Lo studio parte dal pensiero antico, precisamente dai racconti biblici e dalla filosofia greca, per arrivare alle ultime frontiere dell’ingegneria genetica e del transumanesimo. Durante il percorso, vengono analizzate le idee di molti scienziati e filosofi, tra i quali Socrate, Platone, Aristotele, Agostino, R. Bacone, Leonardo, Copernico, Bruno, Galileo, Campanella, Cartesio, F. Bacone, Diderot, Voltaire, La Mettrie, Condorcet, Saint-Simon, Comte, J. S. Mill, Spencer, Cattaneo, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Enriques, Bachelard, Popper, Durkheim, Weber, Merton, Barnes, Dolby, Feyerabend, Prelli, Mitroff, Lyotard, Monod, Sztompka e Bunge.

“Ending Aging” provides a far richer introduction and overview of SENS science, of the real prospects for progress in extending our healthy life spans, and of the nuts and bolts of getting there, than any other material published to date.

“God from the machine” (deus ex machina) refers to an ancient dramatic device where a god was mechanically brought onto the stage to save the hero from a difficult situation. But here, William Sims Bainbridge uses the term in a strikingly different way. Instead of looking to a machine to deliver an already known god, he asks what a computing machine and its simulations might teach us about how religion and religious beliefs come to being. Bainbridge posits the virtual town of Cyburg, population 44,100. Then, using rules for individual and social behavior taken from the social sciences, he models a complex community where residents form groups, learn to trust or distrust each other, and develop religious faith. Bainbridge’s straightforward arguments point to many more applications of computer simulation in the study of religion. God from the Machine will serve as an important text in any class with a social scientific approach to religion.

This book provides a unique review of technical developments related to the unification that is rapidly taking place today among nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC). It assesses potential for revolutionary applications of these developments and their likely impact in improving the human condition and offers a wide variety of scholarly views on the likely societal impacts and policy implications of these developments and applications, including assessments of educational, economic, commercial, legal, ethical, political, and social implications. 

In attempts to balance the benefits and harms potentially involved in xenotransplantation, the benefits for the prospective patients have been subordinated to the potential risks of
unleashing a xenogeneic pandemic. National and international restrictions on clinical research and trials have been set in place in order to exclude the risks for the public, but they may not prove to be fully effective for both practical and ethical reasons. The question we have attempted to answer here is whether the requirement of those stringent public health measures is inevitable. We argued that, even though the harm principle dictates that harm-doing is unacceptable when it is also other-regarding, the impermissibility of harming public health is not a moral absolute. In particular, an assessment of the acceptability is dependent on whether the promised benefits are attainable and perceived as such by the public. Furthermore, there is a particular responsibility to take account of those risk factors that have a predictable, foreseeable effect. It can be argued that accountability for a pandemic that results from an unforeseen effect of xenotransplantation should not necessarily be attributed to those involved in the development and use of the technology alone. The permissibility of harm-doing is then rendered an issue of medical ethics, in which a weighing of harms against the benefits of the procedure for the patient is of paramount importance. 

Booklist: Rushkoff sets two story lines going here. In one, the draft has been reinstated in a near-future U.S., and potential draftees are implanted with chips that make their whereabouts traceable and allow the government to compel compliance. The other consists of three episodes in the story of Abraham: the near-sacrifice of Isaac, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the battle that Abraham leads to free his nephew, Lot (in Genesis, however, the battle precedes Sodom and Gomorrah). The two plots develop in tandem, with characters in one corresponding to those in the other, and the cosmic conflict between Jehovah and the combined forces of Astarte and Moloch framing both. The Isaac counterpart, grown to hunky young manhood, stars in the modern story, thereby allowing several steamy encounters with the young female characters. Well composed and drawn by Sharp, and gorgeously full colored, the whole thing is like nothing so much as Cecil B. DeMille’s first Ten Commandments (1923), with its sin, skin, liminal piety, and double plot. Ray Olson

Publishers Weekly: By touting the value of thinking “outside the box,” business experts have inspired an obsession with growth, competition and offbeat concepts, says Rushkoff (Cyberia; Coercion; etc.). In fact, he insists, the secret of success lies inside the box; businesses that focus on their core competencies, their customers’ needs and their work environment come up with better innovations in the long run than those that rely on flashy ad campaigns, focus groups or off-site consultants. Smart businesses, he argues, hire employees who are deeply familiar with the company’s core products and encourage innovation by cultivating a fun, collaborative work environment. 

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Email: director @ ieet.org     phone: 860-297-2376