These notes were posted by IEET Fellow Andy Miah on his blog:

Tomorrow’s People - Oxford, James Martin Institute, Said Business School

Here I am at the Oxford meeting, which is one of the most exciting and interesting I have attended. Major names are here from all kinds of disciplinary perspectives, philosophy, sociology, natural science. The sun is even shining here! The level of the debate is high and many issues exciting. I have already had conversations with Joel Garreu, James Hughes, Julian Savulescu, William Sims Bainbridge, Lee Silver and a representative from the House of Commons Select Committee for Science and Technology.

My session on ‘rethinking enhancement in sport’ was lively and I got the felt that these issues are just beginning for us all. There’s a great deal left to be done.

I even signed a couple of copies of ‘Genetically Modified Athletes‘, which happened to be in the Blackwell book stand!

Mary Douglas is now up to speak!

Donald Bruce

Donald happens to be speaking as I type. He is talking in a plenary session in the Tomorrow’s People meeting, where the topic is ‘Happiness?’. It is chaired by Baroness Susan Greenfield and includes Lord Richard Layard, David Nutt and Nick Baylis. This session feels quite frustrating, a lot of anti-technology. I met Donald a few years ago in Scotland and saw him again last October in Lancaster for a meeting on mitochondrial DNA and its modification.
He happens also to have mentioned that ‘celebrity‘ is our guiding concern - the desire for immorality or connection with it perhaps (my interpretation).

William Sims Bainbridge

I had the pleasure of meeting William (National Science Foundation, Washington) yesterday at the JMI meeting. He attended my ‘rethinking enhancement in sport’ session and asked a pertinent question about whether information and communications technologies are on the ethical radar within sport. We discussed the development of virtual reality systems and ‘third eye’ technologies, but today caught up again and talked about computer games. He described some work on the concept of ‘cheating’ and moral codes more generally related to games. We also talked about the prospect of game ergometers and integrated pervasive systsems, which are already available to some people. Yet another facet of the debate within sport - will be see sport in a virtual world some time soon (don’t believe the detractors who will say that this is not ‘reality’.) I believe I will see William again in Stanford Law School this May for the IEET meeting.

Joel Garreau

Writer and editor for the Washington Post is here in Oxford for the Tomorrow’s People meeting. I caught up with Joel in the Blackwell’s book show as he was looking at a copy of my book, Genetically Modified Athletes. He mentions some of the issues in his own new publication ‘Radical Evolution: the Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies - and What it Means to be Human. One of the bigger questions we discussed was how wide an issue the sport one really represents, on the one hand a specific problem for sports organisers, but also a high political problem for various governments.

Tomorrow’s People - Rethinking Enhancement in Sport

The morning session on ‘Smarter?’ is drawing to a close. Nick Bostrom, Danielle Turner and Robin Hanson have been the 3 speakers. I just found a link to an image from my session yesterday, here with Professor Julian Savulescu. More photos from the event are available through this site.

Teresa Dillon

Teresa (artist) was also at the conference banquet last night and it just so happened that she knew Glasgow like the back of her hand. She was there from 94-97, before the CCA initial conversion - which has now led to its demise, or so it would seem. We talked about the Tramway and the work it is doing and the King Street galleries, which really do need some kind of Gallery walk map! This also reminded me of the Radiance festival from last year, which really did change how people interacted with the space of the city. If only there were the funds to do more.

We talked about the series of programmes that Channel 4 have been doing this week on Art, the Human Canvas and Bad Art, which have worked with wonderful scripts.

Tina Gonsalves

Tina is an artist on an AHRC/ACE fellowship at UCL. She is working in an institute of Cognitive Science, allied with people like Dan Glaser, whom I met last year at the Royal Institution of Great Britain meeting on ‘The Future of Our Memories’. Tina is presenting just now in the JMI Tomorrow’s People meeting, discussing her work related to science and the body. I caught up with Tina last night at the conference banquet. She had read my article from CTHEORY on Gunter von Hagens, from 3 years ago and mentions his BodyWorlds exhibit in her talk. Originally from Sydney, Tina was also talking about ideas that explore the emotional response to bodies in action and how, for example, sporting actions provoke such great contrasts of feelings for people. Tina describes that her work is about human vulnerability and intimacy.

Anders Sandberg

Anders has now moved to Oxford, working with Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu. He first entered my radar in Stockholm last year at the meeting on Sport, Medicine and Ethics. He has some great websites and is engaged with some very interesting work on cognitive enhancement.

John Harris

Professor John Harris is now giving the final of his 3 Princeton University lectures at the JMI meeting, speaking on ‘enhancement, justice and rights: immortality’. I met John around four years ago in Manchester, while I was there for a National Olympic Academy meeting and it is good to catch up with him again here.
I think first I read his Wonderwoman and Superman many years ago and, since beginning the Master degree in Medical Law and Ethics at Glasgow University, have become more aware of his ‘personna’ within medical ethics. Always lucid, John’s papers are for many controversial, since his strong Utilitarian stance is met with much criticism in a field where many people believe duties ought to guide our moral actions.