Transhumanist Bioethics James J. Hughes Ph.D. Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Lecturer, Public Policy Studies, Trinity College, Hartford CT June 16, 2014 – Yale University These slides: ieet.org/archive/ YaleH+Bioethics.ppt

Ancient Aspirations Abstract thought -> imagining radical improvement to human condition Medicines and magical practices to improve health and grant wisdom Myths of times and places without toil, conflict, or injustice, a more perfect world Radically improved social and corporeal life possible in the immediate future

The Enlightenment Origins of secularism, secular humanism and modern bioethics in 17 th /18 th century Descartes, Locke, Pascal, Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet, Rousseau, Franklin

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 Translation: Autonomy Justice Beneficence

20 th Century Politics Progressives Conservatives Conservatives Progressives Populists Libertarians New Right Social Democrats Cultural Politics Economic Politics Populists Libertarians New Right Social Democrats 20 th century politics shaped by the ongoing battles for/against Enlightenment values, or between various interpretations of Enlightenment values

Marquis de Condorcet Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind Reason liberates from church, authoritarianism, nature Women’s suffrage Opposed to slavery Freedom from work Radical life extension Marquis de Condorcet

Other Proto-Transhumanists HG Wells and Olaf Stapledon – portrayed future evolution of humanity JBS Haldane, 1923, "Daedalus: Science and the Future“ – in vitro fertilization, genetic engineering JD Bernal, 1929, "The World, the Flesh and the Devil” – first projection of cybernetic implants JBS Haldane

Emerging Technologies Tech that will radically change the human brain: Psychopharmacology Genetic engineering Nanotechnology Artificial intelligence Cognitive science The accelerating convergence of all these “for improving human performance”

Prospect of Human Enhancement Curing disabilities Health Longevity Intelligence Emotional control Heightened senses Spiritual experience Moral sentiment and cognition

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

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

21 st Century Politics Economic Politics Biopolitics Progressive Conservative Progressive Conservative Cultural Politics Bioconservatism Transhumanism

From Bioethics to Biopolitics Intellectual debates meet mass politics Contraception Roe v. Wade Stem cells Terri Schiavo

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

90s: Libertarian H+ & Extropians Extropy Institute Extropian Principles Max More Ron Bailey

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

BioConservatives Religious Right Deep Ecologists, Romantic Luddites Left-wing/Feminist Critics of Biotech Human-Exceptionalists Pro-Disability Extremists

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)

Leftist Opponents of H+ Leftist, feminist and anti-racist opponents of “technoeugenics” Marcy Darnovsky, Michael Sandel, George Annas, Lori Andrews, Jurgen Habermas

Pro-Disability Extremists E.g. Not Dead Yet Opposed to: Efforts to “cure” or “fix” disabilities Parent’s right to terminate disabled fetuses The right of sick and disabled to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment Human enhancement medicine

“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

H+ Movement (World Transhumanist Association) transhumanism.org 30 chapters, 5500 members Dozens of affiliated, albeit mostly ephemeral, chapters, groups, organizations, projects

TranshumanistsBioConservatives Personhood, cyborg citizenship Human-Racism; human exceptionalism Humanism, reason, individual liberty (body, brain, repro), progress Sacred taboos, communitarian, “the natural”, yuck factor, romanticism, status quo bias Tech Optimism; risks are manageable; “proactionary principle” Tech Pessimism; risks are unknowable; punishment for hubris inevitable; tech should be banned; “precautionary principle” Central Biopolitical Disputes

Beyond Therapy/Enhancement Status Quo Bias Would it be better to have…. Shorter lives? More disabilities? Less intelligence? Less memory? Less happiness?

Ten Question Diagnostic 95% of H+ agree with 7 or more

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: ?

Five Moral Intuitions Liberals: Harm/care Fairness/reciprocity Conservatives Ingroup loyalty Respect for authority Purity/sanctity Jonathan Haidt

In-betweens are Dirty Purity and Danger Why aren’t pigs kosher? Cloven hoofs, don’t chew cud Mary Douglas

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)

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”

Agar: Humanity’s End Human “local values” trump individual freedom claims to enhancement “Those who want to become posthuman …want to create a circumstance in which our interests, and the interests of our human children, are morally subordinated to their own or to their posthuman descendants. It seems to me that we are entitled to prevent them from doing this.”

…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+ Politics Left H+ outnumber libertarian H+ Conservative H+ 2-4%

Technoprogressivism Core Ideas: Equality and solidarity, as well as liberty Tech needs regulation and universal access Tech unemployment and basic income guarantee “Technoprogressives” Technoprog! French Transhuamanists Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies ieet.org

Technoprogressive Self-Determination The right to use technology to control our own bodies and minds The right to know how safe and effective technologies are The right of equal access to technological empowerment

Progressive Pushback New willingness to defend enhancement on autonomy grounds Progressive Bioethics Network Art Caplan, Glenn McGee, Alta Charo, Hank Greely, Peter Singer, Maxwell Mehlman, Allen Buchanan Women’s Bioethics Network Center for American Progress European Bioliberals John Harris, Julian Savulescu, Jonathan Glover, Sarah Chan, Ingmar Persson, Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg, Stefan Sorgner, Rebecca Roache

Massification of Biopolitics Pew Surveys of U.S H+BioCon Tech progress will improve most people’s lives 59% yes30% no Medical treatments that slow the aging process and allow the average person to live decades longer, to at least 120 years 38% want 41% good for society 56% don’t want 51% bad for society Parents can alter DNA of prospective children to produce smarter, healthier, or more athletic offspring? 26% positive 66% negative Would use a brain implant to improve memory or mental capacity 26% yes (37% of college graduates) 72% no Human cloning 13% OK83% Not OK

Ensuring Safety, Universal Access Majority of U.S. think life extension should be universal, even though pessimistic about safety, social/ecological effects and equal access Dems more positive about radical life extension than Republicans

2008: Biopolitical Fragmentation Economic crisis displaces nascent biopolitics Progressive bioethics sidetracked by 2009 demonization, technocratic Obama bioethics Re-assertion of libertopian hegemony within H+ Technological unemployment

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 doublethink

NeoReactionaries “Dark enlightenment” Mencius Moldbug, Michael Anissimov Reject democracy, libertarianism, egalitarianism, ethnic pluralism Advocate monarchy, aristocracy, city-state separatism, unregulated capitalism Defend “traditional” racial, sexual differences and hierarchies

Biopolitical Polarization H+ BioCons A-Technoprogressives B-Libertarian transhumanists E-Bioliberals F-Neoreactionaries Economic Politics Biopolitics Progressive Conservative C A Progressive Conservative B D Cultural Politics Bioconservatism Transhumanism C-Left bioconservatives D-Right bioconservatives E F

Emerging Developments Biopolitical Polarization Biopolitics and Millennialist Narratives Religious Transhumanism Non-Western Biopolitics Moral Enhancement

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

Religious H+ & Singularitarians One quarter of H+ are religious Mormon Transhumanist Association largest H+ group in US

Non-Western Biopolitics Techno-optimism w/o Enlightenment liberalism India, Thailand, China, Japan Abrahamic ideas of body vs. Hindu/Buddhist Confucian communitarianism Africans and enhancement Enlightenment/modernity on steroids

Moral Enhancement Empathy: Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson Parental/Marital Love: Julian Savulescu, Anders Sandberg, Matthew Liao Personality/Mood: David Pearce and Mark Walker Psilocybin: Michael Tennison Moral Reasoning: John Harris Virtue Learning: Barbara Froding Stimulants: Andrew Fenton, James Hughes

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