The Ethics of Human Enhancement

Here is a new report on the ethics of human enhancement called "Ethics of Human Enhancement: 25 Questions & Answers". The report was released by the US National Science Foundation.

This is timely, given that I am soon going to a talk given by Julian Savulescu called "Unfit for Life: Genetically Enhance Humanity or Face Extinction". I will have to get a question ready for him. Stay tuned for the answer.

It starts with a section looking at the definitions and distinctions of enhancement (e.g. natural/artificial; internal/external; or therapy/enhancement distinctions). It then examines different contexts and scenarios; Freedom and Autonomy; Fairness and Equity; Societal Disruptions; Human Dignity and the Good Life; Rights and Obligations; and Policy and Law.

I sounds great, so I will have to have a more thorough read of the report (tonight.) I will write another post on the subject, once I have been to the lecture.

**If you enjoyed this post, please check out:

Overview of Biopolitics

What is nanotechnology?

History of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

UK and US attitudes to nanotechnology

Nanotechnology - more information

COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!

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So please, tell us what you think.

Environmental Nanotechnology: Predicting the Interaction of Artificial Nanoparticles with Natural Environments

CSIRO scientist Dr Amanda Barnard has been awarded the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Environmental Research Award at the 21st annual Banksia Foundation Awards, held on Friday evening, 24 July 2009. Below is some information on her work on nanotechnology.

Dr. Amanda Barnard, CSIRO

Environmental Nanotechnology: Predicting the Interaction of Artificial Nanoparticles with Natural Environments

As we search for solutions to our future energy needs, carbon emissions, global warming, industrial toxins, and disease, it is clear that keeping the balance between technological development and environmental protection has never been harder.

Nanoscale materials, only millionths of a millimetre in size, may offer solutions to our biggest problems. However, care is needed as these new ‘nanoparticles’ are largely untested, are (literally) unique on an atomic scale, and we have little or no historical data to guide assumptions regarding the possible risks.

Using highly accurate supercomputer simulations, Dr Amanda Barnard's research focuses on predicting the environmental stability of nanoparticles, to understand how these tiny artificial pieces of matter interact with natural ecosystems.

Dr Amanda Barnard is an internationally renowned scientist, with many years experience in predicting the properties of dozens of different nanoparticles. Her ground-breaking theoretical models can see a path through the complexity of this problem, and investigate situations that experiments cannot.

As more and more nanoparticles are produced in laboratories, and introduced into everyday products, Dr Barnard’s predictive model will be in great demand, but priority number one is to understand what happens when nanoparticles are exposed to our most precious resources, air and water.

Source

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

What is nanotechnology?

History of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

UK and US attitudes to nanotechnology

Nanotechnology - more information

COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!

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So please, tell us what you think.

Overview of Biopolitics

Check out the link below for a brief overview of Biopolitics from the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies: Promoting the Ethical Use of Technology to Enhance Human Capabilities or IEET for short.

Find out about 'Libertarian Transhumanists', 'Technoprogressives', 'Left-wing Bioconservatives' and 'Right-wing Bioconservatives' here.

It also has some papers on some interesting toipics:

Postgenderism: Beyond the Gender Binary (IEET White Paper 03) by George Dvorsky, Mar 2008

In Praise of Bio-Happiness (IEET White Paper 02) by Mark Walker, Dec 2006

All Together Now (IEET White Paper 01) by George Dvorsky, Jul 2006

Also it has a link to the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET).

Which it describes as:

"a scholarly peer-reviewed journal published by the IEET. JET welcomes submissions on subject matters that many mainstream journals shun as too speculative, radical, or interdisciplinary on all issues relating to the future prospects of the human species and its descendants. Since its inception in 1998, JET has had five editors-in-chief: Dr. Nick Bostrom, Dr. Robin Hanson, Dr. Mark Walker, Dr. James Hughes and and (currently) Dr. Russell Blackford."

I have read plenty of Nick Bostrom and Robin Hanson from on the Overcoming Bias site.

I think I will have to check JET out and report back soon.

The other thing that I found on this site was a link to two books that I think I am going to have to track down:

Human Enhancement (2009)
by Edited by Julian Savulescu and Nick Bostrom

• Human enhancement is now one of the biggest dilemmas facing modern science
• The latest developments in this highly controversial debate
• New essays from some of the world’s leading ethicists, including Peter Singer
• Truly international perspectives, from North America, Europe, Japan, and Australasia
• Discusses such contentious issues as selection of children and use of drugs in sport

Unnatural Selection: The Challenges of Engineering Tomorrow’s People (2008)
by Eds. Peter Healey and Steve Rayner

Based on a conference entitled “Tomorrow’s People: the Challenges of Technologies for Life Extension and Enhancement” which was organized by the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and held in Oxford in 2006.

It was a lecture by Steve Raynor that got me interested in switching careers (called "Wicked problems and their clumsy solutions") and it would be a dream to study further at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization.

Maybe one day.

**If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

What is nanotechnology?
.
History of Nanotechnology
.
Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!
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So please, tell us what you think.

Nanophotonics: MIT lecture

Here is an interesting talk from MIT about nanophotonics. Evelyn Hu meticulously describes designing and building a new generation of optical materials from nano-sized elements. She hopes to harness “the magic of light in nanostructures”. More here

**If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

What is nanotechnology?
.
History of Nanotechnology
.
Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!
.
So please, tell us what you think.

Update on 'Nanotechnology in New South Wales' report

I have been having a read of the 'Nanotechnology in New South Wales' report, in particular, the brief section on 'The Environment' (pages 45-47) and it is interesting to note that:

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3.158 While it had the required regulatory tools DECC advised that they do not have enough information as yet on the likely downstream impacts of nanomaterials that they might encounter (page 46)

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Also:

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"there are a lot of questions to think about before we know how we can apply the tools we have . . . we do need to know what we are dealing with. As yet I do not think we have got that clearly. We need more information" (page 47)

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While it was promising to see that 'the issue of the uncontrolled release of nanomaterials into the environment is their primary concern', what was most interesting was that DECC was "not doing any on the ground research" (page 47) but was "keeping abreast" of developments overseas.

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3.159 While the department is not doing any research itself it is keeping abreast of developments.
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The report suggested:

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Recommendation 1

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That the New South Wales Government recommend that nano-versions of existing chemicals are assessed as new chemicals, during the review of the national regulatory frameworks.

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See also:

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Nanotechnology in New South Wales
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**If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

What is nanotechnology?
.
History of Nanotechnology
.
Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!
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So please, tell us what you think.

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom

The idea of nanotechnology (although he did not call it nanotechnology) started when Richard Feynman (1959) gave a talk at Caltech called “There’s plenty of room at the bottom”.

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Feynman suggested the “possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom” and “if we go down far enough, all our devices can be mass produced so that they are perfect copies of one another.”

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He also assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, and later went on to become a joint recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics.

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**If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

What is nanotechnology?
.
History of Nanotechnology
.
Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!
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So please, tell us what you think.

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

Here is a new report (from the United Nations University) called “Innovation in Responding to Climate Change: Nanotechnology, Ocean Energy and Forestry” by Miguel Esteban, Christian Webersik, David Leary and Dexter Thompson-Pomeroy .

This report offers three innovative solutions in responding to climate change, namely nanotechnology, ocean energy and forestry. It goes beyond the technological, biological and procedural aspects of these solutions by critically assessing the opportunities and challenges that each type of innovation presents. This report addresses the question why these innovations - despite their large potential to reduce emissions, ocean energy alone could cover the world's electricity needs - have not yet reached the stage of mass commercialization.
UNU-IAS, November 2008, 46 pages

The section on nanotechnology (pages 10-18) is worth a read.
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It examines:

• What is nanotechnology;
• The main fields of nanotechnology R&D and commercialisation relevant to climate change mitigation;
• Nanotechnology and the hydrogen economy;
• Nanotechnology, solar power and photovoltaics,
• Nanotechnology and energy storage (the next generation of batteries);
• regulatory implications of the use of nanotechnolgy in new climate change mitigation technologies; and
• Further research required on the role of nanotechnology in responding to climate change.

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**If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

What is nanotechnology?
.
History of Nanotechnology
.
Nanotechnology - risks and benefits

Nanotechnology and Climate Change

COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!
.
So please, tell us what you think.