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In Defense of Posthuman Dignity
Abstract
Positions on the ethics of human enhancement technologies can be (crudely) characterized as ranging from transhumanism to bioconservatism. Transhumanists believe that human enhancement technologies should be made widely available, that individuals should have broad discretion over which of these technologies to apply to themselves, and that parents should normally have the right to choose enhancements for their children-to-be. Bioconservatives (whose ranks include such diverse writers as Leon Kass, Francis Fukuyama, George Annas, Wesley Smith, Jeremy Rifkin, and Bill McKibben) are generally opposed to the use of technology to modify human nature. A central idea in bioconservativism is that human enhancement technologies will undermine our human dignity. To forestall a slide down the slippery slope towards an ultimately debased ‘posthuman’ state, bioconservatives often argue for broad bans on otherwise promising human enhancements.
This paper distinguishes two common fears about the posthuman and argues for the importance of a concept of dignity that is inclusive enough to also apply to many possible posthuman beings. Recognizing the possibility of posthuman dignity undercuts an important objection against human enhancement and removes a distortive double standard from our field of moral vision.
... Palabras clave: Cuarta Revolución Industrial, Humanismo, Ilustración, Transhumanismo El transhumanismo es un movimiento filosófico que propone el uso de tecnologías avanzadas para el aumento del tiempo de vida, del bienestar y de la inteligencia de la especie humana (Bostrom, 2005c). A este procedimiento se le ha denominado como evolución dirigida o mejoramiento humano (human enhancement) y, aunque los deseos humanos de trascendencia y superación de nuestras capacidades han estado presentes desde la antigüedad (Hughes, 2012), la propuesta transhumanista no solo las actualiza a nuestro tiempo, sino que las describe como posibles a partir del surgimiento de las tecnologías de la Cuarta Revolución Industrial (Baello-Allué & Calvo-Pascual, 2021). ...
... La igualdad tecnológica parte de la aceptación de que todos los seres humanos tienen derecho a la posthumanidad o a explorar la realidad posthumana (modificación tecnológica). Esto significa que, como muestra de respeto a los miembros de nuestra especie, todos deberían tener igual acceso por igual a las tecnologías de mejoramiento humano (Bostrom, 2005c). ...
... Esta perspectiva está asociada a la igualdad moral, la cual debe entenderse como la extensión del respeto que tenemos por la dignidad humana hacia una hipotética dignidad posthumana (Bostrom, 2005b). Para concluir de esta forma, el transhumanismo parte del hecho de que la dignidad humana valora lo que somos y lo que podemos ser, no nuestro "origen natural". ...
El siguiente artículo propone la idea de que el transhumanismo no solo es un movimiento inspirado en la ilustración, sino que en su seno puede identificarse una corriente que actualiza los valores ilustrados para la Cuarta Revolución Industrial. Para sostener la hipótesis se revisó la literatura disponible sobre transhumanismo y se tomó como referencia la obra de algunos autores de la Ilustración francesa, entre ellos D’Holbach, Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet y Helvétius. Se concluyó que los valores actualizados que propone el transhumanismo ilustrado son los siguientes: progreso en forma de evolución dirigida, libertad como libertad morfológica, igualdad como igualdad de consciencia, moral y tecnológica y finalmente el secularismo como la constante búsqueda por superar las supersticiones.
... • human survival, or why the global risk for human beings to die in war differs across time periods (Mueller 2004; Goldstein 2011), • resource distribution, or which international institutions are more likely than others to promote distributive justice in their economic decisions (Scharpf 1997;Miller 2010), • social recognition, or why recognition among international actors sometimes overcomes and sometimes sustains enmity (Lindeman 2010; Bartelson 2013), • future risks, or how interactions among humans, post-humans and AI (Fukuyama 2003;Bostrom 2005) can evolve peacefully or violently in cross-border politics, • legitimacy crises, or why public critique and protest sometimes help and sometimes undermine the functioning of international institutions (e.g. Hurd 2007; Zürn 2018), • migration politics, or which institutions are more likely than others to welcome foreigners into their political spaces (Boswell 2007;Ripoll Servent and Trauner 2014), • foreign policies, or why some states balance their adversaries while other states bandwagon (Waltz 1979;Mearsheimer 2001), • environmental politics, or why some global problems, such as ozone depletion, are solved more effectively than others, such as species preservation (Miles et al. 2002). ...
... Not only may Fukuyama in fact lose his battle against the post-humans, in particular as research on AI has made important breakthroughs since the publication of his book in 2003, but Fukuyama may also be wrong in thinking that there is a battle to be fought in the first place. From the perspective of dignity, there are reasons to care about post-humans, too (Bostrom 2005). But even those of us who are inclined to think that only humans count in moral discussions must consider the possibility of a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and post-humans. ...
... Moral theory and political theory are different things. Familiar political issues of how to live peacefully with irreconcilable disagreements, in the absence of a final authority or transcendental truth, are bracketed in ethics (for example by Bostrom 2005Bostrom , 2014, and they are absent from broader discussions of AI and post-human life, as well. For example, an extensive overview of politics under the reign of super-human AI, such as Tegmark (2017, Ch. 5), still limits the discussion to implications of scarce resources and game-theoretical coordination. ...
... Tal postura es expuesta por Nick Bostrom en In Defense of Posthuman Dignit, cuando se refiere a la preocupación de los bioconservadores por la pérdida de lo propiamente humano, la dignidad humana o su naturaleza. Argumenta Bostrom (2005) que los transhumanistas: Insisten en que la dignidad, en su sentido moderno, consiste en lo que somos y en lo que tenemos el potencial de llegar a ser, no en nuestro pedigrí o nuestro origen causal. Lo que somos no es una función únicamente de nuestro ADN sino también de nuestro contexto tecnológico y social. ...
... 576); además, el beneficio que se puede obtener de la intervención tecnológica, por lo menos, por ahora, va a ser mayor que sus consecuencias. Bostrom (2005) también está de acuerdo en que la dignidad humana va a ser considerablemente mejor con la intervención de medios tecnológicos actuales y futuros, lo que coloca al transhumanismo en un mejor lugar en comparación con el humanismo. Ahora bien, lo cierto es que comprometerse con un proyecto transhumanista requiere en cierta medida comprometerse con una posible extinción o desaparición de lo que hoy conocemos como humano. ...
Resumen: el objetivo de este texto es mostrar la tensión que existe entre dos proyectos: el humanista y el transhumanista. Aquí se expondrá la tesis de que el proyecto transhumanista puede proponer una vida que vale la pena ser vivida desde la mejora tecnológica. Para lograr defender esta tesis se propondrá como itinerario examinar la tesis de la excepcionalidad humana y la propuesta transhumanista; las posturas bioconservadoras y bioliberales y la postulación del cyborg en el contexto del antropoceno como proyecto de un transhumanismo moderado. Abstract: the objective of this text it is to show the tension that exists between two projects: the humanist and the transhumanist. Here the thesis that the transhumanist project can propose a life worth living from technological improvement will be exposed. In order to defend this thesis, the following itinerary will be proposed: examine the thesis of human exceptionality and the transhumanist proposal; the bioconservative and bioliberal positions and the postulation of the cyborg in the context of the Anthropocene as a project of a moderate transhumanism.
... En este sentido, podemos referirnos a las percepciones del teórico Nick Bostrom, quien presenta un análisis desde el transhumanismo, el cual se entiende como una corriente cultural e intelectual que pretende analizar la interacción entre humanos y tecnología y los beneficios y riesgos que esto puede conllevar. (Bostrom N. , 2005) En su libro, En Defensa de la Dignidad Posthumana, Bostrom realiza una confrontación entre la corriente transhumanista y los bioconservadores, en donde los primeros se presentan con una postura en la que se promueve el acercamiento del humano a la tecnología, por ejemplo, en situaciones de procreación o transformación física. Bostrom presenta a los transhumanistas como un sector que cree posible la evolución del ser humano a partir de la intervención tecnológica, consolidando una especie evolucionada, la cual se denomina posthumana; sin embargo, aclara Bostrom, los transhumanistas al abrazar el desarrollo tecnológico, no dejan de lado la defensa de los derechos humanos y la toma de decisiones individuales, y a partir de sus planteamientos toman posturas frente a amenazas como el uso militar o armas biológicas en el desarrollo de la tecnología. ...
... Bostrom presenta a los transhumanistas como un sector que cree posible la evolución del ser humano a partir de la intervención tecnológica, consolidando una especie evolucionada, la cual se denomina posthumana; sin embargo, aclara Bostrom, los transhumanistas al abrazar el desarrollo tecnológico, no dejan de lado la defensa de los derechos humanos y la toma de decisiones individuales, y a partir de sus planteamientos toman posturas frente a amenazas como el uso militar o armas biológicas en el desarrollo de la tecnología. (Bostrom N. , 2005) En oposición se encuentran los bioconservadores, para los cuales, el desarrollo tecnológico en función del ser humano y su evolución podría deshumanizar al hombre, deteriorando la condición de dignidad de las personas, generando un deterioro de la percepción que tiene el ser frente a sí mismo y frente aquellos sistemas que han sostenido las sociedades humanas por siglos, tal es el caso de los factores metafísicos, ontológicos y constructivistas (Fukuyama, 2002). Ante ello, los bioconservadores proponen unos estados de prohibición frente a la expansión de la tecnología a nivel global y limitar la exposición de promesas frente al mejoramiento tecnológico del humano para "prevenir un deslizamiento por una pendiente resbaladiza hacia un estado posthumano". ...
Con el auge de la tecnología, la humanidad inicia la implementación de procesos de inteligencia artificial (I.A), lo cual puede presentar una singularidad tecnológica, que define la capacidad que tiene esta tecnología de evolucionar en sus lógicas cognitivas y llevarlas a niveles de mejoramiento autónomo por encima de las capacidades humanas. Es así que por medio de este artículo y soportado en el argumento dramático denominado Deus ex Machina se pretende exponer la dependencia que se está creando en el ser humano ante la inteligencia artificial y desde una visión prospectiva, plantear las consecuencias que ello acarrea para la existencia del ser humano frente a la imposibilidad existencial de sobrellevar su propio destino y la pérdida del libre albedrío por cuenta de la influencia y la superioridad tecnológica, concretando la analogía de una percepción del ser humano hacia las máquinas como dios, generando una degradación del individuo y de la sociedad, llevando a que el Deus ex Machina controle al ser humano, ubicándolo al borde de la extinción o de la dependencia existencial
... 203). Another proponent of transhumanism, Nick Bostrom (2005), contends that nature is full of horrors as well as marvels, and he implies that it is a moral duty to use humanity's gift of technological achievement to quell nature's horrors (pp. 203-204). ...
... The encounter ultimately leaves Kryten feeling remorseful that he has hurt his "own kind." In this area, the writers of "DNA" take a position similar to Bostrom's, that some social inequality may occur as a consequence of a mixed society of beings with different degrees of enhancement, but that it is unlikely to be severely oppressive simply because mostly egali-tarian human societies already exist in which people of differing abilities get along relatively harmoniously (Bostrom, 2005). Kryten's remorse for his bullying behavior shows how an egalitarian morality already exists and is unlikely to disappear. ...
One of the more popular transhumanist ideas is the belief that technology will allow for the transfer of human personality into a machine or cyborg body. Additionally, some transhumanists believe that this transfer could happen with few to no problems, and that such a transfer would result in a definite improvement of the human species. The episode “DNA” from the humorous British science-fiction television series Red Dwarf presents a story that challenges this idea of the easy transfer of personality. The story of the android who gets his wish to become human allows the writers to invert the common belief in Western thought that being human is inherently better than being an imitation of a human, and that technologically upgrading human bodies will produce “better” humans. By inversion, the program presents the idea that clearer and more ethical thinking is needed regarding technological enhancement, and not the utopian visions of many transhumanists.
... • "El enhancement (mejoramiento) es típicamente contrapuesto a la terapia" (3). Por lo tanto, las acciones se aplican a sujetos sanos, para potenciar sus funciones. ...
Actualmente los avances biotecnológicos han superado los fines clásicos de la medicina. Se han producido cambios conceptuales importantes que han impactado en el constructo médico de la relación médico/paciente, como son: a) La diversidad del concepto de naturaleza humana; b) El concepto de corporeidad humana; c) El concepto subjetivo de autonomía; y, d) El valor de la calidad de vida. El análisis bioético de estos conceptos lleva a la comprensión de porqué la medicina actual podría encaminarse hacia una ‘medicina del perfeccionamiento’ o ‘transhumanista’. La conclusión muestra que la medicina acepta la aplicación de los avances en la biotecnología bajo los postulados clásicos enfocados al campo de la salud y que es preciso emprender una profunda reflexión sobre la aplicación de los mismos, con la finalidad de aportar mejoras o nuevas funciones a sujetos sanos.
... Although the topic of genetic manipulation and selection was present in science fiction literature between the 1940s and 1960s (e.g., Robert Heinlein's Beyond This Horizon, 1948; Frank Herbert's The Eyes of Heisenberg, 1966) (Kirby, 2000), it was with the development, from the 1970s onwards, of different techniques and technologies that allow organisms to be genetically manipulated and transformed effectivelythe production of the first molecules through recombinant DNA technology (1972); the birth of the first baby through in vitro fertilization (1978); the production of human insulin by genetically modified bacteria (1986); the start of the ambitious Human Genome Project (1990); the announcement about Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned (1997); the isolation of human embryonic stem cells (1998); and the genetic editing of animals using the CRISPR/Cas9 technique (2012)along with the development of computer science, that the debate on human nature and its transformative potential exploded, and in such a way that, in 1998, the Transhumanist Declaration anticipated that "humanity will be radically changed by technology in the future" and "the feasibility of redesigning the human condition" (Bostrom, 2005) will be real. More recently, the Chinese scientist He Jiankui claimed to have used the CRISPR/Cas9 technique to edit two human embryos in order to disable the CCR5 gene, which encodes a protein that allows HIV to infect cells (Cyranoski & Ledford, 2018). ...
Science fiction has been an inexhaustible source for the creation of technoscientific imaginary that has marked certain historical periods and influenced the production of subjectivity. This imaginary evokes complex ontological, epistemological, political, social, environmental and existential questions on the present and the future. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the cultural productions accessed by the public to form an opinion about the genetic manipulation of human beings. A survey about sources of information that influence opinions on the genetic manipulation of human beings was applied to 360 medical students (70.8% female). Movies were the most commonly mentioned source of information, followed by books, documentaries, news programs, television series, informational videos, soap operas and videogames. Science fiction was the most frequent genre and dystopian views of the future of humanity predominated.
... For their part, the techno-pessimists question the alteration of the human condition through invasive genetic editing techniques -as is the case with those used for the purpose of moral bioenhancement (Persson & Săvulescu, 2014), by editing genes that control aggression. Radical technopessimists believe that genetic editing, combined with direct human-machine communication via neural interfaces, will lead to the extinction of the human species in its current form and its replacement by posthuman species (Bostrom, 2005). ...
Systems biology and synthetic biology are interdisciplinary scientific approaches developed to improve the ability to understand, predict and control living systems. Both scientific areas capitalize on the production of large-scale data, both in the field of genomics and in a number of related fields, exploring new ways of cross-fertilization - starting both from traditional knowledge in biology - especially from the evolutionary one - articulated together with a series of theories and models coming from sciences such as physics, computer science, mathematics, chemistry and engineering. Systems biology represents a predominantly cognitive scientific approach, while synthetic biology privileges the technical and technological approach, aiming at the creation of living systems, starting from existing biological material and its derivation, or even from non-biological materials, grafted onto living systems. The two approaches capitalize on epistemological orientations based on knowledge versus those based on applications, in other words on analysis versus synthesis as epistemic orientations. Philosophers of science, who examine technological research as a form of human practice, have argued for interdependence, but without a perfect overlap between understanding the functioning of a living system and designing a synthetic one, a distinction between basic and applied science being impossible in the context of biology synthetic.
... It holds that current human nature is improvable through the use of applied science and other rational methods, which may make it possible to increase human health span, extend our intellectual and physical capacities, and give us increased control over our own mental states and moods. (Bostrom, 2005) According to Bostrom, opponents to the idea that humanity should enhance itself suffer from a status quo bias: 'an inappropriate, (irrational) preference for an option because it preserves the status quo' (Bostrom and Ord, 2006). From a utilitarian perspective, preserving the status quo is nonsense, as biomedical technologies will enable us to make life better for humankind. ...
In this rigorous and necessary book, Kristien Hens brings together bioethics and the philosophy of biology to argue that it is ethically necessary for scientific research to include a place for the philosopher. As well as ethical, their role is conceptual: they can improve the quality and coherence of scientific research by ensuring that particular concepts are used consistently and thoughtfully across interdisciplinary projects. Hens argues that chance and uncertainty play a central part in bioethics, but that these qualities can be in tension with the attempt to establish a given theory as scientific knowledge: in describing organisms and practices, in a sense we create the world. Hens contends that this is necessarily an ethical activity.
Examining genetic research, biomedical ethics, autism research and the concept of risk, Hens illustrates that there is no ‘universal’ or ‘neutral’ state of scientific and clinical knowledge, and that attending to the situatedness of individual experience is essential to understand the world around us, to know its (and our) limitations, and to forge an ethical future.
Chance Encounters: Exploring the Ethics of Life is aimed at a broad audience of researchers in bioethics, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, as well as biomedical and environmental scientists. It will also be relevant to policymakers, and the artwork by Christina Stadlbauer and Bartaku will be of interest to artists and writers working at the intersection of art and science.
... 4.13 Keeping in mind Sperry's remarks about free will -the experimental basis for which we will examine more closely later in this chapter -it is useful immediately to point out that the materialistbehaviorist conception of the human brain as a mechanism something like a clock, or in today's transhumanism, a computer (Bostrom, 2005;Coller, 2019;Marchant, 2021;, has encouraged clinicians and doctors dealing with human infants to regard them as incapable of volitional actions. Sperry's research showed that materialist-behaviorist doctrine to be mistaken. ...
The human language capacity stands at the very top of the intellectual abilities of us human beings, and it ranks incommensurably higher than the intellectual powers of any other organism or any robot. It vastly exceeds the touted capacities of "artificial intelligence" with respect to creativity, freedom of will (control of thoughts and words), and moral responsibility. These are traits that robots cannot possess and that can only be understood by human beings. They are no part of the worlds of robots and artificial intelligences, but those entities, and all imaginable fictions, etc., are part of our real world...
True narrative representations (TNRs) can express and can faithfully interpret every kind of meaning or form in fictions, errors, lies, or nonsensical strings seeming in any way to be representations. None of the latter, however, can represent even the simplest TNR ever created by an intelligent person. It has been proved logically, in the strictest forms of mathematical logic, that all TNRs that seem to have been produced by mechanisms, robots, or artificial intelligence, must be contained within a larger and much more far-reaching TNR that cannot be explained mechanistically by any stretch of imagination. These unique constructions of real intelligence, that is, genuine TNRs, (1) have the power to determine actual facts; (2) are connected to each other in non-contradictory ways, and (3) are generalizable to all contexts of experience to the extent of the similarities of those contexts up to a limit of complete identity. What the logicomathematical theory of TNRs has proved to a fare-thee-well is that only TNRs have the three logical properties just iterated. No fictions, errors, lies, or any string of nonsense has any of those unique formal perfections.
The book is about how the human language capacity is developed over time by human beings beginning with TNRs known to us implicitly and actually even before we are born. All scientific endeavors, all the creations of the sciences, arts, and humanities, all the religions of the world, and all the discoveries of experience utterly depend on the prior existence of the human language capacity and our power to comprehend and produce TNRs. Without it we could not enjoy any of the fruits of human experience. Nor could we appreciate how things go wrong when less perfect representations are mistaken, whether accidentally or on purpose, for TNRs.
In biology, when DNA, RNA, and protein languages are corrupted, the proximate outcome is disorder, followed by disease if not corrected, and, in the catastrophic systems failures known as death in the long run. The book is about life and death. Both are dependent on TNRs in what comes out to be an absolute dependency from the logicomathematical perspective. Corrupt the TNRs on which life depends, and death will follow. Retain and respect TNRs and life can be preserved. However, ultimate truth does not reside in material entities or the facts represented by TNRs. It resides exclusively in the TNRs themselves and they do not originate from material entities. They are from God Almighty and do not depend at all on any material thing or body. TNRs outrank the material facts they incorporate and represent. It may seem strange, but the result is more certain, I believe, than the most recent findings of quantum physics. Representations are connected instantaneously. Symbol speed is infinitely faster than the speed of light.
In the larger perspective of history, when TNRs are deliberately corrupted, the chaos of wars, pestilence, and destruction follows as surely as night follows day. The human language capacity makes us responsible in a unique manner for our thoughts, words, and actions. While it is true that no one ever asked us if we wanted to have free will or not, the fact that we have it can be disputed only by individuals who engage in a form of self-deception that borders on pathological lying, the kind that results when the deceiver can no longer distinguish between the actions he or she actually performed in his or her past experience and the sequences of events that he or she invented to avoid taking responsibility for those events, or to take credit for actions he or she never performed. On the global scale such misrepresentations lead to the sort of destruction witnessed at Sodom in the day of Abraham. That historical destruction has recently been scientifically revealed at the site of Tall el-Hammam in Jordan. More about that and all of the foregoing in the book.
If you encounter errors, please point them out to the author at joller@bellsouth.net. Thank you.
... For a general critique of arguments from nature, see, e.g., Kurt Bayertz (2003). For a negative critique in the context of genetic engineering/human enhancement, see, e.g., Nick Bostrom (2005); Allen Buchanan (2011, chapt. 4); Julian Savulescu (2019a). ...
Habermas’s argument from human nature, which speaks in favour of holding back the use of human germline editing for purposes of enhancement, has lately received criticism anew. Prominent are objections to its supposedly genetic essentialist and determinist framework, which underestimates social impacts on human development. I argue that this criticism originates from an instrumentalist reading of Habermas’s argument, which wrongly focuses on empirical conditions and means-ends-relations. Drawing on Habermas’s distinction of a threefold use of practical reason, I show how an alternative—the ethical—reading avoids essentialist and determinist objections by addressing an existential level of sense making. I present three reasons that speak in favour of the ethical reading and I demonstrate how it incorporates social aspects of character formation. Habermas’s account therefore offers exactly what the critics claim is missing. The paper concludes with a conceptual challenge that the ethical reading has to face within Habermas’s overall approach to genetic engineering.
... é les aventures de Pinocchio dans le contexte du posthumanisme pour refléter les angoisses et les espoirs dans le progrès technologique de l'humanité, Georgia Panteli fait référence au transhumanisme (Panteli 2016) qui, citant Nick Bostrom, « embrasse le progrès technologique tout en défendant fermement les droits de l'homme et le choix individuel.(Bostrom 2005) ...
L'un des livres les plus lus au monde, considéré comme une métaphore de la condition humaine et adapté à une variété d'interprétations, Les Aventures de Pinocchio a eu un impact majeur sur la culture mondiale. Le livre répond à une prérogative qui n'appartient qu'aux chefs-d'œuvre : celle d'être hors du temps. Le livre se concentre sur l'enquête psychologique de son personnage central Pinocchio, tout en essayant de découvrir une humanité perdue dans le vide de la technologie et de la science.
Le mythe de Pinocchio est utilisé pour condamner la culture de la violence et du consumérisme. Collodi utilise avec succès les interactions métaphoriques, les bipolarités et les miracles ambigus. L'identité de Pinocchio est souvent jouée à la limite, imaginée par lui-même et par tous ceux qu'il rencontre en cours de route. Pinocchio est le nom de la vie à la fois inorganique, humaine et animale.
Les Aventures de Pinocchio explorent comment les expériences acquises dans l'espace hétérotopique donnent à l'individu la capacité de changer la vision panoramique, et comment ces expériences peuvent finalement nous montrer comment nous pouvons récupérer ou restaurer notre existence en tant que sujets individuels.
... Unlike some creators who approached the adventures of Pinocchio in the context of posthumanism to reflect the anxieties and hopes in the technological progress of humanity, Georgia Panteli refers to transhumanism, (Panteli 2016) which, quoting Nick Bostrom, "embraces technological progress while strongly defending human rights and individual choice." (Bostrom 2005) Panteli sees Pinocchio's heroic journey as an example of the search for humanity, a monomyth -a concept developed by Joseph Campbell (Campbell and Robinson 2005) influenced by C. G. Jung's psychoanalytic theory, "a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation -initiation -return". (Campbell 2008) The Land of Boobies is the one that gives us the device that will allow us to look directly at our own beliefs in humanity. ...
One of the most widely read books in the world, considered a metaphor for the human condition, and suitable for a variety of interpretations, The Adventures of Pinocchio has had a major impact on world culture. The book responds to a prerogative that belongs only to masterpieces: that of being out of time. The book focuses on the psychological investigation of his central character Pinocchio, while trying to discover a humanity lost in the vacuum of technology and science.
The myth of Pinocchio is used to condemn the culture of violence and consumerism. Collodi successfully uses metaphorical interactions, bipolarities, and ambiguous miracles. Pinocchio's identity is often played to the limit, imagined by himself and everyone he meets along the way. Pinocchio is the name of life that is simultaneously inorganic, human and animal.
The Adventures of Pinocchio explore how experiences gained in heterotopic space give the individual the ability to change panoramic vision, and how these experiences can ultimately show us how we can recover or restore our existence as individual subjects.
... These critiques led to a posthumanist movement that reacts to anthropocentrism and human primacy and seeks mediation and reconciliation of existence from a non-hierarchical standpoint with other beings (See Ferrando, 2019). 3. Most academic works focus on human dignity, but dignity has also been applied to posthuman beings (Bostrom, 2005), non-human beings (Gruen, 2014), and the living environment (Huber, 1991). 4. Nussbaum recognizes the dignity of animals and other non-human beings, but unlike Kant, she sees our obligation to protect as not deriving from duties to ourselves. ...
ABSTRACT
Indigenous groups continue to experience injustices in relation to tourism development, management, and marketing despite calls for equity, justice, and fairness in sustainable tourism. Economic interests continue to dominate and, consequently, the social, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of minority and Indigenous groups tend to take a secondary position in tourism development plans. Progress has been made in developing frameworks to examine justice for Indigenous groups, but they do not take into account the concepts of dignity, which we argue is a core principle in a humanistic approach that seeks fairer outcomes for Indigenous and minorities groups. Drawing upon humanism and humanistic management theory, we examine the Mayan Train megaproject in southern Mexico, propose guiding principles and identify responsibilities for key actors that prioritize the restoration, protection, and promotion of the dignity of groups and prevent potential injustices resulting from tourism projects. We also suggest transformative actions that revalue the cultural identity and status of Indigenous groups, increase their capabilities and self-esteem, and promote their autonomy and wellbeing.
: Recent scientific breakthroughs under the wing of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly in the realm of biotechnology, have prompted an integral redefinition of the human, looking toward the posthuman state. Stances on this question range from the transhumanists ’ advocacy of overcoming biological limits, to the indexing of technoscientific advancement to an antihumanist and postanthropocentric project championed by critical posthumanism. These debates have been translated into speculative fiction works such as Catherine Lacey’ The Answers (2017). This novel revolves around the Girlfriend Experiment, a state -of-the-art research project aimed at taking the next step in our emotional evolution by eliminating the need for romantic relationships, bankrolled by a film industry mogul. This paper analyses the representation of human enhancement in the novel, arguing that the depiction of the material consequences of the experiment upon its research subjects amounts to a rejection of the unrestricted development of technology along transhumanist and neoliberal tenets. In this, The Answers offers a critical take on the Fourth Industrial Revolution aligned with the principles of critical posthumanism.
Die fortschreitende Verwendung von Verfahren künstlicher Intelligenz provoziert die Frage, inwiefern bei deren ethischer Bewertung auf anthropologische Reflexionen und insbesondere auf ein Kriterium des menschlichen Maßes zurückgegriffen werden kann. Der Beitrag thematisiert das schwierige Verhältnis von Ethik und Natur und erkundet über die Auseinandersetzung mit maßgeblichen kritischen Herausforderungen die Spielräume für den ethischen Rückgriff auf anthropologische Argumente, wobei der Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz in der Medizin den Anwendungsbezug bildet.
Desde que en 1956 John McCarthy acuñase el término de Inteligencia Artificial o IA, basándose en los trabajos previos del matemático inglés Alan Turing, las máquinas pensantes han evolucionado notablemente. Las IA creativas, capaces de aprender como lo haría un ser humano no son ficción y participan a diario de nuestra vida. Vivimos en un mundo donde la tecnología es omnipresente y omnisciente, con un constante flujo de datos que viaja por la red como el activo más valioso que puede poseer el hombre, o la máquina. La tecnología nos es tan cotidiana que nuestra percepción hacia ella ha derivado en una suerte de cuestión religiosa, una dependencia existencial de adoración totémica. El presente proyecto fotográfico aborda estas cuestiones de índole ontológico tomando como punto de partida un cuento breve de Frederic Brown. Desde la revisión de la película 2001: una odisea en el espacio y los planteamientos de Friederich Nietzsche se reflexiona sobre la naturaleza de la IA y el devenir en el Übermensch al que el posthumanismo nos tiene abocados. ¿Es Alexa Dios o llegará a serlo?
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as an important theme in Indian cinema. Taking note of Indian filmmakers’ interest in AI, this article examines the Hindi-language short film Anukul directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Based on a short story by the legendary auteur Satyajit Ray, the film draws us to a posthuman world order in which machines have assumed rights and threaten to push humans out of the loop. The AI–human interface in Anukul provokes a number of ethical questions and this article aims to think through some of the ethical and legal concerns raised in the film.
This essay aims to explore Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (2003) in order to examine how the corporeal schema of a feeling human is radically reconfigured in the contemporary capitalist culture that thrives on augmenting the lived body’s somatic and cognitive experientiality. By accommodating a narrative frame where the location of the body as an organically sealed discrete biological category is problematized, the novel partakes in a landscape of endless entanglements. How such an ontological convergence unsettles the epistemic realms of reasoning is what this reading attempts to investigate. DeLillo’s novel dramatizes a reconceptualization of human subjectivity by unpacking a conflation of biogenetic matter and algorithmic flow of data within a postmodern metropolis. To situate this problematic, the reading affirms “intra-active” transactions between the biomedically theorized body and extra-human ontologies. In illustrating how the notional frames of epistemological certitude seem increasingly untenable in the cultures of neoliberal technocracy, the novel points toward a posthuman condition and wagers what appears to be a transhumanist ethos at the end. The essay interrogates this trajectory by looking at templates of corporeal entanglement in the text.
Nanotechnology is the wave of the future, and has already been incorporated into everything from toothpaste to socks to military equipment. The safety of nanotechnology for human health and the environment is a great unknown, however, and no legal system in the world has yet devised a way to reasonably address the uncertain risks of nanotechnology. To do so will require creating new legal institutions. This volume of essays by leading law scholars and social and physical scientists offers a range of views as to how such institutions should be formed. It is essential reading for anyone who may wonder how we can continue to innovate technologically in a way that both delivers the benefits and sustains human health and the environment.
Technikphilosophien sind in unterschiedlicher Weise anthropologisch fundiert. Ihre Menschenbilder schreiben sich in der Stereotypenbildung in den Technikwissenschaften fort. Dabei zeigt sich, dass in beiden Feldern die anthropologischen Grundannahmen und die Stereotypen technomorph verfasst sind: Der Mensch erscheint als technisches Problem. Dies wird im Ausgang von den beiden paradigmatischen Ansätzen vom Menschen als Mängelwesen (Gehlen) und als Überschusswesen (Kapp) und ihrer Einbettung in ein ebenfalls technomorph entworfenes Evolutionsverständnis diskutiert, mit Blick auf die technikinduzierte Veränderung des menschlichen Selbstverständnis im Transhumanismus, technologischen Posthumanismus und kritischen Posthumanismus weiter verfolgt und an Beispielen der Modellierung von Stereotypen in den Technikwissenschaften (IT-Technologien, Medizin, Robotik, simulation technologies) verdeutlicht. Aufgrund der unverzichtbaren Rolle des Menschen als Subjekt eines Umgangs mit Menschenbildern wird dafür plädiert, die Was-ist-der-Mensch?-Frage mit ihren vielfältigen Antworten in eine Wie-ist-der-Mensch?-Frage zu überführen.
Jak ma to miejsce w przypadku każdej utopijnej wizji przyszłości, także transhumanizm przynosi pewne propozycje o charakterze społeczno-politycznym. W ostatnich latach po obu stronach Atlantyku zwolennicy tego nurtu podjęli starania, aby idee te znalazły swoją reprezentację w politycznym mainstreamie. W tekście przyglądam się zestawowi charakterystycznych dla politycznego transhumanizmu przekonań, by ocenić ich potencjalną atrakcyjność i efektywność w rozwiązywania problemów, jakim miałyby w domniemaniu zaradzić. W tym celu staram się najpierw przybliżyć ogólną specyfikę politycznego wymiaru transhumanizmu, by następnie wyróżnić dwie dominujące w nim orientacje: technolibertarianim i technoprogresywizm. Na tak zarysowanym tle scharakteryzowane zostaje funkcjonowanie pojęcia kryzysu w retoryce i postulatach politycznych transhumanizmu.
E. Brown Dewhurst considers what philosophical insights we can glean from Eastern Roman theology, regarding transhumanist and transgender conceptions of the body. They accomplish this by, first, exploring St Macrina the Younger, St Gregory of Nyssa, and St Maximus the Confessor’s writings on pre-lapsarian and resurrected bodies. After thoroughly developing their concept of the human body, Brown Dewhurst draws upon their work to engage with two closely related issues. First, to counter the notion that sex is an unchanging and essential phenomenon, and second, to interact with transhumanist desires to alter the body or give it access to ‘beyond human’ capabilities. Brown Dewhurst shows that the desire to alter one’s body is often met by a specific form of criticism, generated by normative belief in what should and shouldn’t be considered an acceptable change introduced into one’s body. According to Brown Dewhurst, the grounds for such normativity are rejected in the theologies of SS Macrina, Gregory, and Maximus.
The main purpose of this study is in which the 2020 game called Cyberpunk 2077 is examined within the framework of the transhumanist approach, to analyze the ideology of transhumanism contained in digital games and to analyze the principles of the Transhumanism Declaration through the game's narrative and characters, and to question the way transhumanism is presented in the game's universe. During the first-hand experience of the game, the Nomadic background story and the character named V were chosen. The game was analyzed descriptively with the qualitative analysis method; based on the conceptual framework for the ideology of transhumanism, and it has been analyzed and interpreted under the categories created based on the Principles of the Transhumanism Declaration. In the findings, it was concluded that the play conveys the transhumanism approach from the framework of the current dominant ideology and constructs transhumanism through the imagination of a future world where current political economy conditions are valid. At the same time, the narrative of the play, in which these changes are told and mapped, is conveyed with images originating from the familiar dominant ideology of today, namely the traditions and belief systems of capitalism.
This article is a critical interdisciplinary study of biohacking as a specific case of transhumanism and its goals of enhancement and age intervention. It focuses on the organising principles underlying the biohacking movement's relationship to ageing and technoscience. The argument traces how the historical and scientific body technologies of molecularisation, functional age, optimisation, and quantification made possible the biohacking vision of the ageing body as amenable to modification, enhancement and improvement beyond its natural limits. Conclusions consider the wider implications of biohacking by pointing out four important issues that frame our cultural ambivalence about ageing: the tension between biohacking's supposedly liberating enhancement technologies and their obeisance to a tyranny of self‐disciplinary practices and the authority of bio‐data; the social meaning of biohacking hierarchies of human value, based on modifiable fitness and enhanceable performance; the implications of the biohacking program for gendered ageism; and the ethical limits of biohacking, not only in terms of potential harms to a person but what it can mean to exceed the natural limits of life.
Humans are now entering a post-human era. Through technological advancements and their applications for humans themselves, humans as homo sapiens might change into a different species. Depending on individual decisions about whether to embrace certain technologies, the co-existence of humans and post-humans is also possible. Christians and theologians must ponder this trajectory for the technology will affect all domains, including religions, in society at large. In this regard, this article introduces and examines transhumanism. Transhumanism is a movement based on the convergence of ideology and scientific technology which aims to liberate humans from their biological constraints (i. e., disease, aging, and death), thereby bringing about human well-being. This article argues that the transhumanist ideology should be critically examined while its technology can be embraced and even supported from a theological perspective because this ideology determines the direction of technological advancement and application. Regarding ideological problems, I highlight transhumanists’ disembodiment propensity, optimistic belief in the progress of human civilization, and individualism. These features are embedded in and originate from transhumanism’s succession of classical humanism and the Enlightenment. If these features are not rectified, transhumanism and its technology might repeat disastrous incidents in human history such as eugenics and exacerbate social inequality. As a theologian, I critically examine the ideological features of transhumanism, proposing an alternative understanding with regard to human beings and existence. This effort helps to remedy potential problems of transhumanism in the future, relieve anxiety relating to these problems, and prepare a dialogue between transhumanism and Christian theology. This dialogue will eventually contribute to the robust development of transhumanism and the opening of a new era of the post-human.
In this paper, I examine the term "posthuman," which is often used to describe the possible future state of humanity. However, it is often difficult to understand what this term is meant to describe. I examine the claims of two movements that use this term: transhumanism and posthumanism. These movements are presented in the context of humanism. Both movements present how technologies are changing human autonomy and how posthuman beings arise out of this change. I formalise and critique these accounts of the posthuman. I conclude that neither movement adequately explains the transition from the human to the posthuman.
Based on continuous research development, the rapid progress in medical technology and pharmacology refer currently to interventions intending not only to the protection of health but also to the “enhancement” of the human organism. Such interventions are not performed for reestablishing a normal state of troubled biological functions but for improving phenotypic characteristics or capabilities at various levels.
Harry Potter can be read as a critique of transhumanist aims of achieving immortality or radical superlongevity. The salience of transhumanism for Harry Potter is seen through the way that magic functions as an analogue to technology, and through the centrality of death throughout the series. Transhumanists pursue radical superlongevity by three pathways: bioengineering, cyborg engineering, and mind uploading. Each of these pathways, when applied heuristically to the magical pursuit of immortality in Harry Potter, receives explicit rejection in the text alongside the commendation of Harry’s nonpursuit of it. By way of analogy, Harry Potter's perspective on death and immortality, which is informed in part by the Christian tradition, offers readers a critique of certain transhumanist aims along the lines of other ethical and religious analyses of the movement, and speaks to the deep desires and longings lying at their heart.
Modern sonrası dönemde evrim teorisi, insanı gelişim aşamasında ortaya çıkan formlardan bir forma indirgerken teknoloji, insanı “geliştirmeye açık” manipülasyon nesnesi kılmış, böylelikle rasyonel süjenin özel konumu sarsılmıştır. Anti-özcü yaklaşımlarda insan ile insan üretimi teknoloji arasındaki sınırların bulanıklaştığına dair düşünceler felsefi gündemde yer bulmuştur. Yeni teknolojilerin mümkün kıldığı transhümanist hareket, evrim sürecindeki insanın teknolojik müdahale ile geliştirilmesine ve insan olmanın ötesine giden yeni bir anlayışa kapı aralamıştır. Fakat transhümanizm, ortaya koyduğu ideallerin ahlaki sonuçlarına ilişkin yeterli bir soruşturmaya girişmemektedir. Bu çalışmada gelişen insan tasavvuru ile transhümanist düşüncede yapılan felsefi ve ahlâki değerlendirmeler arasındaki boşluklara dikkat çekilecek olup söz konusu düşüncenin hazırlıksız olduğu yeni durumda bu tasavvurların bizleri belli erdemler açısından hususen adalet açısından karşı karşıya bırakacağı sorunlara genel itibariyle işaret edilecektir. Makalede özellikle Ray Kurzweil, John Harris, Nick Bostrom gibi çağdaş düşünürlerce ortaya koyulan transhümanist söylemin, adil bir toplum ideali ortaya koymada yetersiz kaldığı yönündeki eleştiriler, felsefi bir çerçevede, biyo-iktidar ilişkileri de gözetilerek adalet erdemi üzerinden değerlendirilecektir.
Transhümanizm insanoğlunun bilim ve teknoloji aracılığıyla mevcut fiziksel ve zihinsel bağlarından kurtulmasını amaçlayan bir yaklaşımdır. İnsanoğlunun hastalık, yaşlanma ve ölüm gibi şu an sahip olduğu engellerden kurtulması ve daha fazla bilişsel kabiliyete sahip olması hedeflenmektedir. Transhümanizm savunucuları ölümün ertelenmesi ve yaşam süresinin sınırsızlığı, dünya dışı yerlerde yaşam, insanların başka zekâlar ile beraber var olması gibi temalar üzerine odaklanmaktadırlar. Bu düşüncelerin temelinde de teknolojilerin varacağı nokta yer almaktadır. Bu bağlamda transhümanizmin temel argümanlarından birisi de insanların bedenleri ve zihinleri üzerinde değişiklik yapabilme hakkı olarak ifade edilen morfolojik özgürlüktür. Yaklaşımın altında yatan temel düşünce insanın iyileştirilmesidir. Günümüzde çok geniş bir çalışma alanını içeren biyopolitika kavramı, insanların hayatlarını uzatmaya yönelik birçok farklı konuya gönderme yapabilmektedir. Biyopolitika kavramından bahsedildiğinde yaşam ile ilgili düzenlemeleri içeren birçok unsur, kavramın çalışma alanı içerisine girmekte ve politik bir araç haline getirilebilmektedir. Çalışma Değiştirilmiş Karbon dizisinde transhümanizm ve morfolojik özgürlük kavramları üzerinden ölümün ertelenmesini temel alan bir biyopolitika anlayışının oluştuğunu öne sürmekte ve bunu da morfolojik özgürlüğün biyopolitikası olarak adlandırmaktadır. Dizide tranhümanizmin gelecek öngörüsü bağlamında ortaya çıkan bu biyopolitika anlayışında beden üzerinden gerçekleşen bir kontrol ve egemenlik halinin ortaya çıktığı savunulmaktadır.
Contemporary Chinese science fiction writer Chen Qiufan begins his debut novel Waste Tide (Huangchao 荒潮, 2013; English translation, 2019) with an entry on the Basel Convention. Adopted in 1989 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries, the Basel Convention aimed to respond to the public outcry following the discovery—in the 1970s and 1980s, in Africa, Eastern Europe, and other parts of the developing world—of deposits of toxic wastes imported from the industrialized world. In the spirit of what became known as the NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) syndrome, developed countries have been exporting toxic wastes to the rest of the world where regulatory mechanisms are either much less restrictive or entirely lacking. With the accelerating manufacture and consumption of digital technology all over the globe, electronic waste has become the fastest-growing trash stream, the worldwide accumulation of which has more than doubled over the past decade, with the annual total predicted to exceed 57 million tons in 2021 (Larmer). Prior to its waste import ban implemented in 2018, China had imported about 70 percent of the world’s e-waste (Larmer; Watson). It has been reported that China’s trash import ban has shifted part of the unfolding waste crisis to Southeast Asia (Parker; Hook and Reed).
Beauchamp and Childress proposed a theory of autonomous action that is currently considered the default concept of autonomy in bioethics. According to their theory, the following conditions need to be met for action to be truly autonomous: (i) the agent acts intentionally, (ii) with understanding, and (iii) without any controlling influences that determine their action. It has been established that the concept of default autonomy (DA) should be the basis of the doctor–patient relationship. The presented empirical study aims to assess the ability of Czech medical doctors to meet the concept of DA in ethically dilemmatic cases. Fifty-two out of sixty-nine cases were evaluated utilizing an interpretative phenomenological analysis and the Four Boxes model to determine whether (i) all cases met the criteria of default autonomy; (ii) if not, which criteria were omitted; and (iii) what was the most commonly omitted criterion of DA. Then we classified the cases into three categories based on the number of criteria fulfilled. We found that only 21% of cases met all three criteria of DA. The criteria omitted most frequently included intentionality (35%), understanding (26%), and voluntariness (25%). Twenty-one percent of cases were classified as a “white zone”, meaning that all criteria of DA were met; sixty percent of cases were classified as a “black zone”, where at least one criterion was not met; and nineteen percent of cases were classified as a “grey zone”, where we could not determine whether all criteria had been met or not.
This chapter provides a potential framework, the clinical ideal, to justify a prudent use of neurotechnologies techniques for clinical interventions. Recent advances in neuroscience and neurotechnology have provided new insights regarding the neuroanatomy of the psychopathic brain that challenged prior understandings of the disorder and could provide novel opportunities for technological innovation and interventions. Some researchers have hypothesized that psychopathic subjects could learn how to reactivate brain regions implicated in fear conditioning using neurotechnologies that aim to alter brain capacities and behavior of people suffering from psychiatric disorders with moral pathologies. In the light of these advances, the clinical ideal allows us to evaluate potential justifications, if any, of brain interventions, such as the enhancement of one’s disposition to respond morally (i.e., moral capacity).KeywordsDefinition of enhancementTherapy versus enhancementClinical idealPsychiatric disorders with moral pathologiesNeurotechnologiesPsychopathy
This article reads Pat Cadigan’s Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel Synners (1991) from the perspectives of trauma studies and posthumanism to analyze the representation of the cyborged (post)human in cyberspace. My main focus is Cadigan’s depiction of a posttraumatic world whose living conditions invite escape, and how this depiction emphasizes the fact that escape through technological transcendence is not an option, and neither is the rejection of technology altogether. Despite this bleak scenario, the novel leaves some room for optimism in the figuration of a posthuman form of resilience, inspiring reflection about future forms of engagement with technology. As this article attempts to prove, Synners uses the tropes of the cyborg and cyberspace to explore the implications of subjectivity and embodiment within technoscience. In so doing, the novel opens a critical space for interrogation of the relationship between trauma, the posthuman body, and digital technology.
Una din cele mai citite cărți din lume, considerată o metaforă a condiției umane, și pretabilă la o pluralitate de interpretări, Aventurile lui Pinocchio a avut un impact mare asupra culturii mondiale. Cartea răspunde unei prerogative care aparține doar capodoperelor: aceea de a fi în afara timpului. Cartea pune accent pe investigarea psihologică a personajului său central Pinocchio, în timp ce încearcă să descopere o umanitate pierdută în vidul tehnologiei și al științei.
Mitul Pinocchio este folosit pentru a condamna cultura violenței și a consumismului. Collodi apelează cu succes la interacțiunile metaforice, bipolaritățile, și miracolele ambigue. Identitatea lui Pinocchio este adesea jucată la limită, imaginată de el însuși și de toți cei pe care îi întâlnește în drum. Pinocchio este numele vieții care este simultan anorganică, umană și animală.
Aventurile lui Pinocchio explorează modul în care experiențele câștigate în spațiul heterotopic oferă individului capacitatea de a modifica viziunea panoramică, și cum aceste experiențe ne pot arăta în cele din urmă cum putem recupera sau restabili existența noastră ca subiecți individuali.
Alternsprävention mit Hilfe von biotechnologischen Eingriffen ist der Biologie des Alterns oder Biogerontologie bereits im Laborversuch bei unterschiedlichen Organismen gelungen. Durch die Manipulation einzelner Gene, durch die sogenannte Kalorienrestriktion, d. h. einem Labortier werden nur 70 % der Kalorien zur Verfügung gestellt, die es sonst zu sich nehmen würde, und durch Pharmazeutika wurde die Lebensspanne von Labororganismen wie Nematoden oder Hefen bis zu zehnfach verlängert. Vergleichbare Eingriffe sollen ebenfalls beim Menschen möglich sein, was speziesübergreifende, ähnliche Mechanismen der Alterung nahelegen (vgl. Fontana/Partridge/Longo 2010).
This chapter sets out a detailed overview of the concepts and practices of transhumanism starting from what appears to be its pivotal concept: enhancement. It also addresses the various criticisms of enhancement practices and their consequences. The functions and organs of the human body that transhumanism aims to enhance are then analysed: cognitive and physical performance, feelings and emotions, morality, and above all the extension of the human life span. The numerous problematic aspects of these practices are highlighted. Beyond the improvements that transhumanism aims to accomplish, its purpose appears to be the achievement of immortality or, more modestly, the elimination of death. The final section of the chapter discusses and criticises this attempt to achieve immortality.
Emerging reprogenetic technologies may radically change how humans reproduce in the not‐so‐distant future. One foreseeable consequence of disruptive innovations in the procreative domain is an increase in the reproductive autonomy of intended parents. Regarding the prospective parental liberty of enhancing non‐health–related traits of the offspring, one controversy has particularly dominated the literature. Does parents' choice of genetically enhancing the traits of their descendants compromise children's future personal autonomy? In this article, I will analyse the main arguments which posit that reprogenetic enhancement could be at odds with the child's future autonomy. I will argue that these objections are ill‐founded. Moreover, I will present other arguments that show that reprogenetic technologies can enhance the autonomy of future children. Autonomy enhancement is a plausible and pro tanto desirable application of emerging reprogenetic technologies.
This article analyzes the general evolution of human rights due to the influence of transhumanist ideas, which were already present in 1948. Specifically, we will consider their denial of human nature, and self-determination as the new cornerstone of the legal order. We will see how nature is no longer considered the foundation of law, and instead how the focus is now on self-determination and the possibilities of technology. Although the 1948 Declaration of Rights has not changed, the anthropological conception has been modified, and new rights have been introduced, thanks to the interpretation made by the courts. The proposal is to recover the notion of human nature and natural law, which offers a universal terrain for dialogue and inspiring keys to find the true rights of the person and the good of society.
Resumen: El reciente desarrollo de las tecnologías emergentes NBIC ha propiciado la aparición de nuevas técnicas que permiten modificar aspectos genéticos, morfológicos y fisiológicos del ser humano para mejorar sus capacidades. Ante esta circunstancia, se reabre el eterno debate: ¿es todo lo técnicamente posible ética-mente aceptable? Para responder a esta pregunta, se hace necesaria una reflexión ética para valorar el alcance de las técnicas de mejoramiento y orientarlas al servicio del progreso humano y del bien común. Muchos autores han comenzado ya esta reflexión y optan por la evaluación caso por caso. Sin embargo, se considera que hay un gran déficit de concreción en la definición de los criterios que permitirían un aná-lisis ético de cada técnica para determinar la licitud de su aplicación. Como respuesta a esta necesidad, se propone una guía práctica de valoración ética ya no solo de las técnicas de mejoramiento humano, sino, en general, de cualquier intervención sobre nuestro cuerpo. Esta guía se basa en los cuatro principios de la bioética personalista propuestos por Sgreccia: principio de defensa de la vida humana física, de totalidad o terapéutico, de libertad y responsabilidad, y de sociabilidad y subsidiariedad. Estos principios son el hilo conductor de unos cuestionarios que sirven como apoyo en el discernimiento sobre la licitud de una técni-ca, en virtud del bien global de la persona en su estructura tridimensional: cuerpo, psique y espíritu, y del respeto a su dignidad inalienable. Abstract: The recent development of NBIC technologies has led to the emergence of new techniques that allow the modification of genetic, morphological, and physiological aspects of the human being to improve their capacities. In light of this situation, the eternal debate continues: is everything technically possible ethically acceptable? To answer this question, an ethical reflection is needed to assess the scope of enhancement techniques and to direct them to the service of human progress and the common good. Many authors have Cuadernos de Bioética. 2021; 32(105): 195-211
En este texto se reflexiona acerca de las interfaces existentes entre una práctica novedosa denominada mejoramiento neural farmacológico en relación con las neurociencias, neuroética y neuroderecho. Describe los efectos que esta práctica produce en la cognición de sujetos sanos y, cómo su consumo está siendo problematizado por la literatura especializada, a varios niveles. La literatura destaca los aspectos éticos, de jus-ticia distributiva y los jurídicos en las distintas fuentes del derecho, tanto a nivel funcional como conceptual.
El transhumanismo como filosofía e ideología tecnologicista tiene cada vez más adeptos y se coloca en los ámbitos académicos como una posición positiva, posible y deseable. Su implementación aparece solapada en una vida cotidiana que depende, como nunca antes, de los avances tecnológicos. La posición que manejaremos es que esta ideología, que sobredimensiona el papel de la tecnología en la sociedad, tiene una visión limitada respecto con los conflictos éticos, económicos y sociales que dimanan de sus presupuestos. El problema no es negar la tecnología sino qué rol juega en la construcción de la sociedad. El transhumanismo puede estar vendiendo un falso sueño de libertad, donde la uniformidad, la ausencia de crítica, la discriminación y la separación radical entre pobres y ricos definan ese mundo paradisíaco que propone.
La pandemia generada por el virus SARS-CoV-2 ha acelerado los procesos de transformación digital. Para comprender cómo la tecnología domina nuestras sociedades es necesario remontarse a sus condiciones de posibilidad. Estas condiciones responden a una determinada metafísica que tuvo su momento de nacimiento y sus procesos de transformación, intensificación y mejora, concluyendo en un tipo de lenguaje omniabarcante. Sin embargo, la transformación tecnológica no solo tiene consecuencias sobre el planeta, sino también sobre los seres humanos. En este contexto, el ser humano se vuelve obsoleto, apareciendo un nuevo sujeto de la historia, la técnica. El posthumanismo tecnológico o transhumanismo es la ideología que preserva y envuelve a ese nuevo sujeto.
The Last Question, a short story belonging to the genre of science fiction, has had multiple and even contradictory readings and interpretations, most of which are along the lines of posthumanism. The work is replete with ambiguities, uncertainties and indeterminacies regarding portrayals and their significations. The idea or discipline of posthumanism, and related ones of transhumanism and anti-humanism, are also similarly pervaded by indefiniteness and uncertainties. This paper attempts a literary study of these indeterminacies, first by analyzing certain contentual and formal aspects of The Last Question – characterization, events, themes, dialogues, structure etc. - and evincing the ambiguities therein, also briefly relating the same to the author’s persona; then by examining the argument of posthumanism and stating the indefiniteness thereof, also considering other factors like novelty of the discipline. Mathematical concepts have been utilized and employed, and other texts like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein dwelled upon, as and when required in the course of the study. The paper finally seeks to assert non-finality as the finality or the only possible certainty that can be arrived at in a reading of The Last Question or in a study or theorization of posthumanism.
Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nick Zangwill, and to the audiences at the Ian Ramsey Center seminar of
- Heather Their
- John Bradshaw
- Aubrey Brooke
- Robin De Grey
- Matthew Hanson
- Julian Liao
- Savulescu
Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
- G J Glover
For their comments I am grateful to Heather Bradshaw
- John Brooke
- Aubrey De Grey
- Robin Hanson
- Matthew Liao
- Julian Savulescu
The Transhumanist FAQ
- N Bostrom