Unnatural Selection

by Healey, Peter; Rayner, Steve

• ISBN13: 9781844076222
• ISBN10: 1844076229
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-15
• Publisher: ROUTLEDGE

Summary

With ever-advancing scientific understanding and technological capabilities, humanity stands on the brink of the potential next stage of evolution: evolution engineered by us. Nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science offer the possibility to enhance human performance, lengthen life span and reshape our inherited physical, cognitive and emotional identities. But with this promise come huge risks, complex choices and fundamental ethical questions about evolution, what it is to be human, and about control over, and the distribution of benefits from, new technology. This book, written by a range of experts in science and technology, bioethics and social science, examines the range of technological innovations offering lives that purport to be longer, stronger, smarter and happier and asks whether their introduction is likely to lead to more fulfilled individuals and a fairer world. The breadth of approaches and perspectives make important reading for those who work with these technologies and anyone who cares about the implications of humanity engineering its own evolution.

Author Biography

Peter Healey is a Research Fellow at the James Martin Institute, Saiomlet;d Business School, University of Oxford. Steve Rayner is James Martin Professor of Science and Civilization, University of Oxford, a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, and Honorary Professor of Climate Change and Society, University of Copenhagen.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	p. ix
List of contributors	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction
Introduction	p. 3
Radical Evolution: An Overview of the Near Future	p. 11
One World Or Several?
Tomorrow's People, Today's Challenges	p. 25
Personality Enhancement and Transfer	p. 32
On 'Life-Enhancing' Technologies and the Democratic Discourse: A South Asian Perspective	p. 40
The Nature Of Human Natures
Beyond Human Nature	p. 51
Are Disabled People Human?	p. 60
Biotechnology and its Spiritual Opposition	p. 67
Longer?
Understanding Global Ageing	p. 77
The Ageing Process: An Evolution in Our Understanding	p. 83
Postponing Ageing: Re-identifying the Experts	p. 89
In Pursuit of the Longevity Dividend	p. 95
From Ageing Research to Preventive Medicine: Pathways and Obstacles	p. 103
Stronger?
Engineering Challenges to Regenerative Medicine	p. 111
Longevity and Regeneration	p. 116
Augmenting Human Beings	p. 121
Smarter?
Brain Boosters	p. 129
Pharmacological Enhancement of Cognition	p. 142
The Economics of Brain Emulations	p. 150
Happier?
Happier: A Psychopharmacology Perspective	p. 159
What's Your Mission in Life? Why Being Happy Should Not Be Your Priority	p. 167
Fairer?
Enhancement and Fairness	p. 177
Towards a Fairer Distribution of Technology in Maintaining Human Health: An Example of Child Immunization in Western China	p. 188
Ableism, Enhancement Medicine and the Techno-Poor Disabled	p. 196
Governable?
Governance of New and Emerging Science and Technology	p. 209
Governing Our Future Selves	p. 215
Global Population Ageing and the World's Future Human Capital	p. 221
Postscript
Choosing our Biological Future	p. 231
References	p. 238
Index	p. 265
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