PANEL 12 /// ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF BIOTECHNOLOGIES
CONVENORS: JORGE MATEUS AND RÚBEN BATISTA
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected] or [email protected]
Emerging and converging technologies like nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC) are creating a fast-paced environment of symbiotic contact, dependence, and merging between human beings and intelligent machines. New and disruptive technologies such as these are progressively spawning new opportunities and needs, changing the way we perceive ourselves as free, autonomous agents and challenging many of our moral and social values. Along with the ability to make our lives more comfortable and changing the patterns of action of our societies for the best, existential threats loom behind our ever-growing power to manipulate our human, biological constitution.
The devices that could once be used to monitor (and, in some cases, punish) and that are now instruments of control and self-control (i.e., devices that we entrust ourselves to, whether physical or digital), are becoming increasingly not only ready-to-hand, but embedded in our biological constitution, threatening soon to transpose the very ontological character of the human being.
The growing digitalisation and transhumanisation of our culture and its Promethean ethos has not only set us on the path of a deep ontological crisis, but also carried with it pressing ethical challenges. An example of this is how the steady progression from the Internet of Things (IoT) to Internet of Bodies (IoB) is taking place and augmenting the very dimensions of our existence, permanently connecting, and digitalising us. The IoB is a prime example of how human beings are transitioning towards a fully connected life, where bodies and minds are not simply flesh and blood but connected network systems integrated with other digital technological systems.
Hence, ethical challenges dealing with our ever-growing integration with NBIC technologies are the main topic of this panel. We welcome papers exploring value conflicts arising from human-nonhuman relationships and from our technological integration, the challenges of genetic edition to identity, the contemporary ontological crisis, among other topics. A non-exhaustive list of other possible relevant problems to be addressed in the panel includes:
All inquiries about the panel should be sent to [email protected] or [email protected]
Emerging and converging technologies like nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC) are creating a fast-paced environment of symbiotic contact, dependence, and merging between human beings and intelligent machines. New and disruptive technologies such as these are progressively spawning new opportunities and needs, changing the way we perceive ourselves as free, autonomous agents and challenging many of our moral and social values. Along with the ability to make our lives more comfortable and changing the patterns of action of our societies for the best, existential threats loom behind our ever-growing power to manipulate our human, biological constitution.
The devices that could once be used to monitor (and, in some cases, punish) and that are now instruments of control and self-control (i.e., devices that we entrust ourselves to, whether physical or digital), are becoming increasingly not only ready-to-hand, but embedded in our biological constitution, threatening soon to transpose the very ontological character of the human being.
The growing digitalisation and transhumanisation of our culture and its Promethean ethos has not only set us on the path of a deep ontological crisis, but also carried with it pressing ethical challenges. An example of this is how the steady progression from the Internet of Things (IoT) to Internet of Bodies (IoB) is taking place and augmenting the very dimensions of our existence, permanently connecting, and digitalising us. The IoB is a prime example of how human beings are transitioning towards a fully connected life, where bodies and minds are not simply flesh and blood but connected network systems integrated with other digital technological systems.
Hence, ethical challenges dealing with our ever-growing integration with NBIC technologies are the main topic of this panel. We welcome papers exploring value conflicts arising from human-nonhuman relationships and from our technological integration, the challenges of genetic edition to identity, the contemporary ontological crisis, among other topics. A non-exhaustive list of other possible relevant problems to be addressed in the panel includes:
- Gene editing, well-being, and flourishing;
- Autonomy, authenticity, and gene editing;
- Social and economic impacts of human digitalisation;
- Transhumanism and posthumanism;
- Policy, safety, and regulation;
- Other topics.
