[ExI] Morphological freedom and its limits

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2015-11-16 23:14, Adrian Tymes wrote:
>
> On Nov 16, 2015 2:41 PM, "Anders Sandberg" <anders at aleph.se 
> <mailto:anders at aleph.se>> wrote:
> > Fine. But suppose you were setting up rules for enhancement. What 
> kinds of evident harm would be evident to you?
>
> Largely the ones already covered by existing laws.
>
> Yes, that's not the answer you - or many people - want to hear, as it 
> is the complete opposite of justifying Doing Something re: changing 
> the laws or making new ones to deal with this new scenario.
>
Heh. You don't think I am libertarian about enhancement?

While I agree there is a temptation to Do Something, there is also an 
interesting issue of what makes doing something actually appropriate.

> Unfortunately, it is also the truth: for the most part, it's not a 
> matter of making new laws, but of correctly enforcing the ones we 
> already have.
>
Currently many laws prevent enhancement - whether drug or pharmaceutical 
laws banning non-therapeutic use, regulations making doctors gatekeepers 
of any bodymodification technology, reprotech laws banning certain forms 
of reproduction or genetic enhancement. If you don't think these laws 
are right, you need to find arguments why they are excessive in order to 
convince people to roll them back.

One could argue that maybe "tech will find a way" and that fixing 
regulations/policies is not necessary. But I think this is empirically 
wrong: GMO is seriously held back worldwide by EU import restrictions, 
pharma companies are not developing enhancers because the regulatory 
risk is overwhelming, and we know nanotechnology got badly sidetracked 
because a particular research sociological constellation hijacked 
funding from the original vision. There is no ban on anti-ageing 
research, yet the funding is minuscule because there is no strong Do 
Something support for it.

-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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