[extropy-chat] LA Times on human enhancement

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

Today's LA Times<http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-sarewitz9aug09,1,1735412.story?ctrack=1&cset=true>has
an editorial on human enhancement. Following the "precautionary
principle", the author believes we should stop developing human enhancement 
technologies: "Why do we trust our long-term well-being to the irrational 
faith that the good consequences of our ingenuity will outweigh the bad?". 
Before developing his arguments, the author acknowledges that "Biological 
engineering is not just about curing disease anymore. The incentives and 
profits are moving toward drugs, gene therapies and other technologies to 
enhance human performance - memory, creativity, concentration, strength, 
endurance, longevity. As a 2002 report of the normally staid National 
Science Foundation proclaimed, the 21st century "could end in world peace, 
universal prosperity, and evolution to a higher level of compassion and 
accomplishment," all through research on human-performance enhancement".
Then he says that the development of human enhancement technologies is not 
controlled by ordinary people, who will be relegated to the role of passive 
consumers with no decision making power. The simplest answer to this 
objection is, I believe, that enhanced citizens will be able to participate 
more effectively in policy through better access to information and better 
reasoning power. An enhanced citizen would be, if anything, much less likely 
to follow subliminal advertising placed in mass media to "smartly" steer the 
minds of the people. Also, that ordinary citizens have no say is 
unfortunately true for so many other important things that focusing on human 
enhancement is just missing the point. The problem is elsewhere.
But what I find really disturbing is the statement "How would more direct 
communication of thought [through direct brain-to-brain interfaces] help 
Israelis and Palestinians better understand one another? Unable to use the 
ambiguities and subtleties of language to soften the impact of one's raw 
convictions, might conflict actually be amplified?". This is just a 
restatement of the old lie, affirmed by many religions, that ignorance is 
better than knowledge (and "dignified" disease is better than health, etc.). 
On the contrary I am sure that is Israelis and Palestinians could really 
"touch and feel" the point of view people in the other camp, it would be 
much easier to find win-win solutions. In this case as in so many others, 
knowledge is better than ignorance, and empowerment is better than 
powerlessness.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20050810/47a538c1/attachment.html>