[extropy-chat] Article about talk by Leon Kass ("Brave New Biology")

[Neil H.]

Another article, this time regarding a talk by Leon Kass, who was until
recently head of the President's Council on Bioethics:

*http://tinyurl.com/8cqrg

*Needless to say, he isn't much a fan of transhumanism. "Brave New World"
and derivations of it definitely seem to be the buzz-phrase of choice when
people want to make transhumanist technologies sound a scary as possible.
Some quotes:

"The bottom of our troubles" is not the biotechnologies themselves, Kass
said, but resides in the underlying thought of what he terms "Brave New
Biology," his reference to the "charming but disturbing" 1932 dystopian
novel "Brave New World."

For Kass, that underlying thought has progressive aspirations that can give
rise to dangerous consequences: enhancing natural physical talents through
steroids, engineering perfect children, unnaturally extending the human
lifespan.
...

Biotechnology is no longer reserved for its traditional goals of healing
illness and relieving suffering, Kass said.

"Human nature itself lies on the operating table, ready for alteration . . .
for wholesale redesign," he said, citing birth control pills, surrogate
wombs, brain implants, and the promotion of "Ritalin for the young, Viagra
for the old, Prozac for everyone."

With today's biotechnologies, "we can take ourselves to a 'Brave New World'
all by ourselves."

"Many of us are worried," he said, denying that he fears the unknown or is
ignorant of science. "We can see all too clearly where the train is headed
and we do not like the destination."

What is most troubling to Kass is "runaway" biotechnology's transformation
of the meaning of humanity, a threat to human dignity that society is slow
to recognize.

The "Brave New Biology" has become a reductive science that treats a human
as a natural resource - an organ, a fertilized egg - rather than as a soul
with dignity, he said. Science explains how the human body works and how to
make it work better, but does not address what a human should be.

Science is a wonderful thing, Kass said. "But wisdom ain't what it's about."
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