Transhumanist Bioethics
James J. Hughes Ph.D.
Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Lecturer, Public Policy Studies, Trinity College, Hartford CT
James.Hughes@trincoll.edu
June 16, 2014 – Yale University
These slides: ieet.org/archive/20140614YaleH+Bioethics.ppt
Ancient Aspirations

Abstract thought ->
imagining radical improvement
to human condition

Medicines and magical
practices to improve health
and grant wisdom

Myths of times and places
without toil, conflict, or
injustice, a more perfect world

Radically improved social and
corporeal life possible in the
immediate future
The Enlightenment
Origins of secularism, secular humanism
and modern bioethics in 17th/18th century
 Descartes, Locke,
Pascal, Bayle,
Montesquieu,
Voltaire, Diderot,
Condorcet,
Rousseau, Franklin

Principles of the Enlightenment
1. Autonomy of reason from faith
and authority
2. Human perfectibility and social
progress
3. Empirical optimism: sapere
aude!
4. Legitimacy of government based
on free association
5. Tolerance of diversity, freedom
of thought
6. Ethical universalism – beyond
nationalism, racism, sexism
Translation:
Autonomy
Justice
Beneficence
20th Century Politics

20th century politics shaped by the ongoing battles for/against
Enlightenment values, or between various interpretations of
Enlightenment values
Progressives
Social
Democrats
Populists
Economic Politics
Conservatives
New Right
Conservatives
Libertarians
Cultural Politics
Progressives
Marquis de Condorcet 1744-1794
Sketch for a Historical
Picture of the Progress
of the Human Mind





Reason liberates from
church, authoritarianism,
nature
Women’s suffrage
Opposed to slavery
Freedom from work
Radical life extension
Marquis de Condorcet
Other Proto-Transhumanists

HG Wells and Olaf Stapledon
– portrayed future evolution of
humanity

JBS Haldane, 1923, "Daedalus:
Science and the Future“
– in vitro fertilization, genetic
engineering

JD Bernal, 1929, "The World,
the Flesh and the Devil”
– first projection of cybernetic
implants
JBS Haldane
Emerging Technologies
Tech that will radically change the human
brain:
Psychopharmacology
 Genetic engineering
 Nanotechnology
 Artificial intelligence
 Cognitive science

The accelerating convergence of all these
 “for improving human performance”

Prospect of Human Enhancement

Curing disabilities

Health

Longevity

Intelligence

Emotional control

Heightened senses

Spiritual experience

Moral sentiment and cognition
Biopolitical Battlefronts

Who is a citizen with a right to life?:
abortion, stem cells, great ape rights,
brain death, chimeras

Control of Reproduction: contraception,
abortion, fertility treatments, genetic
testing, germline gene therapies, cloning

Fixing Disabilities to “Human
Enhancement”: cochlear implants,
prosthetics, eye and brain chips, gene
therapies, cosmetic procedures

Extending Life: from treatments for
aging-related diseases, to anti-aging
drugs and therapies

Control of the Brain: Ritalin and Prozac,
psychoactive drugs, brain chips
Biopolitical Battlefronts

Who is a citizen with a right to life?:
abortion, stem cells, great ape rights,
brain death, chimeras

Control of Reproduction: contraception,
abortion, fertility treatments, genetic
testing, germline gene therapies, cloning

Fixing Disabilities to “Human
Enhancement”: cochlear implants,
prosthetics, eye and brain chips, gene
therapies, cosmetic procedures

Extending Life: from treatments for
aging-related diseases, to anti-aging
drugs and therapies

Control of the Brain: Ritalin and Prozac,
psychoactive drugs, brain chips
21st Century Politics
Cultural Politics
Conservative
Progressive
Progressive
Biopolitics
Economic
Politics
Bioconservatism
Transhumanism
Conservative
From Bioethics to Biopolitics

Intellectual debates
meet mass politics

Contraception

Roe v. Wade

Stem cells

Terri Schiavo
BioConservatives

Religious Right




CS Lewis The Abolition of Man
Deep Ecologists, Romantic Luddites

Aldous Huxley Brave New World

Jeremy Rifkin Algeny
Left-wing/Feminist Critics of Biotech

Gena Corea The Mother Machine

Center for Genetics and Society
Pro-Disability Extremists

Not Dead Yet
90s: Libertarian H+ & Extropians
Extropy Institute
 http://extropy.org
 Extropian
Principles
Ron Bailey
Max More
2002-3: BioPolitical Landmark

Leon Kass appointed Chair of President’s
Council on Bioethics

Fukuyama’s Our Posthuman Future (2002)

Greg Stock’s Redesigning Humans (2002)

Christian Right’s Manifesto on
Biotechnology and Human Dignity (2002)

Vatican’s "Human Persons Created in the
Image of God“ (2002)

Bill McKibben Enough (2003)

PCB’s
Beyond Therapy
(2003)
Leon Kass
Chair, President’s
Council on
Bioethics
BioConservatives

Religious Right

Deep Ecologists,
Romantic Luddites

Left-wing/Feminist
Critics of Biotech

Human-Exceptionalists

Pro-Disability Extremists
Christian Right BioCon Network
Millions of dollars poured into “conservative
bioethics”

Center for Bioethics and Culture (Jennifer Lahl,
Nigel Cameron, Prison Ministries, etc.)

Trinity International University/Center for
Bioethics and Human Dignity

Discovery Institute (Wesley J. Smith)

Ethics & Public Policy Center’s BAD
(Eric Cohen, New Atlantis)

American Enterprise Institute (Leon Kass, J.Q. Wilson)

National Catholic Bioethics Center
(John Haas)

Hudson Institute (Michael Fumento)
Leftist Opponents of H+

Leftist, feminist and anti-racist opponents of
“technoeugenics”

Marcy Darnovsky, Michael Sandel, George Annas,
Lori Andrews, Jurgen Habermas
Pro-Disability Extremists

E.g. Not Dead Yet

Opposed to:

Efforts to “cure” or “fix”
disabilities

Parent’s right to terminate
disabled fetuses

The right of sick and disabled
to refuse life-sustaining
medical treatment

Human enhancement medicine
“Trans-humanism” and
“Transhuman-ism”
Julian Huxley
first director of UNESCO
"Transhumanism“
"the human species can
transcend itself."
“FM-2030” (FM Esfandiary)
popularized term “transhuman”
in the 1970s
H+ Movement
(World Transhumanist
Association)
transhumanism.org
30 chapters, 5500 members
Dozens of affiliated, albeit mostly
ephemeral, chapters, groups,
organizations, projects
Central Biopolitical Disputes
Transhumanists
BioConservatives
Personhood,
cyborg citizenship
Human-Racism; human
exceptionalism
Humanism, reason,
individual liberty (body,
brain, repro), progress
Sacred taboos, communitarian,
“the natural”, yuck factor,
romanticism, status quo bias
Tech Optimism; risks are
manageable; “proactionary
principle”
Tech Pessimism; risks are
unknowable; punishment for
hubris inevitable; tech should
be banned; “precautionary
principle”
Beyond Therapy/Enhancement
Status Quo Bias
Would it be better to
have….
 Shorter lives?
 More disabilities?
 Less intelligence?
 Less memory?
 Less happiness?
Ten Question Diagnostic

95% of H+ agree with 7 or more
H+ Yes
Ten "Are you a Transhumanist?" Questions
Do you believe that people have a right to use technology to extend their mental and physical
(including reproductive) capacities and to improve their control over their own lives?
Do you think human genetic engineering is wrong because it is "playing God"?
95%
95% No
Do you think that by being generally open and embracing of new technology we have a better
chance of turning it to our advantage than if we try to ban or prohibit it?
94%
Do you expect human progress to result from human accomplishment rather than divine
intervention, grace, or redemption?
93%
Do you think it would be a good thing if people could become many times more intelligent
than they currently are?
93%
Do you think it would be a good thing if people could live (in good health) for hundreds of
years or longer?*
87%
Do you believe women should have the right to terminate their pregnancies?
83%
Does your ethical code advocate the well-being of all sentient beings, whether in artificial
intellects, humans, posthumans, or non- human animals?
82%
Would you consider having your mind uploaded to computers if it was the only way you could
continue as a conscious person?
80%
Should parents be able to have children through cloning once the technology is safe?
77%
Beyond Human-racism…

Human-racism =
Humanness as basis of
rights-bearing
Embryonic citizens?

Humans have souls or
crypto-spiritual “human
dignity”

Fetus to cremation
Boundaries of Humanness

Animal-Human:
Chimeras &
“uplifted” animals

Perinatal: Totipotent
cells and artificial
wombs

Perideath: Brain repair

Machine-Human: AGI & neuro-prosthetics

Human-Posthuman: ?
Five Moral Intuitions
Liberals:
 Harm/care
 Fairness/reciprocity
Conservatives
 Ingroup loyalty
 Respect for authority
 Purity/sanctity
Jonathan
Haidt
In-betweens are Dirty
Purity and Danger
 Why aren’t pigs kosher?


Cloven hoofs, don’t chew cud
Mary Douglas
Race-Mixing Panic
Rights Based on Racial Identity?
Universal Declaration on
the Human Genome and
Human Rights (UNESCO,
1998)
“The human genome
underlies the fundamental
unity of all members of the
human family, as well as the
recognition of their inherent
dignity and diversity.”
Is hairlessness one of the
human traits necessary
for citizenship?
Sorry – no rights!
“They” Want Your Jobs
Inevitability of Race War?
"The posthuman will come to
see us (the garden variety
human) as an inferior
subspecies without human
rights to be enslaved or
slaughtered preemptively. It is
this potential for genocide
based on genetic difference,
that I have termed "genetic
genocide," that makes
species-altering genetic
engineering a potential
weapon of mass
destruction." (Annas, 2001)
Violent Defenders of Human Nature
“Human nature has in the
past put certain limits on the
development of societies. But
… technology is developing
ways of modifying human
beings…. Getting rid of
industrial society … will
remove the capacity of …
control over human nature"
- the “Unabomber Manifesto”
Agar: Humanity’s End

Human “local values” trump
individual freedom claims to
enhancement

“Those who want to become
posthuman …want to create a
circumstance in which our
interests, and the interests of our
human children, are morally
subordinated to their own or to
their posthuman descendants. It
seems to me that we are entitled
to prevent them from doing this.”
…to Personhood

Persons: “conscious beings,
aware of themselves, with
intents and purposes over
time”

You can be human and not
persons: fetus, braindead

You can be a person and not
human: great apes, AI,
posthumans
H+ Politics

Left H+ outnumber
libertarian H+

Conservative H+ 2-4%
Left
Technoprogressive
Libertarian socialist
Progressive
Democratic socialist
Social democrat
Green
US-style liberal
Left anarchist
Radical
Communist
2003
36%
-7%
6%
4%
5%
4%
4%
2%
2%
1%
2005
39%
-7%
7%
6%
5%
4%
4%
3%
1%
1%
2007
47%
16%
7%
4%
5%
4%
4%
3%
2%
<0.5%
1%
Libertarian
Libertarian
European Liberal
Anarcho-capitalist
Randian/Objectivist
Minarchist
22%
11%
6%
4%
1%
1%
22%
10%
7%
2%
2%
1%
20%
10%
5%
2%
1%
1%
Other
Upwinger/advocate of
future political system
Other
17%
8%
16%
10%
14%
7%
9%
7%
7%
Not political
15%
12%
11%
Moderate
7%
8%
7%
Conservative
Christian Democrat
Conservative
Far right
4%
1%
2%
1%
3%
<0.5%
2%
<0.5%
2%
<0.5%
1%
<0.5%
Technoprogressivism
Core Ideas:

Equality and solidarity, as well as liberty

Tech needs regulation and universal
access

Tech unemployment and basic income
guarantee

“Technoprogressives”

Technoprog! French Transhuamanists

Institute for Ethics & Emerging
Technologies ieet.org
Technoprogressive Self-Determination

The right to use technology
to control our own bodies
and minds

The right to know how safe
and effective technologies
are

The right of equal access to
technological empowerment
Progressive Pushback


New willingness to defend enhancement on
autonomy grounds
Progressive Bioethics Network




Art Caplan, Glenn McGee, Alta Charo, Hank Greely,
Peter Singer, Maxwell Mehlman, Allen Buchanan
Women’s Bioethics Network
Center for American Progress
European Bioliberals

John Harris, Julian Savulescu, Jonathan Glover, Sarah
Chan, Ingmar Persson, Nick Bostrom, Anders
Sandberg, Stefan Sorgner, Rebecca Roache
Massification of Biopolitics
Pew Surveys of U.S. 2013-4
H+
BioCon
Tech progress will improve most people’s lives
59% yes
30% no
Medical treatments that slow the aging process
and allow the average person to live decades
longer, to at least 120 years
38% want
56% don’t want
41% good
for society
51% bad for
society
Parents can alter DNA of prospective children to
produce smarter, healthier, or more athletic
offspring?
26%
positive
66% negative
Would use a brain implant to improve memory or
mental capacity
26% yes
72% no
Human cloning
13% OK
(37% of college
graduates)
83% Not OK
Ensuring Safety, Universal Access

Majority of U.S. think life extension should be universal,
even though pessimistic about safety, social/ecological
effects and equal access

Dems more
positive about
radical life
extension than
Republicans
2008: Biopolitical Fragmentation

Economic crisis displaces
nascent biopolitics

Progressive bioethics
sidetracked by 2009
demonization, technocratic
Obama bioethics

Re-assertion of libertopian
hegemony within H+

Technological unemployment
Conservative H+ Hegemony

Singularity University



Peter Thiel







Peter Diamandis Abundance
Entrepreneurs’ summer camp
Christian conservative
Paypal, Facebook, Clarium
Dominance in H+: SIAI, SENS,
Seasteading
Ron Paul, Hoover
Gingrich’s ‘Futurism’
Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Employment doublethink
NeoReactionaries

“Dark enlightenment”

Mencius Moldbug, Michael
Anissimov

Reject democracy, libertarianism,
egalitarianism, ethnic pluralism

Advocate monarchy, aristocracy,
city-state separatism, unregulated
capitalism

Defend “traditional” racial, sexual
differences and hierarchies
Biopolitical Polarization
H+
BioCons
C-Left bioconservatives
A-Technoprogressives
D-Right bioconservatives
Cultural Politics
B-Libertarian transhumanists
Conservative
Progressive
E-Bioliberals
F-Neoreactionaries
Progressive
C
A
Biopolitics
E
Economic
Politics
Bioconservatism
Transhumanism
D
F
Conservative
B
Emerging Developments

Biopolitical Polarization

Biopolitics and
Millennialist Narratives

Religious
Transhumanism

Non-Western Biopolitics

Moral Enhancement
Growing Apocalypticism

Growth of radical
militia/survivalist subculture

Sales of survivalist supplies and
guns spiking

25% of Republicans say Obama
may be AntiChrist

Millennialist/Apocalyptic turn
among H+

H+ & Singularity feed
apocalyptic
narratives
The Singularity

Millenialist


Kurzweil
Apocalyptic

Hugo de Garis

Fatalist,
Inevitabilist
 Messianic


Yudkowsky
Purity of code,
danger of DNA
Religious H+ & Singularitarians


One quarter of H+ are religious
Mormon Transhumanist
Association largest H+ group
in US
Non-Western Biopolitics

Techno-optimism w/o
Enlightenment liberalism

India, Thailand, China, Japan


Abrahamic ideas of body vs.
Hindu/Buddhist

Confucian communitarianism
Africans and enhancement

Enlightenment/modernity on
steroids
Moral Enhancement

Empathy: Julian Savulescu and
Ingmar Persson

Parental/Marital Love: Julian
Savulescu, Anders Sandberg,
Matthew Liao

Personality/Mood: David Pearce and
Mark Walker

Psilocybin: Michael Tennison

Moral Reasoning: John Harris

Virtue Learning: Barbara Froding

Stimulants: Andrew Fenton, James
Hughes
For more information

These slides:
ieet.org/archive/
20140614YaleH+Bioethics.ppt

Institute for Ethics
and Emerging Technologies
ieet.org

Me: james.hughes@trincoll.edu
director@ieet.org