Saturday, January 21, 2006

Who's afraid of human enhancement?

Reason magazine has published an edited transcript of a symposium on enhancement technologies, titled "Who's Afraid of Human Enhancement?" featuring Ron Bailey, a writer for Reason and author of Liberation Biology, Eric Cohen, the editor of The New Atlantis; and Joel Garreau, a reporter for The Washington Post and author of Radical Evolution. (It is also available on mp3 at the site.)

A Reason symposium is not the place for leftists who are worried about bioenhancement -- Bailey envisions an idyllic family picnic in 2010 where a 150 year-old great-great-great-grandma plays touch football with her 30-year-old great-great-grandson, while even Cohen, a bioenhancement skeptic, says "I’m enough of a free market person to believe that if something works in wealthy societies, eventually most people are going to be able to afford it" -- but if you are looking for a lively, literate introduction to the ethical issues surrounding enhancement technologies, this debate will get you started.

1 comment:

filch said...

"A Reason symposium is not the place for leftists who are worried about bioenhancement -- "

What in the hell are you talking about? An aversion to bioenhancement can be found across the political spectrum. Seriously if you want to make note of such things take your nonsensical formulations out of the situation else you read like a doob.