Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Enthusiasts of Posthumanism in Popular Culture
What is it that attracts people to speculations about the creation of
posthumans and to projects that seem to lead in that direction? Clearly,
there are many motives at work. For some contemporary scientists, the
goal of “improving” or transcending humanity is appealing simply
because it is there to be done. Why not use the same knowledge and
techniques that we apply to the cloning of Dolly and Polly the sheep or
the creation of genetically modified foods and apply them to our own
species? Why not produce generations of superartifacts that expand intel-
ligence far beyond anything mere humans could ever hope to achieve?
Because it is possible to accomplish powerful, unprecedented effects, the
impulse for doing so seems irresistible to some people. Indeed, the default
setting on the moral compass of technological choice in our time seems
to be, “Hell, why not?” As a science undergraduate in a colleague's phi-
losophy class recently explained, “If I had the opportunity to make the
first cloned human, would I do it? Hell yeah!”
Even projects in this genre that have little likelihood of success may
seem highly appealing because they hold out possibilities of great wealth
and instant fame. Support from venture capital in Silicon Valley and
other centers of high technology already awaits biotech entrepreneurs
who can spin plausible tales about the eventual payoff of cutting-edge
research. Expectations of enormous profits surround corporations jock-
eying for position in the emerging field of genomics. Meanwhile, the
prospect that someone might actually achieve results worthy of mention
in the
Guinness Book of Records
inspires a good many to give it a shot.
Each morning I read the newspaper, expecting to find the headline
“Science Clones First Human Being” or perhaps “Science Clones First
Bioethicist.” That story has not appeared yet, but I'm told it's just a
matter of months.
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Beyond these familiar passions, other powerful desires lend support
for ambitious schemes in posthumanism. Many people who are neither
scientists nor businesspeople enjoy the excitement involved in the race
to new frontiers and identification with developments that promise the
latest and greatest in technological change. Sentiments of this kind,
regularly displayed in
Wired
and other magazines hawking high-tech
