Understanding Human Enhancement
The action and ethics of augmenting the human
WHAT IS HUMAN ENHANCEMENT?
The idea of using technology to enhance humans has been prominent throughout history and has been popularised by the media for a good part of the last century — from classic sci-fi books such as ‘Brave New World’ (1932), to films like ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (1995) and ‘Gattaca’ (1997). However, the rapid pace of scientific and technological innovation in the last century has created seemingly endless new possibilities for humans to augment themselves in reality, body and mind, in order to gain new abilities — otherwise known as Human Enhancement (HEt). As defined by a recent EU report, Human Enhancement is
‘a modification aimed at improving human performance which is brought about by science-based and/or technology-based interventions in or on the human body’ (Jensen et al., 2018, p. 5).
In other words, we are now able to further merge with technology to gain new abilities and design the future of our species, rather than leaving it to natural evolution only.
TYPES OF ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGY
There are several different technologies which already are, or will speculatively be able to, enhance us, including:
- Biomedical/Pharmaceutical enhancements: such as Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), plastic surgery and performance enhancing drugs (known as ‘doping’ in sport);
- Machine-based augmentations: Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), prosthetic limbs and Sensory Augmentation devices — creating ‘cyborgs’.
- and Genetic interventions: genetic engineering (CRISPR cas-9) and reproductive interventions (‘designer babies’).
These technologies enhance, for example: our brain — improving memory and concentration; our physical capabilities — giving added strength or new senses; our emotions — giving greater control over them; our morals — potentially controlling ‘unwanted’ behaviours; how we look — changing our appearance or that of our children; and how long we live — giving us a radically extended, healthier life.
WHO IS MAKING THE TECHNOLOGY?
The development of many enhancement technologies comes from medical research or the re-appropriation of medical technologies for enhancement purposes, some of which are already in use today and some are speculations for future use. For example Ritalin, a pharmaceutical prescribed to patients with ADHD, is used by students and professionals as a “study-aid” or cognitive enhancer to boost concentration (Academy of Medical Sciences, et al., 2012). Prosthetic devices which are used by amputees to replace a lost limb could be developed to either give that person increased strength, or perhaps an extra limb, and therefore extra abilities.
Another big player in developing enhancement technology is the military, with institutions such as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) researching and developing emerging technologies which could potentially give soldiers an added advantage in combat situations. While its use in combat situations comes with it’s own ethical hurdles, these agencies’ large funding and looser restrictions means that they are at the forefront of developing these controversial technologies.
In 2019, a report titled ‘Cyborg Soldier 2050’ detailed the implications of HEt use in the military over the next 30years, including technologies for ‘ocular enhancements’, ‘muscle control’, ‘auditory enhancements’ and ‘direct neural data transfers’. The paper also predicts that by 2050 these enhancement technologies will be widely available for the general population ‘largely driven by civilian demand and a robust bio-economy that is at its earliest stages of development in today’s global market’.
BENEFITS OF HUMAN ENHANCEMENT
Human Enhancement technologies will, and are, making their way through medical bodies, military research agencies and commercial companies, improving, changing and becoming available to the public for purchase. With this move into the consumer market comes the possibility for humans to drastically improve our health span, and gain abilities that will improve our creativity as a species. Devices which give us new senses could radically change how we perceive the world around us, and enhanced intelligence and imagination could lead to novel solutions to global problems like climate change and poverty, the possibilities are endless.
However, it may take enhancement technologies becoming more widely accessible for publics, and developers, to discover the breadth of benefits. Here we can look to contraceptive technologies as an example: initially used to control the birth rates of lower economic classes, when it became more accessible it brought about female sexual empowerment and greater control over family planning — so what currently unforeseen benefits might other enhancements bring?
ETHICS OF ENHANCEMENT
There also comes many regulatory and ethical questions about which technologies should be developed and how this affects the people and societies using it.
Questions arise such as:
- Should everyone have the right to choose to enhance (or not enhance) if they want to? — known as Morphological Freedom
- How will this impact future generations? — and should we enhance our future children if they have no say in the matter?
- How can the technology be made accessible to everyone and not be restricted to an elite who can pay for it?
- Will the advantages gained by the enhanced perpetuate an even wider socio-economic divide in society?
- When we are merged with technology how will this change how we define ‘human’? (and question who has historically qualified as ‘human’?)
These are a few among many questions that we need to explore and consider while still at this early stage of development, to ensure that the potential harms caused by the technologies do not outway the potential massive benefits. By designers, developers, policy makers, and publics anticipating the ethics and impacts of Human Enhancement technology we are able to guide its development, and create a better future — today.
See the series of Human Enhancement impacts posters here ->
To learn about Sensory Augmentation, a type of Human Enhancement technology, see our blog here ->
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