In his talk at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, philosopher and bioethicist Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Professor of Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, examines the nature of human beings as products of evolution, in particular their limited altruism, limited co-operative instincts and limited ability to take account of the future consequences of actions. He argues that humans’ biology and psychology are unfit for the kind of society we live in and we must either alter our political institutions, severely restrain our technology or change our nature. Or face annihilation by our own design. Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Sydney Opera House, October 2009.
Genetically enhance humanity or face extinction – PART 1 from Ethics of the New Biosciences on Vimeo.
Q&A
Genetically enhance humanity or face extinction – PART 2 from Ethics of the New Biosciences on Vimeo.
Puny human
November 17th, 2009 at 7:21 am… said the alien overlords. (And the obligatory: I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.)
ALIEN OVERLORDS
November 17th, 2009 at 7:36 amOf course you’ll face extinction anyway, but we much prefer the taste of genetically enhanced human flesh! (Obligatory remark noted, puny human – we appreciate it. You’ll be granted the glorious honor and privilege to serve as an appetizer!)
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Inquisitive
November 17th, 2009 at 10:23 pmI disagree. I hate the concepts of genetic alteration, ESPECIALLY at birth, since one of the things that drives evolution is that the greatest diversity of biology allows for the greatest number of possible positive outcomes. If you limit the great minds by altering everyone and making them a particular way, we will all suffer. However, if you augment the already existed body, we could benefit the species extraordinarily.
Clark Anderson Kerns
November 21st, 2009 at 2:36 pmi say genetically enhance humanity, give humans superhuman abilities through biotechnology nanotechnology etc.
Colin
December 6th, 2009 at 3:02 pmGender selection? (in the Q&A) Gender cannot be predetermined, as it is, to a great degree, socially determined, while only biological sex is predetermined.
pat.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:58 pmnatural human, free quimics, forever!!!!!!
Matt Lanka
December 10th, 2009 at 4:48 pmThe ability to change humans at the genetic level (especially before birth) both physically and perhaps cognitively does not assume the ability to do so with complete and intended success. Without fully understanding the consequences on both the individual and the species as a whole, any mass scale genetic engineering should be avoided. as the coming singularity becomes more likely, indeed inevitable, a computer upload of the human mind may be a better option than forcing physical change on a biological mind that may inadvertently destroy it.
erik
January 6th, 2010 at 12:15 pmmass scale GE is could be done with virus created for distribution of a genetic change. it wold be very possible, for example, to genetically engineer modify to be docile, while inoculating a select group against the viral vector. resulting in very real “alien” (in that their DNA is uniformly diferent) overlords. That being said, I believe we need public facility with GE in order to prevent this sort of action by a rogue group. Suppressing development in re3sponsible nations will only lead to irresponsible nations with an advantage here.