Which performance enhancement technologies do you think will raise the most interesting or problematic legal and ethical issues? Some technologies emerging from the research being done now will, at least at first, be used within a disorder model. Let me comment on disorder models and the meaning of "enhancement. " The terms "enhancement" and "augmentation" 1 are problematic -not meaningless, but hard to interpret. You can set up the problem in the following way: There are lots of things that we do to improve our situations that don't seem troublesome to most people. The prime example is placing these processes within a justificatory model based on remedying disorder, trauma, or the like. We don't think of these procedures as enhancement because they target (in theory) only disorders, injuries, and defects and (again in theory) generate only the improvement resulting from cure or palliation. Models are, roughly, abstract guides to action or evaluation or analysis generally. A disorder model has axioms of the form: If P has disease X, then P may (should? must?) use therapy Z to rectify the situation. This account leaves out various qualifications we can ignore for a time. We don't have to deal with whether the person can be forced to be treatedalthough it will turn out to be very interesting to consider whether some persons entrusted with complex tasks in either the public or private sectors can be required to accept technological enhancement in order to remain on the job. Of course, when readers of Extropy think about enhancement, they're certainly not confining themselves to matters of controlling disorderthey may not even think of the latter as true enhancement, although remedying diseases and injuries generally leaves one better able to perform than while ill. Also, we generally view traditional minor forms of enhancement (like caffeine) as part of a baseline that defines acceptability. Sometimes history serves to ratify practices that might be questioned on some theory. (Treating forms of attention deficit disorder with stimulants is, in theory, within the disorder model.)
In an article I wrote on performance enhancement in the Southern California Law Review in 1991, I started off with some examples to illustrate the distinction between enhancement and therapy. Kirk Gibson used cortisone for a bad knee and hit a home run that helped win the opening game of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers. On the other hand, in the same year, Ben Johnson ran in the Olympics but was found to have taken steroids. This was not for medical purposes, however, and the Olympic officials nullified his victory.

The Transhumanist Reader : Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future

John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated

Wiley & Sons, Limited, John

Verlag nicht ermittelbar

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 2013

First edition, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 2013

Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar, 2013

United States, United States of America

1.publ, Chichester, West Sussex, 2013

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Referenced by: doi:10.1136/jme.2009.030882 doi:10.2307/1338225 doi:10.1145/1408800.1408831 doi:10.1353/ken.0.0311 doi:10.4159/9780674042582 doi:10.4159/9780674043060 doi:10.1017/s026505250505212x

"The first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature. Editors: Max More, PhD is President and CEO of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the world's leading cryonics organization. An internationally acclaimed strategic philosopher, Dr. More is recognized for his thinking on the philosophical and cultural implications of emerging technologies. Natasha Vita-More, PhD is a leading expert on human enhancement and emerging and speculative technologies and is a Professor at the University of Advancing Technology, Tempe Ariz. Dr. Vita-More's writings have appeared in Technoetic Arts: Journal of Speculative Research, Metaverse Creativity and The Global Spiral. She has appeared in numerous televised documentaries on media design, culture, and the future."--[source inconnue]

The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature. -- Provided by publisher

Roots And Core Themes -- Human Enhancement : The Somatic Sphere -- Human Enhancement : The Cognitive Sphere -- Core Technologies -- Engines Of Life : Identity And Beyond Death -- Enhanced Decision-making -- Biopolitics And Policy -- Futute Trajectories : Singularity -- The World's Most Dangerous Ideas. Edited By Max More And Natasha Vita-more. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.