hughes (continued from front flap) $26.95 US ADVANCE PRAISE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NANOTECHNOLOGY GENETIC ENGINEERING MEDICAL ETHICS INVITRO FERTILIZATION STEM-CELL RESEARCH $37.95 CAN citizen LIFE EXTENSION GENETIC PATENTS HUMAN GENETIC ENGINEERING CLONING SEX SELECTION ASSISTED SUICIDE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE human genetic engineering, sex selection, drugs, and assisted In the next fifty years, life spans will extend well beyond a century. suicide—and concludes with a concrete political agenda for pro- cyborg Our senses and cognition will be enhanced. We will have greater technology progressives, including expanding and deepening control over our emotions and memory. Our bodies and brains “A challenging and provocative look at the intersection of human self-modification and human rights, reforming genetic patent laws, and providing SOCIETIES MUST RESPOND TO THE REDESIGNED HUMAN OF FUTURE WHY DEMOCRATIC will be surrounded by and merged with computer power. The limits political governance. Everyone wondering how society will be able to handle the coming citizen everyone with healthcare and a basic guaranteed income. of the human body will be transcended, as technologies such as possibilities of A.I. and genomics should read Citizen Cyborg.” citizen A groundbreaking work of social commentary, Citizen Cyborg artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering —DR. GREGORY STOCK, author of Redesigning Humans illuminates the technologies that are pushing the boundaries of converge and accelerate. With them, we will redesign ourselves and humanness—and the debate that may determine the future of the our children into varieties of posthumanity. “A powerful indictment of the anti-rationalist attitudes that are dominating our national human race itself. cyborg This prospect is understandably terrifying to many. A loose policy today. Hughes brings together ideas from religion, history, science, bioethics, and coalition of groups—including religious conservatives, disability politics in a unique way. The book sparkles with insights, challenges, and new ways of look- rights advocates, and environmental activists—has emerged to ing at the problems our society is facing today. He is a worthy guide to a more humane future.” WHY DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES oppose the use of genetics to enhance human beings. And with —JOHN LANTOS M.D., author of Do We Still Need Doctors? MUST RESPOND TO THE the appointment of conservative philosopher Leon Kass (an opponent of invitro fertilization, stem cell research, and life “James Hughes is a sober, insightful, useful, and optimistic thinker about the astonishing REDESIGNED extension) to head the President’s Council on Bioethics, and with changes in store for human nature. Citizen Cyborg is an important contribution to the rapidly the recent high-profile writings by authors like Francis Fukuyama moving debate on human enhancement.” cyborg HUMAN OF THE FUTURE and Bill McKibben, this stance has become more visible—and —JOEL GARREAU, author of While God Wasn’t Watching: The Future of Human Nature ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NANOTECHNOLOGY SEX SELECTION GENETIC more infamous—than ever before. FUTURISTIC VISIONS FUTURISTIC HEALTHCARE UNIVERSAL SUICIDE ASSISTED In the opposite corner, a loose transhumanist coalition is mobi- “A fascinating tour of the coming intersection of politics, nanotechnology, and biology, by the lizing in defense of human enhancement, embracing the ideologi- leading champion of transhumanism. Anyone who wants to understand the tumultuous bio- ENGINEERING MEDICAL ETHICS INVITRO FERTILIZATION STEM-CELL cal diversity of their intellectual forebears in the democratic and ENGINEERING SEX SELECTION SEX ENGINEERING GENETIC politics of the next decade should read this book.” CLONING humanist movements. Transhumanists argue that human beings —GREGORY PENCE, author of Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning? should be guaranteed freedom to control their own bodies and Professor, Philosophy and School of Medicine, University of Alabama Medical School RESEARCH LIFE EXTENSION GENETIC PATENTS HUMAN GENETIC RESEARCH HUMAN GENETIC GENETIC HUMAN PATENTS GENETIC JAMES HUGHES, PH.D., teaches Health Policy at Trinity College in EXTENSION LIFE brains, and to use technology to transcend human limitations. Hartford Connecticut, and serves as Trinity’s Associate Director of Identifying the groups, thinkers, and arguments in each corner “Citizen Cyborg is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the dangers posed by radical Institutional Research and Planning. The executive director of the ENGINEERING CLONING GENETIC ENGINEERING SEX SELECTION of this debate, bioethicist and futurist James Hughes argues for a ENGINEERING STEM-CELL FERTILIZATION INVITRO transhumanism. James Hughes’s passionate and skilled advocacy forces us to confront the ETHICS MEDICAL World Transhumanist Association, Hughes produces the weekly third way, which he calls democratic transhumanism. This kind of society we want for ourselves and our children.” syndicated public affairs talk show Changesurfer Radio, writes the approach argues that we will achieve the best possible posthuman —WESLEY J. SMITH, author of Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World ASSISTED SUICIDE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FUTURISTIC VISIONS E EETO GENETIC SELECTION SEX NANOTECHNOLOGY Change Surfing column for Betterhumans.com, and contributes to INTELLIGENCE ARTIFICIAL future when we ensure technologies are safe, make them available and Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America the democratic transhumanist Cyborg Democracy blog. He lives in to everyone, and respect the right of individuals to control their own rural eastern Connecticut with his wife, the artist Monica Bock, and bodies. their two children. james hughes Hughes offers fresh and controversial answers for many other pressing biopolitical issues—including cloning, genetic patents, LIFE EXTENSION LIFE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE UNIVERSAL SUICIDE ASSISTED SELECTION SEX CLONING ENGINEERING GENETIC HUMAN PATENTS GENETIC STEM-CELL RESEARCH STEM-CELL FERTILIZATION INVITRO ETHICS MEDICAL ENGINEERING GENETIC NANOTECHNOLOGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARTIFICIAL (continued on back flap) 10/04 Westview Press A Member of the Perseus Books Group www.westviewpress.com CITIZEN CYBORG CITIZEN CYBORG Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future James Hughes A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © 2004 by Itzy Published in 2004 in the United States of America by Westview Press. Find us on the world wide web at www.westviewpress.com Westview Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, or call (800) 255-1514 or (617) 252-5298, or e-mail [email protected]. Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN-10 0-8133-4198-1 (hc.) ISBN-13 978-0-8133-4198-9 (hc.) For Althea and Tristan May your ride on the waves of change be long and full of adventure Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi SECTION I TOOLS FOR A BETTER YOU 1 Better Living Through Science and Democracy 3 2 Controlling the Body 11 3 Living Longer 23 4 Getting Smarter 33 5 Being Happier 43 SECTION II THE NEW BIOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE 6 From Future Shock to Biopolitics 55 7 Cyborg Citizenship 75 8 Defenders of Natural Law 107 9 Left-Wing BioLuddites 125 10 Upwingers, Extropians and Transhumanists 155 vii viii Contents SECTION III FREEDOM AND EQUALITY AMONG THE CYBORGS 11 Democratic Transhumanism 187 12 Transhuman Democracy 221 13 Defending the Future 241 14 A Sexy, High-Tech Vision for a Radically Democratic Future 259 Further Resources 267 Index 285 Acknowledgments First and foremost I would like to thank my excellent agent, Ted Wein- stein, who patiently guided me through the process of crafting my decade-old embryonic book into the perfect brain child I always wanted. My colleagues back at the MacLean Center for Clinical Ethics at the University of Chicago—Mark Siegler, John Lantos, Carol Stocking, Ann Dudley Goldblatt and the rest—provided a very congenial working envi- ronment for the six years that I worked and taught with them. This book was first conceived and outlined there and I wrote the book’s seminal essay, “Embracing Change with All Four Arms,” for a seminar on Health and Humanities that I ran for the Center. From the MacLean Center the line of causation runs to Calixto Machado, the coordinator of the International Network for the Defini- tion of Death, whose ongoing friendship and collaboration on the work of the Network led to my writing on brain death. My brain death essays led, in turn, to an invitation from Alcor to present my thoughts to them on “The Future of Death” in 2001, which led to a publication in the Jour- nal of Transhumanism. The editor of JOT (now JET), philosopher Mark Walker of the University of Toronto, became a friend and coconspirator and has contributed many acknowledged and unacknowledged ideas to this book. Without the support, friendship and feedback of the