Technology and the Memetic Self

2014 ◽  
pp. 225-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Falck
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Cultural Influence ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Technological Evolution ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
Narrative Consciousness

This chapter provides an overview of current theories in philosophy of mind as they relate to cultural and technological evolution. The focus is to examine the influence of technology on identity formation by introducing the concept of “narrative consciousness,” the process of constructing a memetic self model, or “selfplex.” The human capacity to construct a “selfplex” evolved from an imitation-based system of memetic replication, enabled by and coevolved with technology over the last 50,000 years. The chapter examines the following four points: (1) an introduction of the idea of “narrative consciousness”; (2) a reframing of technology as “tools that enable imitation and sharing,” thereby facilitating the development of memes and the selfplex; (3) societal implications of narrative consciousness; and (4) the cultural influence of Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) on the selfplex and practical considerations for practitioners.

Technic Self-Determination

2014 ◽  
pp. 203-224
Author(s):  
Franco Cortese
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Will ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter addresses concerns that the development and proliferation of Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) will be (a) dehumanizing and a threat to human dignity and (b) a threat to our autonomy and sovereignty as individuals. Contrarily, HET can be shown to constitute the most effective foreseeable means of increasing the autonomy and sovereignty of individual members of society. Furthermore, this chapter elaborates the position that the use of HET exemplifies—and indeed even intensifies—our most human capacity and faculty, namely the desire for increased self-determination (i.e., control over the determining circumstances and conditions of our own selves and lives), which is referred to as the will toward self-determination. Based upon this position, arguably, the use of HET bears fundamental ontological continuity with the human condition in general and with the historically ubiquitous will toward self-determination in particular as it is today and has been in the past. HET will not be a dehumanizing force, but will rather serve to increase the very capacity and characteristic that characterizes us as human more accurately than anything else.

The Technoethical Ethos of Technic Self-Determination

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Francesco Albert Bosco Cortese
Keyword(s):  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Will ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
The Human Condition

This paper addresses concerns that the development and proliferation of Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) will be (a) dehumanizing and (b) a threat to our autonomy and sovereignty as individuals. The paper argues contrarily that HET constitutes nothing less than one of the most effective foreseeable means of increasing the autonomy and sovereignty of individual members of society. Furthermore, it elaborates the position that the use of HET exemplifies – and indeed even intensifies – our most human capacity and faculty: namely the desire for increased self-determination, which is referred to as the will toward self-determination. Based upon this position, the paper argues that the use of HET bears fundamental ontological continuity with the human condition in general and with the historically-ubiquitous will toward self-determination in particular. HET will not be a dehumanizing force, but will rather serve to increase the very capacity that characterizes us as human more accurately than anything else.

The Techoethical Ethos of Technic Self-Determination

2018 ◽  
pp. 74-104
Author(s):  
Francesco Albert Bosco Cortese
Keyword(s):  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Will ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter addresses concerns that the development and proliferation of human enhancement technologies (HET) will be dehumanizing and a threat to our autonomy and sovereignty as individuals. The chapter argues contrarily that HET constitutes nothing less than one of the most effective foreseeable means of increasing the autonomy and sovereignty of individual members of society. Furthermore, it elaborates the position that the use of HET exemplifies—and indeed even intensifies—our most human capacity and faculty, namely the desire for increased self-determination, which is referred to as the will toward self-determination. Based upon this position, the chapter argues that the use of HET bears fundamental ontological continuity with the human condition in general and with the historically ubiquitous will toward self-determination in particular. HET will not be a dehumanizing force, but will rather serve to increase the very capacity that characterizes us as human more accurately than anything else.

The Techoethical Ethos of Technic Self-Determination

2021 ◽  
pp. 70-100
Author(s):  
Francesco Albert Bosco Cortese
Keyword(s):  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Will ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
The Human Condition

This chapter addresses concerns that the development and proliferation of human enhancement technologies (HET) will be dehumanizing and a threat to our autonomy and sovereignty as individuals. The chapter argues contrarily that HET constitutes nothing less than one of the most effective foreseeable means of increasing the autonomy and sovereignty of individual members of society. Furthermore, it elaborates the position that the use of HET exemplifies—and indeed even intensifies—our most human capacity and faculty, namely the desire for increased self-determination, which is referred to as the will toward self-determination. Based upon this position, the chapter argues that the use of HET bears fundamental ontological continuity with the human condition in general and with the historically ubiquitous will toward self-determination in particular. HET will not be a dehumanizing force, but will rather serve to increase the very capacity that characterizes us as human more accurately than anything else.

The Technoethical Ethos of Technic Self-Determination

2017 ◽  
pp. 791-820
Author(s):  
Francesco Albert Bosco Cortese
Keyword(s):  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Will ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
The Human Condition

This paper addresses concerns that the development and proliferation of Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) will be (a) dehumanizing and (b) a threat to our autonomy and sovereignty as individuals. The paper argues contrarily that HET constitutes nothing less than one of the most effective foreseeable means of increasing the autonomy and sovereignty of individual members of society. Furthermore, it elaborates the position that the use of HET exemplifies – and indeed even intensifies – our most human capacity and faculty: namely the desire for increased self-determination, which is referred to as the will toward self-determination. Based upon this position, the paper argues that the use of HET bears fundamental ontological continuity with the human condition in general and with the historically-ubiquitous will toward self-determination in particular. HET will not be a dehumanizing force, but will rather serve to increase the very capacity that characterizes us as human more accurately than anything else.

Redefining the Boundaries of Humanity and the Human Body

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
José M. Galván ◽  
Rocci Luppicini
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Ethical Question ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Technological Society ◽  
Technical Ability ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

What are the boundaries of humanity and the human body within our evolving technological society? Within the field of technoethics, inquiry into the origins of the species is both a biological and ethical question as scholars attempt to grapple with conflicting views of what it means to be human and what attributes are core to human beings within the era of human enhancement technologies. Based on a historical and conceptual analysis, this chapter uses a technoethical lens to discuss defining characteristics of the human species as homo technicus. Under this framework, both symbolic capacity and technical ability are assumed to be grounded within the free and ethical nature of human beings. Ideas derived from Modernity and Postmodernity are drawn upon to provide a more encompassing view of humans that accommodates both its technical and ethical dimensions as homo technicus.

scholarly journals The Ethics of Genetic Cognitive Enhancement: Gene Editing or Embryo Selection?

Philosophies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Marcelo de Araujo
Keyword(s):  
Gene Editing ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Embryo Selection ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Human Genomics ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

Recent research with human embryos, in different parts of the world, has sparked a new debate on the ethics of genetic human enhancement. This debate, however, has mainly focused on gene-editing technologies, especially CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Less attention has been given to the prospect of pursuing genetic human enhancement by means of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) in conjunction with in vitro gametogenesis, genome-wide association studies, and embryo selection. This article examines the different ethical implications of the quest for cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing on the one hand, and embryo selection on the other. The article focuses on the ethics of cognitive enhancement by means of embryo selection, as this technology is more likely to become commercially available before cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing. This article argues that the philosophical debate on the ethics of enhancement should take into consideration public attitudes to research on human genomics and human enhancement technologies. The article discusses, then, some of the recent findings of the SIENNA Project, which in 2019 conducted a survey on public attitudes to human genomics and human enhancement technologies in 11 countries (France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, and United States).

Knowing What to Wish For

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Vallor ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Enhancement Technologies ◽  
Normative Content ◽  
The Way

Through an analysis of the appeals to human dignity used by bioconservatives to criticize transhumanist proposals for aggressive development of human enhancement technologies, I identify an implicit tension within such appeals that renders them internally incoherent and ultimately unpersuasive. However, I point the way to a more compelling objection to radical human enhancement available to bioconservatives, a version of the argument from hubris that employs an Aristotelian account of prudential virtue in order to challenge the normative content of the liberal transhumanist vision. The vulnerability of the transhumanist project to this argument is underscored by Ortega y Gasset’s critique of technological mass culture, in which he suggests that humans may increasingly lack the prudential virtues needed to identify and authentically choose those ends worthy of technological pursuit.

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