Abstract
Many observers believe that the “converging technologies” of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technologies, and cognitive science (NBIC) could lead to radical and pervasive enhancements of human abilities. Both supporters and critics of NBIC technologies acknowledge that their continued development and deployment portend dramatic social and cultural challenges. Stakeholders see a need for informed citizen input early in the process of developing such technologies. Indeed, the legislation that authorizes the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (P.L. 108–93) speaks to the importance of public input in decision-making about such research and development.
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Technical background on the generation of the scenes may be found in C. Selin (2011). “Negotiating Plausibility: Intervening in the Future of Nanotechnology.” Science and Engineering Ethics 17(4):723–37.
Selected Further Readings
Berloznik, R., R. Casert, C. Enzing, M. van Lieshout, and A. Versleijen. 2006. Technology assessment on converging technologies: Literature study and vision assessment [Background document for the STOA Workshop].Brussels: European Parliament.
Bostrom, N. 2003. Human genetic enhancements: A transhumanist perspective. Journal of Value Inquiry 37(4): 493–506.
ETC Group. 2006. NanotechRX: Medical applications of nano-scale technologies: What impact on marginalized communities? (www.etcgroup.org).
Fukuyama, F. 2004. The world’s most dangerous idea: Transhumanism. Foreign Policy (Sept/Oct):42–43.
Lee, P., and M. Robra. 2005. Science, faith and new technologies: Transforming life. Vol. 1, Convergent technologies. Geneva: World Council of Churches.
Nanotechnology Task Force. 2007. Nanotechnology: A report of the US food and drug administration. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
President’s Council on Bioethics. 2003. Beyond therapy: Biotechnology and the pursuit of happiness. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Roco, M., and W. Bainbridge, eds. 2002. Converging technologies for improving human performance: Nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. Arlington: National Science Foundation and Department of Commerce report; published by Springer in 2003, http://wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/1/NBIC_report.pdf.
Taylor, M.R. 2006. Regulating the products of nanotechnology: Does FDA have the tools it needs? Project on emerging nanotechnologies. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center.
Zonnefeld, L., H. Dijstelbloem, and D. Ringoir, eds. 2008. Reshaping the human condition: Exploring human enhancement. The Hague: Rathenau Institute, in collaboration with the British Embassy, Science and Innovation Network, and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
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Appendices
List of Facilitation Teams at Participating Universities
Arizona State University
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David Guston, Professor of Political Science and Director, CNS-ASU
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Cynthia Selin, Assistant Research Professor, CNS-ASU
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Roxanne Wheelock, Graduate Assistant, CNS-ASU
Colorado School of Mines
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Carl Mitcham, Professor, Director, Hennebach Program in the Humanities
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Jennifer Schneider, Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts & International Studies
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Susan Cozzens, Associate Dean of Research, Ivan Allen College
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Ravtosh Bal, Graduate Assistant, School of Public Policy/Georgia State University
University of California, Berkeley
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David Winickoff, Assistant Professor of Bioethics and Society
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Mark Philbrick, Graduate Assistant, Department of Environment, and Management
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Javiera Barandiaran, Graduate Assistant, Goldman School of Public Policy
University of New Hampshire
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Tom Kelly, Professor, Director, University Office of Sustainability
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Elisabeth Farrell, Program Coordinator, Culture & Sustainability, Food, & Society Initiatives
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Daniel Kleinman, Professor of Rural Sociology
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Jason Delborne, Post-doctoral Research Associate, Holz Center for Science and Technology Studies
Summary Demographic Statistics
Applicant | Panelists | National | |
---|---|---|---|
Sex | 42% male | 50% male | 49% male |
58% female | 50% female | 51% female | |
Education | 25% some college | 29% some college | 50% some college |
33% college degree | 31% college degree | or degree | |
33% grad school | 31% grad school | 9% grad school | |
Party ID | 48% democrat | 44% democrat | 36% democrat |
11% republican | 9% republican | 27% republican | |
30% independent | 36% independent | 37% independent | |
Political | 48% liberal | 41% liberal | 25% liberal |
Ideology | 14% conservative | 14% conservative | 36% conservative |
28% moderate | 27% moderate | 35% moderate | |
Race | 71% White | 65% White | 66% White |
16% Black | 15% Black | 12% Black | |
5% Asian | 6% Asian | 4% Asian | |
5% Hispanic | 7% Hispanic | 15% Hispanic | |
<1% Native Amer | 2% Native Amer | ||
Household | 9% < $15K | 9% < $15K | |
Income | 16% > $15K < $35K | 21% > $15K < $$35K | |
21% > $35K < $50K | 16% > $35K < $50K | Median household | |
23% .$50K < $75K | 20% > $50K ,$75K | income = $46K | |
15% > $75K < $100K | 16% > $75K < $100K | ||
16% > $199K | 17% > $100K | ||
Median age | 37 years old | 39 years old | 37 years old |
Future Scenes of Nanotechnology and Human Enhancement Included in Background Materials
Included in the background material: “The following fictional scenes are extrapolations from current nanoscale research; they have been vetted for their technical plausibility by scientists currently working in nanoscale research. We hope these scenes will stimulate you to reflect upon the meanings, potentials, and problems surrounding nanotechnology. The goal is to cultivate our collective ability to govern the implications of our technological ingenuity.”Footnote 1
3.1 Engineered Tissues
What are your thoughts on synthetically grown tissues and organs? Using tissue-printing technology, this system is able to build tissues with a vascular structure enabling the building of new organs.
Newly developed artificial tissues have been approved for use in wound healing as well as for skin grafts. These artificial tissues are made by “seeding” cells into a bioengineered scaffold where upon they reorganize it into a material suitable for use as an artificial tissue. In the process of tissue engineering, the cell makes use of the scaffold components as nutrients. The starting scaffold is usually three-dimensional Jell-O like material called a collagen gel. Made up mostly of water, sugars, and carbohydrates the gel also contains fibrous proteins like collagen, fibrin, and fibronectin, which allow the cells to interact with the scaffold. The fibrous proteins are large and tend to form bundles of fibers, or fibrils. After some time the cells use up the scaffold materials reorganizing some of them into an artificial tissue that can then be used for surgical procedures.
Because the tissue is grown from the patient’s own cells there is almost never any rejection of the transplant. In some cases such as cancerous tissues, this is not possible. However, using compatible cells from an appropriate donor gives a high success rate with no risk to the cell donor. Further developments of tissue engineers have made it possible to replace not only tissues, but also organs. One such technology is tissue printing which would allow one to produce whole organs from gel scaffolding and cells in an ingenious way.
This advanced technique allows cells to be arranged within the scaffold in order to shape the tissue into larger structures. Cells are arranged by inserting them into a device analogous to an inkjet printer where cells are ink. The cells are then printed in a two dimensional pattern such as a circle. After a circle of cells is laid down on top of a sheet of scaffold, another layer of scaffold is placed on top, followed by yet another circle of cells and another sheet of scaffold. Several circles placed in this way will reorganize the scaffold to form a tubular tissue, thus creating a tissue with a vascular system. This is one of the biggest breakthroughs in tissue engineering, because it allows blood and nutrients to flow through the artificial tissue. Tissue printing thus allows us to develop microstructures. These developments have lead to externally grown tissues that can replace vital organs, as well as more general tissues like skin, bone, muscles, and arteries. The lack of transplant materials is no longer a problem.
3.2 Living with a Brain Chip
What are your thoughts on using cranial chips to enhance cognition? This cranial chip features a data feed that puts information into the brain while the user is resting.
The next generation of cranial chip implants enables data transmission directly to the brain during rest without interfering with sleep. This data feed feature dramatically decreases the amount of time needed to assimilate new data each day, in fact the chipped person will just wake up knowing what was streamed into their head the previous night. The presence of the chip interferes with REM sleep, but the new data feed does not actually disrupt or alter in any way the sleep of the person with the implant.
The new disruptor cage is constructed out of more advanced materials that are lighter and more comfortable for the wearer. No longer is it necessary to lock head, neck, and torso in to a rigid structure, the new generation of disruptor cages need only to lock to the head and upper vertebrae of the neck. This new format still provides the same protection against magnetic damage to the brain, advances in real time processing now allow for emergency shut off if the magnetic pulses are not directed exactly at the chip. The use of rare earth magnets in a wider net around the cranium makes for a more thorough disruption of the chip (even while undergoing data feed). This improves sleep by removing annoying dream sequences, restlessness, or need for sedatives previously common in past cranial chip implants.
These advances in cranial chip disruptors will work with all cranial chips. However, those with the newer (Gen. 3.4 or higher) cranial chips will see the most improvements and those who receive the soon to be released Gen. 4.0 will be able to take advantage of many new options. The 4.0 chips, like those before it, are a sandwich of carbon nanotubes, and gate molecules that are covered in neural growth promoters. The 4.0 chip features advances in neuron-to-chip interface, allowing more neurons to contact the chip in ways that are more functional. This in turn increases the rate of information in and out of the chip, further increasing cognitive ability.
With this increase in connectivity of brain to chip and chip to brain comes increased assimilation and learning time. After implantation (still an outpatient procedure), it will take 30–90 days of neuron growth around the chip for it and the brain to become fully integrated. Upon chip integration, the newly chipped person will need to attend 9 months of intensive classroom based courses, where they are taught new ways to think, process thoughts, and to categorize memories and data.
It is during this time, as the chip becomes enabled, that they will begin to feel the effects of the continuously running chip. As the brain becomes dependant on the chip, the implantee will find it difficult to sleep. The first effects will be tossing and turning at night, followed by repetitive dreams, and finally inability to sleep. It is at this point that the cranial chip disruptor is needed and technicians will work with the chip-implanted person (and spouse if necessary) insuring proper technique in fitting the disruptor, allowing the user to have the best nights sleep ever.
3.3 Automated Sewer Surveillance
What are your thoughts on tracking individuals using their genetic material? Ultra fast sequencing technology is used to analyze the DNA in harvested wastewater, thus screening large populations.
Capitalizing on recent advances in very fast genome sequencing technologies, Sentinel Genetics is pleased to offer its new real-time in-stream wastewater sequencing system. Genetic material is randomly harvested from the waste-stream, usually at the sewage treatment facility. The automated system then prepares the DNA for sequencing and individual samples can be sequenced to the extent necessary to compare it to the National Registry in less than 1 s. A small bank of sequencers can process tens of thousands of samples each hour.
Sentinel Genetics developed the single strand sequencing technology, which works by quickly pulling strands of DNA through tiny nanoscale pores. Breakthroughs in micro and nanoscale mechanical devices that are small enough to automate preparations with the very small DNA strands have allowed for sequencing prices as low as pennies per thousands. Due to the large amount of non-human DNA that is in a wastewater stream, it was only through this high speed processing of samples at low price that large scale screening of municipal populations could become cost beneficial.
The database of America’s genetic information has been available to law enforcement agencies since the inception of the United States Genomic Registry, but only in the last several years has it been complete enough to look for individuals. The Sentinel Genetics Sequencer data processing system is fully compatible with the Registry and provides advanced algorithms for comparing genomic and partial genomic material against the data in the Registry. By combining the massive throughput of the treatment-facility-based sequencer bank with portable units for signal triangulation through upstream testing, it is possible to track the location of individuals in metropolitan areas.
3.4 Disease Detector
What are your thoughts on diagnosing disease before you are ill? Doc in the Box is a device that tracks an individuals protein levels to monitor changes that imply early stage illness or disease before symptoms emerge.
BioMarker Detector created Doc in a Box with the ability to track a person’s health status on a day-to-day basis from the comfort of their home. Doc in a Box is able to detect and record the health level of an individual by examining multiple proteins that are present in their blood, which are collected through a nearly invisible needle causing no detectable pain. The proteins present in the blood will fluctuate, either up or down, as the body changes. These changes can be due to many different naturally occurring events such as puberty, pregnancy, or menopause, along with more unfortunate changes such as getting cancer, flu, or Alzheimer’s disease. Doc in a Box is able to measure the amounts of specific proteins, or biomarkers, which are correlated to particular diseases, infections, or changes in the human body. These biomarkers are measured and recorded over time as health markers and tracked to develop a particular pattern specific for each individual called a biosignature. When there is a change in the body, there is an immediate change in the biomarkers outside the range of the biosignature and detected by Doc in a Box.
Since the Doc in a Box is detecting markers on the molecular level, users will be informed of a cold or flu before a sore throat or cough ever occur. With the ability of Doc in the Box to detect diseases pre-symptomatically, people will be able to get treatment before they feel the illness and far before it is too late to treat the disease. For cancer patients, there will be biological implications of cancer before a tumor develops and before the cancer has time to spread. For Alzheimer’s patients, early detection of biomarker changes will enable more effective treatment options, possibly before any memory loss.
3.5 Barless Prison
What are your thoughts on a barless prison? NanoCage has developed a caged drug that is injected into prisoners that becomes activated by radio control if prisons cross-designated boundaries.
Ever since the first true nanomedicine product came on the market, a caged cancer drug that releases once bound to the cancer cell, researchers have been working towards utilizing these technologies for control purposes. This week it was announced that NanoCage, in collaboration with United Penitentiary Systems, have developed the first barless prison. Upon entry, inmates are injected with a cocktail of caged drugs that have a variety of effects when released via radio control. The base technology utilizes focused radio waves to target deep tissue tumors in places such as the abdominal cavity.
The basis for security is a net of radio transmitters that surrounds the facility. As a prisoner crosses the perimeter threshold, the radio signals will cause the release of one type of caged drug. For instance, if the prisoner crosses an inner ‘warning’ perimeter, a drug will be released that causes extreme vertigo and mild nausea. If the prisoner continues, the next perimeter will signal the release of incapacitating sedatives, and if the next signal is reached, it will trigger a fatal dose of narcotics. These perimeters are spaced far enough apart to prevent unintentional crossing of more than the first.
The caged drug is connected to an antenna that upon receipt of a specific radio signal causes the physical break down of the carbon-nanotube-based cage. The package including the antenna is roughly half the size of a red blood cell. A coating of biocompatible molecules minimizes the physiological side effects from the caged drugs. There are, on very rare occasions, mild inflammatory responses that can be treated with over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs. Because some degradation of the caged drugs occurs naturally in the body, supplemental injections are advised every 6 weeks and always after drugs have been released.
Guards in barless facilities will be equipped with radio transmitters that can be aimed at individual inmates or larger areas to quell local unrest. The transmitters used by the guards will be unable to access the frequencies that trigger the fatal dosages.
NanoCage and United Penitentiary Systems claim this is the new model for working prisons, where inmate labor is unencumbered by restraints or monitoring devices and physical investment costs are not much more than traditional factories. The perimeter of these facilities need only be physically secured to keep people from trespassing on the grounds.
3.6 Bionic Eyes
What are your thoughts on visual enhancement? Opti-scan is an optical implant that looks and functions like a normal eye, yet has new enhancements enabling magnification, visualizing infrared, and night vision.
Penetrode Inc. presents the Opti-scan visual enhancement system, the latest in ocular prosthetics. Opti-scan is capable not only of restoring sight to the blind but also of providing them with additional capabilities beyond those of the normally sighted. The housing of the implant is designed to mimic the external appearance of the eye and comes with an iris capable of changing colors to suit the daily tastes of our customers. A series of small motors implanted within the eye socket will provide human like eye movements while allowing for much greater tracking speeds than is possible with normal muscle.
The heart of the technology is a thin film photosensitive ceramic panel that is located in the back of the eye. These panels take light signals and transduce them into electrical signals that stimulate the ganglial cells. The stimulated ganglial cells allow the signal to be processed along the optical nerve to the visual cortex. If there is extensive damage to the ganglial cells or the optical nerve then the signal can be routed directly to the lateral genicuate nucleus, which is where the optic nerve connects to the visual cortex.
A massive zoom/magnification function will allow for telescopic sight similar to that of a high-grade set of binoculars and the ability to greatly magnify nearby objects achieving magnification power similar to that of many laboratory microscopes. Opti-scan uses digital magnification features similar to those found in most digital cameras to achieve this additional functionality. Opti-scan is also available with night vision, thermal imaging, and high definition video and still photo capture. Images captured through the Opti-scan can be downloaded via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to any personal computing device. Depending upon the condition of your optic nerve, Opti-scan can be implanted through outpatient surgery and after a brief, 2-week course of training and therapy, you, and your new eyes will be fully functional.
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Hamlett, P., Cobb, M.D., Guston, D.H. (2013). National Citizens’ Technology Forum: Nanotechnologies and Human Enhancement. In: Hays, S., Robert, J., Miller, C., Bennett, I. (eds) Nanotechnology, the Brain, and the Future. Yearbook of Nanotechnology in Society, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1787-9_16
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