Toward a critical theory of NBIC and its applications for human enhancement -

Abstract

The problem addressed in this work is how best to comprehend the nature of challenges posed by controversial technologies emerging at the convergence of biology, cognitive science and information technology at the nano-scale and their applications in human enhancement. The National Science Foundation refers to this convergence as NBIC (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno) and it is at this juncture that this work seeks to better understand how to approach the challenges posed by NBIC and its applications in human enhancement. My claim will be that Critical Theory could provide a fresh perspective from which to problematize and critique the process by which NBIC ethics discourse is conducted and the factors that direct research aspirations. This improved understanding could be utilized toward more constructively directing the processes of research development and implementation. This work problematizes the underlying foundations of NBIC human enhancement ethics discourse. By first completing a broad survey of NBIC human enhancement research horizons (in the areas of medicine, workplace and military) and its associated ethics literature (debates carried out between humanists and transhumanists in journal articles, books, government publications, etc.), it is then possible to posit that the mainstream debate is founded overwhelmingly in a positivist knowledge framework with under-considered political and economic drivers and that this perspective endows the discourse with a certain degree of myopia, especially regarding the discourse’s political milieu and the oppressive attributes of technology: (though, often, technology is proclaimed as emancipatory in nature). I will argue that Critical Theory may be productively applied to the discourse surrounding the ethics of NBIC in order to attain a better understanding of the powerful political and economic interests that affect the understanding of NBIC technologies in this ‘ethical’ discourse.