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March 2, 2009
Human
Enhancement and Nanotechnology Conference to Convene at Western Michigan
University
March
28-29 ethics meeting to cover issues in sports, military, policy, religion, and
more
KALAMAZOO, MI – March 2, 2009 – The Nanoethics Group today
announced its upcoming conference on the ethical and social impacts of human
enhancement technologies, especially related to nanotechnology. Held on
March 28-29 at Western Michigan University, the event is free and open to
the public.
For instance, bionic limbs (e.g., for greater strength or vision) and neural
chips implanted into one’s head (e.g., for on-demand access to the Internet
and software applications) may give significant advantages to the individual
in many areas, from sports to jobs to academia. But these technologies may
hold health risks—similar to steroid or Ritalin use for enhancement
purposes, as distinct from therapy—and raise ethical concerns related to
fairness, access, and general societal disruption.
“Who wouldn’t want to be stronger, smarter, and healthier—which is what we
strive for now through exercise, academics, diet, and medicine?” asked
Dr. Fritz Allhoff,
assistant professor at WMU’s philosophy department and co-founder of The
Nanoethics Group. “But using new, powerful
technologies to achieve the same result seems to push our bodies and minds
beyond their natural limits, opening the possibility of unintended or
unforeseen results and harms.”
The conference will offer presentations by leading researchers and rising
stars in the field, from such top organizations as: Albany School of
Medicine, Arizona State Univ., Carnegie Mellon, General Dynamics, IBM,
Indiana Univ., Michigan State Univ., Northeastern Univ., Oxford Univ.,
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Trinity College, Univ. of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Yale.
The conference is organized by faculty at California Polytechnic State
Univ., Dartmouth College, Univ. of Delaware, and Western Michigan
University. It is supported by funding from Western Michigan Univ. as well
as the US National Science Foundation, under NSF awards # 0620694 and
0621021, as well as Delaware NSF-EPSCoR grant # EPS-0447610.
For more information, registration, directions, and the full line-up of
speakers, please visit our new website at:
www.humanenhance.com.
ABOUT THE NANOETHICS GROUP
The Nanoethics Group (www.nanoethics.org)
is organized under the umbrella of the Ethics + Emerging Technologies Group
(www.emergingethics.com),
based at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo—a non-partisan research and educational
organization focused on the risk, ethical, and social impacts of emerging
technologies, such as robotics and nanotechnology.
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