Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Lots going on

In addition to my recent CBC interview, I've got a couple of other things on the go.

I was recently contacted by the Gale Group who asked to re-publish an old article of mine for an undergraduate ethics text. The column is "The Separation of Church and Bioethics," in which I call for the secularization of bioethics and describe how Christian bioethics can be problematic.

Also, Beliefnet asked me to offer an opposing viewpoint to their interview of bioconservative Nigel Cameron. I asked for the same Q&A format and I am now finalizing the final version. Here are the questions I was asked:
  • What advantages or benefits do you see coming from nanotechnology in the future?
  • What problems, crimes, or disadvantages do you foresee?
  • How would you answer critics concerned about a surveillance society—constant monitoring and tracking?
  • How can society minimize crimes committed via nanotechnology?
  • How do you envision people might be able to “upgrade” their brains by using chips, etc.?
  • There are concerns that “cosmetic neurology” and related things will make us less than human. How do you respond?
  • How do you react to fears that nano-enhanced humans will become supercomputing brains with powerful machine-enhanced bodies, lording it over the plebes who can’t afford chips?
  • Will art really be art if the artist’s brain is enhanced by technology? For example, a painter or musician?
  • Some people feel that certain types of suffering or “malfunctioning,” while unpleasant, can make us more human and more empathetic: for example, living with mild memory loss. Will we be less human if everything about us—our minds, our memories, our bodies—is “fixed”?
  • I am very pleased with my answers and am looking forward to seeing this published. I'll post a link once it's posted on Beliefnet.

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