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Press Release – Immediate release
Edinburgh International Science Festival
Monday 4 April 2005, 17.30-19.00 p.m.
Royal Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street
Remaking Humans - the Implications of Nanotechnology
Organised by the Society, Religion and Technology Project, Church of Scotland
Sponsored by the Institute of Nanotechnology
Should we humans use the emerging potential of new technologies to redesign ourselves?
This a question posed in an evening debate at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, as three distinguished speakers look at what may happen as the new world of nanotechnology converges with advances in biotechnology, genetics, computing and IT, and brain science.
Nanotechnology is about manipulating things at the scale of individual molecules, tiny particles, or single biological cells into useful systems, materials and devices. There is a potentially huge range of applications and it's raised both premature hopes and fears. We will seek to be realistic about what's actually going on, what is likely to come in future, and what ethical issues could we be facing soon as a result of applying nanotechology to humans?
Del Stark, business development manager of the Stirling-based Institute of Nanotechnology, explains what nanotechnology is, how it's beginning to be used in medicine, and how it might be used in future. Imagine tiny machines inside the body delivering life-saving chemicals to cancerous cells. Or performance-enhancing chips in the brain helping disabled people, or using better prosthetic limbs. It might be an instant read-out of your DNA so your GP can prescribe an antibiotic which matches your genetic make up.
Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, neuroscientist, Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford University will examine the potential of converging technologies to change the way we think about ourselves. A brain implant could help alleviate chronic nerve conditions and enable a paralysed person to will a cursor to move on a computer screen. But what could we do with the able bodied - heightening the senses, expanding our vision into the infrared, adding new genes on artificial chromosomes, or enabling anyone of any age to reproduce simply by taking genetic material to produce a child. She asks, if none of the familiar categories remain fixed, does this mark an end of the traditional human life narrative?
Dr Donald Bruce, director of the Society Religion and Technology Project, Church of Scotland asks what should we do and what should we not do? We welcome an implant to help the disabled but ought we say no to using it to supercharge an athlete or enhancing a soldier? Where does medicine end and human redesigning begin? And what beliefs about human nature and potential should be guiding this? He criticises 'transhumanist' ideas of pushing forward evolution by technologically changing humans - these are scientifically naive, socially unjust, and philosophically misguided about what's really wrong with us.
Contacts: Dr Donald Bruce, SRT Project, Tel. 0131-240 2250, Fax 0131-240 2239, srtp@srtp.org.uk http://www.srtp.org.uk
Church of Scotland Press Office tel. 0131- 240 2243
Pauline Mullen, Edinburgh Science Festival, 0131-558 7666 ext 6, pauline@scifest.demon.co.uk
