Nanoethics and Human Enhancement: A Critical Evaluation of Recent Arguments

Human enhancement – our ability to use technology to enhance our bodies and minds, as opposed to its application for therapeutic purposes – is a critical issue facing nanotechnology. It will be involved in some of the near-term applications of nanotechnology, with such research labs as MIT’s Institute for Soldier Technologies working on exoskeletons and other innovations that increase human strength and capabilities. It is also a core issue related to far-term predictions in nanotechnology, such as longevity, nanomedicine, artificial intelligence and other issues

Introduction: Nanotechnology, Society, and Ethics*

Nanoethics, or the study of nanotechnology's ethical and social implications, is an emerging but controversial field. Outside of the industry and academia, most people are first introduced to nanotechnology through fictional works that posit scenarios -which scientists largely reject -of self-replicating "nanobots" running amok like a pandemic virus But within the nanotechnology industry, there is a strange schizophrenia afoot. We have heard about the wonderful things that nanotechnology might enable -not just today's mundane products, such as better sports equipment or cosmetics, but the truly fantastic applications. Our imagination seems to be our only limit, as scientists and other experts predict such innovations as: toxin-eating nanobots; exoskeletons that enable us to leap walls in a single bound; affordable space travel for everyone; nanofactories that can make anything we want; and even near-immortality. Yet nearly in the same breath, many advocates continue to deny or to ignore that nanotechnology will cause any significant disruptions or raise any serious ethical questions that we have to worry about -dismissively labeling these as "hype" (New Atlantis, 2004). But how is this possible? How can such a brave new science, one that is so full of potential that it has been called the "Next Industrial Revolution" by governments and scientists, not also impact our relationships, society, environment, economy, or even global politics in profound ways? 1 Let's take a step back and consider any given technology we have created: gunpowder, the printing press, the camera, the automobile, nuclear power, the computer, Prozac, Viagra, the mobile phone, the Internet. Undoubtedly, these have brought us much good, but each has also changed society in important, fundamental ways and caused new problems, such as increased pollution, urban sprawl, cyber-crimes, privacy concerns, intellectual property concerns, drug dependencies, new cases of * Part of this paper is based upon earlier works, includin