30 research outputs found
Creating Future People
Creating Future People offers readers a fast-paced primer on how new genetic technologies will enable parents to influence the traits of their children, including their intelligence, moral capacities, physical appearance, and immune system. It deftly explains the science of gene editing and embryo selection, and raises the central moral questions with colorful language and a brisk style. Jonathan Anomaly takes seriously the diversity of preferences parents have, and the limits of public policy in regulating what could soon be a global market for reproductive technology. He argues that once embryo selection for complex traits happens it will change the moral landscape by altering the incentives parents face. All of us will take an interest in the traits everyone else selects, and this will present coordination problems that previous writers on genetic enhancement have failed to consider. Anomaly navigates difficult ethical issues with vivid language and scientifically informed speculation about how genetic engineering will transform humanity.
Key features:
Offers clear explanations of scientific concepts;
Explores important moral questions without academic jargon;
Brings discoveries from different fields together to give us a sense of where humanity is headed
Creating Future People
Creating Future People offers readers a fast-paced primer on how new genetic technologies will enable parents to influence the traits of their children, including their intelligence, moral capacities, physical appearance, and immune system. It deftly explains the science of gene editing and embryo selection, and raises the central moral questions with colorful language and a brisk style. Jonathan Anomaly takes seriously the diversity of preferences parents have, and the limits of public policy in regulating what could soon be a global market for reproductive technology. He argues that once embryo selection for complex traits happens it will change the moral landscape by altering the incentives parents face. All of us will take an interest in the traits everyone else selects, and this will present coordination problems that previous writers on genetic enhancement have failed to consider. Anomaly navigates difficult ethical issues with vivid language and scientifically informed speculation about how genetic engineering will transform humanity.
Key features:
Offers clear explanations of scientific concepts;
Explores important moral questions without academic jargon;
Brings discoveries from different fields together to give us a sense of where humanity is headed
Cultured meat could prevent the next pandemic
Wiebers & Feigin identify intensive agriculture and trade in exotic animals as the main sources of novel zoonotic viral infections. They recommend a transition away from meat. I would add that we would do well to invest in the mass production of cultured meat, derived from stem cells, as a radical alternative to animal agriculture
Enlightened Tribalism
Tribalism is often derided as a morally primitive form of human organization. But
for most of human history, people organized themselves into tribes that facilitated collective
action and provided their members with a sense of security and identity. In stark contrast,
liberal cosmopolitans have promoted the ideal of the world community. They tend to
diminish the moral importance of tribal attachments and instead claim that altruism should
have a more universal scope. We argue that although tribalism can encourage needless
conflict, it can also provide meaning, promote important virtues, and increase the long-run
viability of human groups better than liberal cosmopolitanism. We call the view that we
endorse “enlightened tribalism.” We end by identifying some of the problems tribalism can
create, and distinguishing the kind of tribalism that leads groups of people to flourish from
the kinds that lead to unnecessary suffering or self-destruction