Federal Regulation of Emerging Technologies and Its Implications for Transhumanist Applications of NBIC Technologies

This paper attempts to chart potential courses for federal regulation of emerging technologies in the United States, and its near-future implications for the development and proliferation of NBIC technologies in a transhumanist context. Drawing on significant regulatory actions by the FDA and FCC throughout the twentieth century, relevant historical regulatory trends are identified and extrapolated broadly across the next two to three decades. The importance of the NBIC paradigm is discussed in detail, alongside several examples of both current and potential NBIC technologies with transhumanist applications. It ultimately concludes that, in spite of recent congressional dysfunctions and lack of political will, the groundwork that has already been laid by major federal regulatory agencies well in advance of the wide commercialization of NBIC products is a promising sign for the eventual establishment of responsible and flexible regulatory schema for NBIC technologies