TRC 2: Human Identity, Enhancement and Biology

Leaders: Jason Robert, ASU, Clark A. Miller, ASU, and Joan Fujimura, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Goals

The goal of TRC 2 is to investigate the historical, philosophical, cultural and political dimensions of the interactions between human biology and human values in the context of new nanotechnologies.

2008 Highlights

The principal accomplishment of TRC 2 has been the imminent completion of the end-to-end (E2E) assessment, which addresses core questions of human identity, enhancement, and biology central to TRC 2, using data and analyses produced by each of the RTTA projects at CNS-ASU.

Principal among the E2E collaborations has been the conduct and analysis of a national representative, random digit dialed telephone survey (N=556) to explore public attitudes about the use of nanotechnologies for human enhancement, in complement to the National Citizens' Technology Forum (NCTF) on the same topic. Dietram Scheufele and Elizabeth Corley from RTTA 2, Clark Miller and graduate student Sean Hays from TRC 2, David Guston and Michael Cobb from RTTA 3, and Jameson Wetmore and Susan Cozzens from TRC 1 were all involved in the construction of the survey, which constitutes the first national survey of public attitudes in the United States toward human enhancement. It yielded three principal findings: 1) Respondents are relatively uninformed about human enhancement technologies, even in comparison to nanotechnology; 2) Respondents differentiate between nanotechnologies for improving impaired health outcomes (therapy), which they broadly support, and nanotechnologies for non-health related (enhancement) purposes, which they broadly oppose; and 3) Respondents' assessments of risks and benefits were balanced, but significant numbers indicated very little or no confidence in either business or government to protect the public from risks. Very few felt that nanotechnologies for human enhancement would be affordable for most Americans, and a strong majority, therefore, agreed that government should ensure equal access to enhancement technologies.

CNS-ASU's The Yearbook of Nanotechnology in Society, Volume 2 will serve as a final report for TRC 2/E2E, including chapters that: explore the ways in which nanoscale science and engineering (NSE) may influence self- and other-directed perceptions of moral status, focusing on the invasiveness and permanence of nano-neural prosthetics, by undergraduate Naufel; review and analyze a comprehensive literature on moral issues of "nanoethics," by doctoral student Milleson; analyze a database of approximately 10,000 technical articles (from RTTA 1) on NSE and the human brain, by graduate student Nulle and Miller; analyze a database of media articles (from RTTA 2) on NSE and the brain, by undergraduate Doom, Miller and Wiek; and assess the actions of the Cambridge Public Health Department in investigating the health and safety of nanoparticles, by doctoral student Conley.

In addition to contributions to the Yearbook from E2E work, ASU doctoral student Sean Hays is completing a dissertation that uses findings from the national survey and the NCTF in conjunction with theoretical analyses of issues in political deliberation and human enhancement.

TRC 2 co-leader Robert is preparing a manuscript, Chimeras, Cyborgs, and the Moral Limits of Science, in which NSE is one of a suite of emerging and enabling technologies that generates interesting normative questions about the limits, if any, of scientific inquiry.

TRC 2 accomplishments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison include: 1) Completion of a dissertation by doctoral student Leung (2007), under the direction of Fujimura, on nanotechnology in China; 2) Completion of a project by post-doctoral associate Kim (2008) on the history of directed evolution as an alternative history of NSE; 3) Completion of a project by graduate student Porter, under the direction of Linda Hogle, on "Nanotechnology as a Response to Viral Infections Outbreaks: Reconceptualizing Risk, Infection and Public Health Responses;" and 4) Substantial progress on a ethnographic project by postdoctoral associate Rajagopalan and co-leader Fujimura on the development and uses of nanotechnologies in and as a result of systems biology research.

RTTA 1: Research and Innovation System Analysis (RISA)
RTTA 2: Public Opinion and Values
RTTA 3: Deliberation and Participation
RTTA 4: Reflexivity, Assessment and Evaluation
TRC 1: Equity and Responsibility
TRC 2: Human Identity, Enhancement and Biology