Project

Discipline

neuroethics; designer babies; bioethics; cyborg anthropology; neuro-enhancement; genetic engineering; ethics; cosmetic enhancement; human enhancement; brain computer interface; doping

Lead
L’objectif du projet «Superhumains.ch » est d’informer et de dialoguer avec des collégiens et des étudiants professionnels sur les questions bioéthiques concernant l’utilisation des technologies émergentes sur les êtres humains.
Lay summary
Les récents progrès technologiques permettent de plus en plus de modifier technologiquement notre espèce. Beaucoup de « traits normaux » peuvent être artificiellement « améliorés ». Par conséquent, les questions éthiques de l’amélioration humaine ont commencé à être sérieusement prises au sérieux par les chercheurs du monde entier dans le milieu académique. Bien qu’une telle révolution technologique concerne la société dans son ensemble, les débats portant sur ces questions sont souvent limités au monde universitaire. Bien que le grand public soit souvent informé à travers les médias sur l’emploi de ces technologies émergentes, il est peu conscient des discussions portant sur ces questions et n’est pas nécessairement équipé pour participer pleinement aux discussions. L'objectif de « Superhumains.ch » est donc de créer un dialogue avec trois classes de collégiens et d'étudiants professionnels afin d’analyser ces questions d’amélioration humaine en réfléchissant et dialoguant avec des experts de notre institut dans des groupes de travail. La première étape du projet consiste à dialoguer et informer les participants sur les possibilités présentes et futures de modifications technologiques de notre espèce. La deuxième étape consiste à leur donner des outils conceptuels qui leur permettront de construire de solides arguments afin de répondre aux questions concernant l’amélioration humaine. La troisième étape donne aux participants l'occasion de partager leur réflexion à un plus large public à travers une exposition et une présentation de leurs projets. Ils écriront et illustreront également des articles en ligne, qui seront publiés sur le site Internet et blog « Superhumains.ch ».

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 19.10.2015

Lead
The goal of the project “Superhumains.ch” is to educate, inform and dialogue with high school (Matura) and professional students (Berufsschule) about bioethical issues regarding the use of emerging technologies on humans.
Lay summary
Recent technological progresses have made technological modifications of human beings a real possibility. Many ‘normal traits’ may be artificially enhanced. Therefore, ethical issues related to human enhancement have started to be seriously considered by scholars around the world. While such a technological kind of revolution concerns the society as a whole, debates addressing the ethical issues related to human enhancement have mainly been restricted to academics. While lay people are frequently informed by the media about the present – or future – use of emerging technologies to enhance human capacities, they are either largely unaware of the discussions addressing ethical issues of human enhancement or might lack some tools to understand and participate fully into the discussions. Additionally, the media has largely overlooked socio-ethical issues related to the utilization of those new technologies on humans. Basically, one notices two extreme reactions: the ‘yeah’ and ‘yuck’ factors, which describe emotional responses regarding the use of emerging technologies to enhance human beings. Such reactions are based on the difficulty to come up with well-argued and rational arguments, beyond emotional reactions that might come naturally first. However, biomedical ethics has developed normative tools that may be useful for lay people to transform emotional reactions into a rational and informed understanding of what is at stake regarding socio-ethical issues related to human enhancement. The objective of ‘Superhumains.ch’ is to dialogue with and give high school and professional students the opportunity to think, write and illustrate about these issues as part as their biology and/or art courses.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 19.10.2015

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

The goal of the project “Superhumains.ch” is to educate, inform and dialogue with high school (Matura) and professional students (Berufsschule) about bioethical issues regarding the use of emerging technologies on humans. Recent technological progresses have made technological modifications of human beings a real possibility. Many “normal traits” may be artificially “enhanced”. Therefore, socio-ethical issues related to human enhancement have started to be seriously considered by scholars around the world. While such a technological kind of revolution concerns the society as a whole, debates addressing the socio-ethical issues related to human enhancement have mainly been restricted to academics. While lay people are frequently informed by the media about the present - or future - use of emerging technologies to enhance human capacities, they are either largely unaware of the discussions addressing socio-ethical issues of human enhancement or might lack some tools to understand and participate fully into the discussions. Additionally, the media has largely overlooked socio-ethical issues related to the utilization of those new technologies on humans. Basically, one notices two extreme reactions: the “yeah” and “yuck” factors, which describe emotional responses regarding the use of emerging technologies to enhance human beings. Such reactions are based on the difficulty to come up with well-argued and rational arguments, beyond emotional reactions that might come naturally first. However, biomedical ethics has developed normative tools that may be useful for lay people to transform emotional reactions into a rational and informed understanding of what is at stake regarding socio-ethical issues related to human enhancement.The objective of “Superhumains.ch” is to dialogue with and give high school and professional students the opportunity to think, write and illustrate about these issues as part as their biology and/or art courses. The first step of the project is to dialogue and inform the students of both already existing as well as future potential possibilities to technologically modify human beings. The second step is to give them conceptual tools that will help them to construct strong arguments related to socio-ethical issues related to human enhancement. The third step is to give the students the opportunity to share their thinking about such issues to a larger public through an exhibition and a public presentation of their projects. They will write and illustrate online articles that will be published on a website and a blog. Ultimately, they will write a book chapter on a given thematic, where each chapter will be edited and compiled into an eBook. Teenagers from three different classes - 1) professional students in Geneva (Centre de formation professionnelle pour la construction), 2) high school students in visual art in Sion (Lycée-Collège de la Planta) and 3) biology high school students in Geneva- will participate in the project. Their work on the project will last one school year (2014-2015) and will be graded as their other schoolwork. After two and a half days of introduction classes at the Brocher’s foundation (Geneva, September 2014) during a retreat, participants will spend the rest of their school year (2014-2015) working on the project by group of 3-4 students. Each group will select a case study that they will cover in depth during the year. Case studies may concern, genetic engineering, neuro-enhancement, doping, cloning, brain-computer interface, cosmetic enhancement, designer babies or anti-ageing. Participants from the three schools will be in constant dialogue via Internet (e.g “Google Hangouts”). In March 2015, a workshop will be organized at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics (IBME) at the University of Zurich. This workshop could also be part of the 20 years anniversary celebration of the Ethik-Zentrum. Participants will have the opportunity to present their preliminary work, receive feedback and engage in discussion with experts. Finally, starting June 2015, they will present their work to in different exhibitions. From July to December 2015, their work will be compiled, edited and then published online (eBook), promoted on the website Superhumains.ch, on the University of Zurich website and on the website of the Swiss think tank Neohumanitas . For the duration of the project, participants will benefit from experts, resources and information provided by the IBME. This will give students the opportunity to learn about present and future socio-ethical issues related to the use of emerging technologies on humans and to be equipped with a set of conceptual tools giving them the capacity to ethically analyze the use of some technologies. It will also give them the opportunity to collaborate with students from other cantons. To have the next generation of thinkers and doers participating in this endeavor will be both exciting and intellectually stimulating. It is crucial to make teenagers aware of the kind of world they will be part of and what part of this world they may want to change for the better. The tools they will learn during that year will equip them adequately.