This semester, the Scripps College Humanities Institute will focus on the issue of biotechnology as it relates to the future of human nature. From January through April, the Humanities Institute will offer a series of lectures and films exploring this topic. The series will address how biotechnological developments would impact human life, will consider the promises and risks of emerging biotechnologies, and will discuss the moral, social, legal, economic, and political implications of the new biosciences: will these developments make us better humans? Will they inalterably change what it means to be human? Or will they make the very notion of human nature obsolete?
Lecturers will examine the rapidly evolving biotechnologies of genomics, genetic engineering, cloning, stem cell research, artificial reproduction, neurotechnologies, artificial intelligence, robotics, information technology, and nanotechnology. They will also discuss what is at stake in these attempts to better understand human life and transform human nature. With the potential development of “designer babies,” synthetic genes, genetic interventions, augmented cognitive powers, cyborgs, and other human enhancement technologies, we will have not only greater control over our biological limitations but also the ability to determine the future of our species.
Speakers will include Laurie Zoloth, the director of the Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University; Dr. William Hurlbut, member of the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University Medical Center and the President’s Council on Bioethics; and Edward McCabe, co-director of the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics and professor of genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine. All events are free and open to the public.
For more information, call the Scripps College Humanities Institute at (909) 621-8326.