Human Enhancement
- Submitted by: Soma15
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- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 08/25/2015 08:18 AM
- Pages: 3
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What is Human Enhancement?
Human enhancement is any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body by natural or artificial means.1 It is the use of technology to adopt and alter human capacities and characteristics. Human enhancement refers to the general application of the convergence nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC) to improve human performance.2
Human enhancement goes parallel with human genetic engineering, which is the process of manually adding new DNA to an organism. The goal is to add one or more new traits that are not already foud in that organism. Thus, human genetic engineering is one of methods of human enhancement, as it allows an alteration in the gene sequence which might ultimately cause various benefits, such as tolerance to specific diseases and more.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use – Galileo Galilei3
It is evident that along with time, from the start of human kind, we have been trying to prgoress, thus we have practiced 'natural' enhancement along the way. There have been various leads and hints left behind on earth, which point to the fact the ways in which humans adapted to change. Therefore, humans had the intellect capacity to adapt and evolve, and this gave us an upper hand compared to the other species on earth.
The earliest form of human enhancement identifies was in 1500 B.C, by the Egyptian who used a primitive form of prosthetics in the pharaoh's body, to help stabilize it. From then onwards, the field of human enhancement has come a long way. With the continung adbancements in science and technology, we have seen the rise of various artificial enhancement techniques such as LASIK, plastic surgery, prosthetics, in Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and many more.
But in the recent years, various barriers have been brought up...
Human enhancement is any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body by natural or artificial means.1 It is the use of technology to adopt and alter human capacities and characteristics. Human enhancement refers to the general application of the convergence nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science (NBIC) to improve human performance.2
Human enhancement goes parallel with human genetic engineering, which is the process of manually adding new DNA to an organism. The goal is to add one or more new traits that are not already foud in that organism. Thus, human genetic engineering is one of methods of human enhancement, as it allows an alteration in the gene sequence which might ultimately cause various benefits, such as tolerance to specific diseases and more.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use – Galileo Galilei3
It is evident that along with time, from the start of human kind, we have been trying to prgoress, thus we have practiced 'natural' enhancement along the way. There have been various leads and hints left behind on earth, which point to the fact the ways in which humans adapted to change. Therefore, humans had the intellect capacity to adapt and evolve, and this gave us an upper hand compared to the other species on earth.
The earliest form of human enhancement identifies was in 1500 B.C, by the Egyptian who used a primitive form of prosthetics in the pharaoh's body, to help stabilize it. From then onwards, the field of human enhancement has come a long way. With the continung adbancements in science and technology, we have seen the rise of various artificial enhancement techniques such as LASIK, plastic surgery, prosthetics, in Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and many more.
But in the recent years, various barriers have been brought up...