Religion, Society, and Technology: Session Notes

The Religious (Christian) Response To The Social Impact of Science and Technology

Towards Cyborgism: Body and Machine

  1. Issues
    1. GNR [Joy 2000]
      • Genetic Engineering
        • Vision
          • Revolutionize agriculture by increasing crop yields while reducing the use of pesticides
          • create tens of thousands of novel species of bacteria, plants, viruses, animals
          • replace or supplement reproduction with cloning
          • create cures for many diseases
        • Concerns
          1. Brave New World: genetically engineered classes
          2. Human cloning
          3. Economically driven, not ecologically or ethically
          4. Possibilities: wide, but selective plague manufactured by terrorists
      • Nanotechnology
        • Vision
          • molecular electronics: molecular-level "assemblies"
          • low cost solar power
          • cures for cancer and the common cold
          • environmental clean up
          • pocket supercomputers
        • Concerns
          1. engines of destruction: geographic or genetic group selective
          2. omnivorous "bacteria" (replicators) out competing real bacteria: ecological imbalance or even destroying the ecology; the gray-goo problem
          3. antidote: active nanotechnological shield -- but could develop autoimmune syndrome and destroy environment anyway!
      • Robotics
        • Vision
          • By 2030 a species of intelligent robots making evolved copies of itself
          • intelligent machines can do our work for us
          • humans can replace themselves with robotic technology, achieving near immortality by downloading our consciousness
        • Concerns
          1. When is our humanity lost
    2. Cyborgism [McGrath 2000]
    3. Issues from the UK
      • Recall Fantastic Voyage and Honey I Shrunk The Kids
      • Next step in engineering: merge biological and mechanical molecular compounds into ever shrinking machines
      • Life forms are being reduced to molecular codes
        1. viruses & DNA becoming more portable
        2. DNA code could be e-mailed to a DNA synthesizer
        3. cloning on demand
        4. is it ethical to move life around via the Internet (teleportation?)?
        5. is it ethical to mix-and-match different types?
        6. should we create entirely new kinds of life forms from the molecules up?
        7. is it wrong to create a life form dependent on machines?
      • Cyborgs
        1. The Borg!
        2. is it ethical for insurance companies to have an internet connection to our bodies?
        3. is a human with non-human parts still human?
        4. is a cloned baby gestated in a bubble still human?
        5. what is a person?
        6. is it a proper social direction and usage of resources to extend our lifespans via integration with machines?
    4. Genetic Engineering Issues
      • s. Body and Soul: Genetic Engineering and Christianity
      • genetically modified food [Cowley 2000]
        • What are the side effects of "Frankenfood" to humans and the environment?
        • Americans not particularly concerned
        • Europeans more so
        • As 1999, US farmers planted 76M acres of genetically modified crops
        • By 2020, in US, more GM crops than conventional
        • risks are not as great as some think
        • centuries of crossbreeding (hybrids) a form of GM food
        • modern genetic engineering simply speeds the process
        • examples:
          1. transfer pesticide gene of a microbe to cotton, corn, soybeans
          2. transfer Vit A of dandelion to corn
          3. inoculating crops
          4. fast growing salmon
          5. potatoes that absorb less oil
          6. increased proportion of monounsaturated fat in soybean
        • crops more resilient
        • less need for toxic pesticides and other chemicals
        • possible risks:
          1. allergic reactions, such as moving an allergen from peanuts to tomatoes
          2. inserts developing resistance to natural pesticides as the GM food is spread
          3. weeds get cross-pollinated with the natural herbicide and become resistant
          4. crops designed to repel one pest, may prove to be toxic to another species
  • Religious Issues
    1. Will the teleology of cyborgs be different from ordinary ("pure") humans?
    2. What will be the status of cyborgs to the rest of us? superior?
    3. Will the development be available only to an elite?
    4. Will children be destined to be cyborgs?
    5. Is cyborgism => perfect human: homo cyborgus
    6. What boundaries are needed? Only certain body parts? Only to maintain human quality of life? to improve or perfect the species (eugenics)?
    7. Do we also "cyborgize" other life?
  • Technical Background
    1. Genetic Engineering
      s. Body and Soul: Genetic Engineering and Christianity
    2. Nanobots and micromachines [Service 2001]
      s. also Institute of Nanotechnology in the UK
      • Two approaches:
        1. microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
        2. nanotechnology
      • MEMS
        • micromachines:
          micro => micrometer = one millionth of a meter = micron
          1/100 thickness of human hair
        • machines the size of a sand grain, measured in millimeters
        • examples
          • combustion chambers
          • turbine power generators
          • surveillance instruments
          • implantable computer chips delivering drugs to the body
        • descends from microelectronics, such as integrated circuits using photolithography
        • 1960s: strain gauges < pinhead
          • when pressure on gauge increases, more resistant to electrical flow -- this is measured
          • measuring blood pressure
          • measuring strains in factory machines
        • 1980s: photolithography adapted to create freely moving mechanical structures, such as gears and wheels
        • soon after, interlocking gears, such as valves, pumps, switches
        • 1990s: accelerometer -- trigger release of an air bag
        • 1996: Digital Light Processors for large screen projection
        • for satellites in 2008
        • 1999: microthrusters -- 7mm x 1mm
        • "smart dust": each "smart particle" is 1mm2 -- self-contained airborne devices carrying an array of sensors for military, weather, etc.
        • future: tricoders, wrist radios, ...
      • nanotechnology
        • nano => nanometer = one billionth of a meter
        • nanobots: microscopic robotic devices < 100 nanometers
        • machine built bottom up from atoms or molecules
        • thumb nail laboratories
        • examples
          • to prepare personalized pharmaceuticals
          • to prepare computer circuits with billions of transistors
          • to navigate the bloodstream to find and destroy cancer cells or blockages
        • 1981 paper (K. Eric Drexler): genetic engineering techniques make possible "protein machines" that could fabricate nanosize structures atom by atom
        • "assemblers" possible: tiny robotic machines designed to grab atomic or molecular building blocks and position them
        • 1982: scanning tunneling microscope (STM) allowed exploration of a conducting surface at the atomic level
        • 1990: STM used to move super cooled atoms (@ abs. 0, atoms at standstill)
        • 1985: atomic force microscope (AFM) can map nonconducting surfaces, such as DNA
        • 1985: fullerenes -- 3d carbon molecules (buckyballs since shape like a Buckminster Fuller domed building)
        • then nanotubes: tube fullerenes 1nm long x 1 micron wide conducting electricity better than copper ---
        • can they be used to construct molecular size electronic devices
        • 1998: transistors made from a nanotube
        • 1999: full-color flat-screen TV display using nanotubes
        • possible applications of nanotechnology:
          • dendrimers: nanosized spherical polymers as cargo holders for DNA to insert DNA into cells (replacing missing or defective genes)
          • rotaries to mix microscopic amounts of pharmaceuticals and release them inside tissues as needed
          • nanosize computers
        • all this still in the future and requires mass production with new manufacturing techniques
        • Other issues:
          • power supply,
          • programming means for nanosized devices,
          • repairs,
          • eliminate exhaust and other wastes
        • DNA may be the model to solve these problems
      • Benefits
        1. eye tracking technology, e.g. for disabled without hand usage
        2. headbands with sensors measuring electrical signals from the brain
          • channel brain waves and subtle muscle movement to control readings on a screen
        3. for the blind, miniature sensors on a super cane measuring distance
          • motorized, steerable food with ultrasonic sensors
          • small joy stick to direct cane
        4. wheelchairs automatically steering through crowds
          • sonar and lasers used to construct a map every second
        5. implants
          • retinal
          • auditory
          • spinal
          • cranial
        6. sustainability
          • ultralight materials
          • solar cells
          • less pollution and less resources
    3. Robotics
      • Artificial Intelligence: s. Cybernetics: Virtual Reality; Virtual God
      • Work at MIT's AI Lab
        • Salisbury: sensor guided grasping, study of human and robot hands, development of haptic interfaces and rendering techniques
        • Raibert: legged locomotion in robots, animals, and computer animation
        • Pratt: robotic interaction with the natural environment
        • Lorano-Perez: computational problems in robot manipulation, computer vision, computer-aided design, computer-human interaction and computational biology
        • Brooks: small mobile robots, including Cog
      • MIT's Humanoid Robotics Group
        • Cog
          • approximates the sensory and motor dynamics of a human body
          • motor freedom in the trunk, head, and arms
          • sight via video cameras
          • speaking, hearing and touch to come
          • since the form of our bodies is critical to representations that we develop, an intelligent robot needs to look like a human
          • human - machine intelligent interaction enhanced if robot is humanoid
        • Coco
          • walks
          • autonomous
          • impact of a fully mobile body on behaviors, social interactions and intelligence
          • approach behaviors: moving closer
          • avoidance behaviors: moving away
          • discovering important aspects of the world without a human caregiver
        • Kismet
          • Sociable Machines Project: sociable humanoid robots
          • domestic, entertainment, heath care, etc.
          • interact and cooperate with people
          • communicate using the natural communication modalities of humans
          • facial expression, body posture, gesture, gaze direction, and voice
          • teachable
          • inspired by infant social development, psychology, ethology and evolution
          • Kismet: enter into natural and intuitive social interaction with a human caregiver
          • supports several social cues and skills
          • evaluated wrt naive subjects ability to read and interpret the robot's social cues, Kismet's ability to perceive and respond to human social cues, the human's willingness to facilitate the robot's learning, and how it produces a rich interaction
  • Religious Response To Cyborgism
    1. Implicit teleology
      • technological imperative given free rein
      • consumerism and medical drivers
      • elitism/bifurcation
      • eugenics among those who can afford it
    2. Integrative response: explicit teleology
      • science and religion in partnership
      • mutual teleology development to enhance
        • free will?
        • community?
        • non-violence?
        • justice?
        • liberty?
      • certain things
        • forbidden, such as eugenics (but need definition!)
        • promoted, such as equable access (but need definition!)
        • contingent, such as "netted" humans
      • develop working definition of
        • a person
        • quality of life wrt extending life
        • "need" to manage resources
        • privacy/individual re netted humans
      • research agendas set/influenced by teleology
    ©2001 Rev. John A. Mills, Pastor, First Congregational Church, Closter, NJ fcclostr@cwn.com