A Critical Look at Kass and Transhumanists on Ageless Bodies:

1
A Critical Look at Kass and Transhumanists on
Ageless Bodies
Enhancement and Degradation of the Human Person
Transvision 04 August 6-8, 2004 Toronto,
Ontario
Tihamer T. Toth-Fejel Tihamer.Toth-Fejel_at_gd-ais.co
m
2
Contents

• Ethics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology
• Natural Law
• The Ultimate Questions
• Example Enhancing Sight
• Ageless Bodies
• Social Consequences
• Disparities of Wealth
• An Interesting Life
• A Meaningful Life
• A Beautiful Life
• A Virtuous Life
• Other Voices
• Conclusion

3
Introduction to Ethics

• Decisions regarding ethics can be made at four
  levels
• Politics Should a particular enhancement be
  legal? Example Should seeing in the dark be
  legal?
• Ethics How do we tell right from wrong? Is it
  right or wrong to enhance our vision to see in
  the dark?
• Epistemology What is knowledge? How do we get
  it? What is the process by which can we discover
  if seeing in the dark is good?
• Metaphysics What is the fundamental nature of
  reality? Is there actually such a thing as
  objective good? Does darkness really exist, or
  is it just the absence of light?

4
Metaphysical Differences

• Moral cognitivism objectively true or false
• Moral realism The sky is blue
• Moral constructivism Drive on the right side of
  the road
• Moral Non-cognitivism no objective truth-value
• Moral nihilism The intelligence of rocks is
  curable
• Moral relativism true for me and true for you

5
Epistemological Differences

• Sources of Moral Judgments
• Individual Sometimes individuals make good moral
  choices by following their consciences. But
  individuals often disagree about what is "good."
• Society There are many similar laws across
  cultures, as well as laws that sharply disagree.
  Also, laws often change. Slavery and genocide
  have both been codified into law.
• God Provides justification for judgments,
  holding us accountable to a higher power. Also
  connects humans together as children of God, made
  in His image and likeness. But sometimes our
  concept of God and revelation is different.
• Natural Law Reciprocal, universal, consistent,
  practical. Well-defined and rational method.

6
Natural Law

• History
• Literature Sophocles Antigone Tolkien's The
  Two Towers
• Philosophy pre-Socratic Greeks Thomas Aquinas
  John Paul II
• Method
• Discover the essential nature of an entity
• "How does it function?" (or teleologically "What
  is its purpose?")
• "Convertibility of being into good"
• Something that exists (light, sight) is better
  than it's parasitic opposite (shadow, blindness).

7
Applying Natural Law

• In what way is the characteristic that youre
  trying to enhance really real?
• Does the phenomenon really have ontological
  existence?
• Are other deficiencies confusing the phenomenon?
• Is there an overlooked benefit in one of the
  phenomenon?
• Will the consequence of the enhancement cancel
  out the enhancement's original goal?
• Does the enhancement helps achieve a desire but
  prevents the fulfillment of a need?
• Does increasing a capability change the nature of
  the person?

8
Determining Right and Wrong

• What are the Ends?
• What are the Means?
• What are the Circumstances?

9
The Ultimate Questions

• Does a change enhance or degrade our humanity?
• Since our humanity is defined by personhood, what
  does it mean to be a human person?

10
Objects and Happiness

• Phenomenology
• Philosophical zombie no consciousness
• Anthropomorphization
• Persons are not Objects
• Euidimonia Happiness, Joy, Fulfillment
• Existence, Truth, and Love
• Four models of a good life
• Contemplative
• Active
• Fatalistic (stoic)
• Hedonistic

11
Example Enhancing Sight

• Two types body and brain
• Enhancing Sight Removing blind spots, improving
  visual acuity, resistance to intense brightness,
  and night vision.
• Ends
• Sight is better than blindness, but is more
  better? Is it just an appetite? Is it necessary
  for apprehending beauty?
• Means
• Invasive or semi-automated surgery
• Circumstances
• Double effect Cost, risk of permanent damage,
  and amount of pain
• Increased pride or vanity
• Discriminate against those with normal sight.
• Enhancing sight may also require an enhancement
  of a person's character - a task that
  nanotechnology cannot do.
• But if everyone is enhanced, then vanity, pride,
  or discrimination won't be a problem.

12
Ageless Bodies

• Extreme Life Extension
• Six mechanisms of aging
• Fear of death
• Life is intrinsic good
• Many negative social consequences

13
Social Consequences

• Kass
• Overpopulation
• Reduced innovation
• Skewed demographics
• Anissimov
• Negative social consequences are challenges that
  will need to be faced head on, not avoided
  technological capacity is extremely likely to
  soften or eliminate the negative social impact of
  widespread life extension usage.
• Technology rarely solves social problems
• There is no problem no big and complicated that
  it cant be run away from.
• We have met the enemy and he is us.
• Children and giveness
• Is there anything worth dying for?

14
Disparities of Wealth

• Kass rich vs poor, and mortal vs immortal.
• Anissimov medical advances initially more
  accessible to the wealthy, but they filter down.
• We should thank the rich for volunteering to be
  the guinea pigs.

15
An Interesting Life

• Kass a limited human life span offers the
  benefits of interest and engagement. Will
  personal happiness increases proportionally to
  life span?
• Anissimov we didnt lose interest and engagement
  in life when average lifespan increased from 30
  to 70. thanks to the explosion of culture and
  technology there are more exciting things to do
  than ever before.
• Suicide rates are higher in developed countries
  than in undeveloped ones.
• Millions yearn for immortality, but know not
  what to do with a rainy Sunday afternoon.
• What it is about life that makes it interesting?

16
A Meaningful Life

• Kass Could life be meaningful without the limit
  of mortality?
• Anissimov Life only becomes unserious, devoid of
  meaning, etc, if we want it to be.
• Will any philosophy going to lead to a meaningful
  life?
• A life without love and truth will be a hollow
  one for everyone.
• Kass the boundaries and shape of the life cycle
  give possible meaning to life reminding us that
  we will someday die, and that we must live in a
  way that takes heed of that reality.
• The solution isnt relinquishing life extension
  it is finding other ways for people to take heed
  of the reality of death, even if it is hundreds
  of years away.
• No matter how long you live, youll be dead much
  longer

17
A Beautiful Life

• Kass Death is the mother of beauty
• Classical response Doesnt God create beauty?
• Anissimov Our appreciation of beauty probably
  has evolutionary roots, and as we enhance our
  brains and discover new elegant structures in
  this universe, our appreciation for beauty will
  increase.
• Darwinists have admitted that beauty has little
  evolutionary purpose.
• We cannot program what we cannot understand.
• Kass places love on same footing as beauty, and
  Anissimov misses it. Are these guys human?
• Heinlein I want to live long enough to love
  every decent human being.

18
A Virtuous Life

• Kass Immortals cannot be noble.
• Classical response Isnt God immortal? Arent
  angels noble?
• Anissimov some aspects of our present-day
  consensus morality do probably rest upon limited
  lifespan, but the injustice of nonconsensual
  death far overwhelms the small portions of our
  morality which will be thrown off balance with
  the introduction of extreme life extension In
  almost every case, it's easier to do more good if
  one is able to live longer, than through
  sacrifice.
• The connection of morality to death is rather
  slim. The connection to sacrifice is not.
• Nonconsensual death? Inalienable rights can be
  relinquished?

19
Other Voices

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle When one tries to rise
  above Nature, one is liable to fall below it.
  The spiritual would not avoid the call to
  something higher. It would become the survival
  of the least fit. What sort of cesspool may not
  our poor world become?
• Bill McKibben Death makes us human Avoiding
  death is nasty.
• Robert Freitas Death is an outrage.
• Isaac Asimov The social costs of immortality are
  too high.

20
Conclusion

• Natural Law helps us discover the morality of
  enhancements.
• Enhancement must improve a characteristic of a
  human without changing the ordering of goods
  inherent to personhood.
• Enhancements must not degrade our humanity, must
  not turn us into objects, nor contradict who we
  are as persons.
• Our difficulties
• Recognizing which enhancements are degrading us,
• Discovering how this degradation occurs, and
• Resisting the seductive promises they make.

21
Study Questions

• Is the millennia old Natural Law theory the best
  method of dealing with 21st century moral issues?
  Why or why not? If not, what method is better?
• Can you think of an example of something evil
  that exists independently and not parasitically?
• What is a human person? How is that essentially
  different from a zombie, sentient robot, or
  uplifted animal?
• What are the goods of personhood How are they
  ordered?
• Would you like to have a youthful, ageless body?
  Why? Would you tend towards teenage recklessness
  or old-age over-cautiousness. Why?
• How would you recognize if some medical procedure
  was degrading? How might it be seductive? What
  concrete steps could you take to resist its
  temptation?