Bioethical Challenges and Opportunities of Greater Understanding of Ourselves and Nature: The era of the Human Behaviourome

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Bioethical Challenges and Opportunities of
Greater Understanding of Ourselves and Nature
The era of the Human Behaviourome

• Darryl R.J. Macer, Ph.D.
• Institute of Biological Sciences, University of
  Tsukuba,
• Tsukuba Science City, 305, Japan
• Director, Eubios Ethics Institute
  lthttp//www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/macer/index.htmlgt
• Affiliated Professor, United Nations University
• Director, International Union of Biological
  Sciences (IUBS) Bioethics Program

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Principles or ideals for bioethics

• Conventional language Alternative language
• Autonomy self-love
• Justice love of others
• Do no harm loving life
• Beneficence loving good
• Darryl Macer, Bioethics is Love of Life, Eubios
  Ethics Institute 1998.

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• While ethical principles may be pre-human in
  biological, social and spiritual heritage, and
  thus almost universal, the balancing of them
  varies between individuals.
• -Bioethics is Love of Life (Macer, 1998)

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The behaviourome is a project to understand
ourselves

• It is a research project to integrate social
  science methodologies.
• One of the most interesting questions before a
  thinking being is whether we can comprehend the
  ideas and thoughts of other beings, and
  conversely whether they can also read our mind.
• We have already the means to embark upon a human
  mental map with the goal of describing the
  diversity of ideas a human being makes in any
  given situation or dilemma.
• This is the behaviourome or human mental map.
• This is not of a physical structure but a map of
  "ideas" used in moral decision-making.

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nature

• 14 November 2002 Volume 420, 121.
• The next challenge is to map the human mind
• An ambitious project aims to chart the territory
  of ides vast but, conceivably, not infinite.
• - Darryl Macer
• The human genome has been, largely, sequenced.
  And work continues to the proteome and
  transcriptome. Now comes a call to map the human
  behaviourome. - Nature Editors.
• Behaviourome_at_yahoogroups.com

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Now the human DNA has been sequenced, the genome
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We still understand so little about what is
inside our mind!
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Uses of a mental map include

1. To understand ourselves, and whether the number
   of ideas is really finite.
2. To compare mental maps and idea diversity between
   persons and species.
3. To aid in policy making to make policy that
   respects the diversity of people in a culture,
   and globally. This would help develop bioethics
   for the people by the people.

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Uses for individual decision making

• 4) If we can make individual mental maps, this
  would offer persons assistance when making moral
  decisions. This would give them a chance to
  consider all their ideas, and to make a more
  considered moral choices. This would also be
  useful in the testing and implementation of
  better bioethics education.

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Types of Ideas

• 5) intention to modify behaviour of self
• 6) intention to modify behaviour of surrounding
  beings and the environment
• processing of sensory states
• 8) inhibition of a response based on immediate
  evolutionary benefit
• 9) interactive conceptualization of ideas in
  a community based response

• 1) conceptualization of physical objects
• 2) psychological meanings of images associated
  with objects (like colours)
• Memories
• 4) plans for both short and long term future

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Are the number of human ideas finite?

• In 1994, based on the results of the
  International Bioethics Survey, which gathered
  opinions from 6000 persons in 10 countries on
  150 questions of bioethics dilemmas, I proposed
  that the number of human ideas for moral decision
  making is finite.
• Since then, the evidence continues to suggest the
  number is finite, and thus countable!
• We will only know after we map the ideas and the
  way they are linked together. We need to develop
  a common framework for interdisciplinary studies
  of human ideas.
• On the map ideas are not single points but
  spheres of varying intensity, sometimes merging
  with others - and a person's response to each
  dilemma links some of these ideas.
• In the first year of the international
  behaviourome project several frameworks are being
  tested to map human ideas.

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• Human mental map version 2
• A 5 dimensional model including points which
  represent ideas on a matrix for all the types of
  ideas (9 colours at present) within a framework
  of 7 sides.
• The seven sides are self-love, love of others,
  loving good, loving life, loving harm, memories
  and hopes.

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This model adds our heritage - memories and
hopes, to the four ideals in decision making!

• Memories include our biological, social and
  spiritual heritage seen in biology,medicine,societ
  y,religion
• We all hope that our moral decisions will be for
  the best!
• The map is represented in a 2-d picture

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Love of good
Love of others
Memories
Hopes
Loving harm
Loving life (do no harm)
Self love
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The project is now trying to integrate the data
to map human values and ideas.
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9 methods groups (1/2)

• 1) Matrix Mapping of Ideas Relating to Bioethics
  Choices from Biotechnology
• 2) Introducing the Elementary Pragmatic Model
  (EPM) in the Behaviourome
• 3) Ideas Counter and Software Testing
• 4) Testing of the Ten Ethical Laws Of Robotics in
  a Cross-Cultural Matrix
• 5) Evolution of Thinking and Ideas

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9 methods groups (2/2)

• 6) Can Any Physical Model Map Human Insight and
  Creativity, or is There Something Metaphysical
  About The Mind?
• 7) Integrative Mapping of All Ideas and
  Integrative Ethical Decision-Making and Behaviour
• 8) 'One Page Management System' Instead of Prose
  Mode
• 9) Universal Functional Reductionism in
  Integrative Mental Mapping The Tenth Class of
  Cosmist Creative Ideas

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Ideas and ethical principles have a biological,
social and spiritual heritage

• This model does not necessarily exclude beings
  who cannot "think", as they still share a memory
  (history) and a future heritage, and the
  principles have a long biological heritage.

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Pre-rational ideas

• Ideas are linked to rationality, but ideas may be
  considered as something pre-rational. Rationality
  emerges after the processing of ideas, in what we
  call thinking.
• Do only humans think? If we consider thinking to
  be the processing of motor images or sensory
  images it clearly emerged much earlier in
  evolution.

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Speech and ideas

• In ethical theory usually animals that can plan
  and dream of the future are considered as being
  of higher rationality, and therefore need to be
  given greater protection.
• There has been much enthusiasm with the discovery
  of a single gene that is very important in human
  speech, FOXP2 (in 2002), as it may have enabled
  the social emergence of modern human communities,
  we do not understand yet the extent to which the
  diversity of ideas is extended by linguistic
  dialogue (whether vocalized or not).

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Science tells us 91 genes are in humans that are
not in chimpanzees of 30,000 genes.
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Enhanced studies of cross cultural bioethics
-recognising diversity

• There are implications for cultural identity. How
  should a culture that tries to maintain its
  cultural uniqueness by claiming everyone thinks
  the same, face up to the reality that in every
  culture the full range of idea diversity is
  found.
• This diversity is found in almost all groups,
  excluding those particularly finite groups that
  are formed to promote particular political aims,
  such as those who fight for or against abortion,
  or euthanasia.
• Religions which have observed already that
  humankind is universal will have less challenges
  than religions which claim a special religious
  status for their "chosen" people.

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How to map the mind?
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Culture and ideas

• The individual human mind is a societal creation,
  formed through a series of interactions with
  other persons.
• After an initial response to a dilemma, real or
  hypothetical, our mind generates an idea. That
  idea is subject to genetic, environmental and
  cultural factors. Then the process of idea
  development occurs, subject to the cultural
  restraints and lessons of the past to that
  person.
• The action is taken, but this is not the end of
  the idea for a normal human mind. The
  consequences are considered, there may be guilt
  or self-gratification, through the interplay of
  the conscience and ego.

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How to map ideas onto this matrix?

• Each of the 9 methods groups is exploring the
  best methodology to do this.
• In the case of method 1, each idea is given a
  score for each of the 7 axes (from 0-100) and
  placed at the interacting point on the 3-d box.
• Other dimensions include the type of idea, and
  links for information to source of the data, the
  moral dilemma from which it was observed.

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Love of good
Love of others
Memories
others
Hopes
Loving life (do no harm)

Loving harm
self
Self love
Example idea - Let us eat lunch
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Practical bioethics is action to make the world
more bioethical, for example, health projects for
medically deprived populations, and environmental
activism.-Eubios Declaration of Bioethics
Mental mapping is a way to progress endless
debates about human ideas and moral
decision-making.
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Recognition of Diversity and Depth of Asian
Bioethics

• Bioethics is pre-human.
• Bioethics in human culture was discussed for
  millennia in Asia, as everywhere.
• Bioethics is not a luxury for rich countries, it
  is something everyone does - and can make better.
• It is a global realization of a way of moral
  decision making that occurred before people were
  aware of it.
• Bioethics includes methods of anthropology,
  sociology, biology, not just philosophy or
  theology.

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The way forward in bioethics

• In conclusion we can see that the human mental
  mapping project will develop Asian and
  international bioethics of the twentieth century
  onto a more concrete and transdisciplinary basis
  in this century.
• We need to develop a common language for studies
  of life and ideas, and it is hoped that these
  projects will allow this.
• There will be challenges for many aspects of our
  understanding of human beings, though we should
  be clear, there will always be more questions
  than answers for humans to attempt to understand
  ourselves and nature.
• Asking questions and having free will to make
  decisions is part of the image of God.

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Please join the project!

• Behaviourome_at_yahoogroups.com

All are welcome!
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Bioethics for Global Dialogue! Working for a
good life for all globallyEubios Ethics
Institute

• Branches in New Zealand, Japan, India, China,
  PhilippinesAvailable for consultancy in
  bioethics, aiming to produce publicly available
  resources in bioethics bridging geography,
  discipline and values. A non-for-profit
  organization founded in 1990.
• Bioethicseducation_at_yahoogroups.com
• Behaviourome_at_yahoogroups.com
• Eubios Journal of Asian and International
  Bioethics
• Asian Bioethics Association
• International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS)
  Bioethics
• Bioethics resource library
• UNESCO/IUBS/Eubios Bioethics Dictionary
• Tsukuba International Bioethics Roundtables
• Resources are available On-line, CD and hard copy
• lthttp//www.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/macer/index.htmlgt