Lifeboat Foundation

Posthumanists and perhaps especially transhumanists tend to downplay the value conflicts that are likely to emerge in the wake of a rapidly changing technoscientific landscape. What follows are six questions and scenarios that are designed to focus thinking by drawing together several tendencies that are not normally related to each other but which nevertheless provide the basis for future value conflicts.

1. Will ecological thinking eventuate in an instrumentalization of life? Generally speaking, biology – especially when a nervous system is involved — is more energy efficient when it comes to storing, accessing and processing information than even the best silicon-based computers. While we still don’t quite know why this is the case, we are nevertheless acquiring greater powers of ‘informing’ biological processes through strategic interventions, ranging from correcting ‘genetic errors’ to growing purpose-made organs, including neurons, from stem-cells. In that case, might we not ‘grow’ some organs to function in largely the same capacity as silicon-based computers – especially if it helps to reduce the overall burden that human activity places on the planet? (E.g. the brains in the vats in the film The Minority Report which engage in the precognition of crime.) In other words, this new ‘instrumentalization of life’ may be the most environmentally friendly way to prolong our own survival. But is this a good enough reason? Would these specially created organic thought-beings require legal protection or even rights? The environmental movement has been, generally speaking, against the multiplication of artificial life forms (e.g. the controversies surrounding genetically modified organisms), but in this scenario these life forms would potentially provide a means to achieve ecologically friendly goals.

2. Will concerns for social justice force us to enhance animals? We are becoming more capable of recognizing and decoding animal thoughts and feelings, a fact which has helped to bolster those concerned with animal welfare, not to mention ‘animal rights’. At the same time, we are also developing prosthetic devices (of the sort already worn by Steven Hawking) which can enhance the powers of disabled humans so their thoughts and feelings are can be communicated to a wider audience and hence enable them to participate in society more effectively. Might we not wish to apply similar prosthetics to animals – and perhaps even ourselves — in order to facilitate the transaction of thoughts and feelings between humans and animals? This proposal might aim ultimately to secure some mutually agreeable ‘social contract’, whereby animals are incorporated more explicitly in the human life-world — not as merely wards but as something closer to citizens. (See, e.g., Donaldson and Kymlicka’s Zoopolis.) However, would this set of policy initiatives constitute a violation of the animals’ species integrity and simply be a more insidious form of human domination?

Continue reading “Value Conflicts surrounding the Meaning of Life in the Trans/Post/Human Future” »

Finding out which microbes dealt it.

Expensive EpiPen auto-injectors dominate the market for emergency allergy treatment, but a cheaper alternative is now being developed: an epinephrine tablet that dissolves under the tongue.

Last month a congressional committee tore into Mylan CEO Heather Bresch. The charge: jacking up the price of EpiPens, her company’s signature product. Those price hikes left some allergy sufferers without access to emergency epinephrine, the drug that saves people who go into anaphylactic shock.

Mylan has control of the marketplace because other companies have a hard time competing with the EpiPen’s patented design. Those who have tried have mostly offered up alternative types of auto-injectors, which generally flop.

Continue reading “Forget The EpiPen—It’s Time For An Epi-Pill” »

Many have asked me what does this DARPA announcement on their project (RadioBio) mean. Well, imagine a world in the next 10 to 15 years where you no longer need any devices (no smartphone, no AR contacts, no smartwatch, no wearables, no external BMIs or invasive implants, etc.) of any kind as Quantum Bio technology uses (in DARPA’s case) connected cell technology to connect people to people and information online (private and publically available. This approach is the least invasive method of turning cells into connected technology.

Military will mean no more lugging of devices and certain types of equipment around on the battlefield plus lower risk of stolen intelligence as no device or equipment left behind or stolen.

What does it mean to consumers? Means no more losing phones and other devices as well as broken down equipment be replaced every 2years and no more insurance and extra-warranty payments for devices; and no more devices stolen with your information on it. And, it means my doctors and body (AI and non-AI methods) can monitor my health and activate pain relief, etc. through biosystem treatments such as pain can be suppressed via the readings or before the pain is felt. It also empowers the immune system to proactively prevent diseases as the biosystem technology will monitor and treat as needed.

Think patches that measure your blood chemistry and rooms geared toward your individual health are sci-fi concepts? Think again. Futuristic tech is improving health already — and it’s about to explode in popularity.

Cara Guilfoyle, M.D., FACS, leads the Coordinated Health Breast Center, which covers all aspects of diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of breast conditions. Breast Center services are available at Coordinated Health locations in Allentown and Pittston.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women; however, thanks to new diagnostic imaging tools and better patient education, more women are surviving it than ever before.

According to Coordinated Health breast surgeon Cara Guilfoyle, M.D., FACS, the earlier that women are diagnosed with breast cancer, the better their prognosis.

Continue reading “High-tech tool joins breast cancer battle” »

Over the past several years, DARPA-funded researchers have pioneered RNA vaccine technology, a medical countermeasure against infectious diseases that uses coded genetic constructs to stimulate production of viral proteins in the body, which in turn can trigger a protective antibody response. As a follow-on effort, DARPA funded research into genetic constructs that can directly stimulate production of antibodies in the body.^, DARPA is now launching the Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) program, aimed at developing that foundational work into an entire system capable of halting the spread of any viral disease outbreak before it can escalate to pandemic status. Such a capability would offer a stark contrast to the state of the art for developing and deploying traditional vaccines—a process that does not deliver treatments to patients until months, years, or even decades after a viral threat emerges.

“DARPA’s goal is to create a technology platform that can place a protective treatment into health providers’ hands within 60 days of a pathogen being identified, and have that treatment induce protection in patients within three days of administration. We need to be able to move at this speed considering how quickly outbreaks can get out of control,” said Matt Hepburn, the P3 Program Manager. “The technology needs to work on any viral disease, whether it’s one humans have faced before or not.”

Recent outbreaks of viral infectious diseases such as Zika, H1N1 influenza, and Ebola have cast into sharp relief the inability of the global health system to rapidly contain the spread of a disease using existing tools and procedures. State-of-the-art medical countermeasures typically take many months or even years to develop, produce, distribute, and administer. These solutions often arrive too late—if at all—and in quantities too small to respond to emerging threats. In contrast, the envisioned P3 platform would cut response time to weeks and stay within the window of relevance for containing an outbreak.

In Brief Antibiotic misuse is a major cause of the rise of superbugs around the world. Doctors, patients, and farmers alike can work together to end the abuse of these essential drugs.

Nevada officials in January reported the death of a woman from an infection resistant to every antibiotic available in the U.S, the type of news we will likely hear more about in the future unless health care providers and consumers change their ways.

A high-level report in 2014 estimated that as many as 10 million people a year could die worldwide from antibiotic resistance by 2050.

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