| Today we are experiencing rapid — and accelerating — evolution in at least five foundational technologies: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technology, robotics, and applied cognitive science. In this captivating lecture, Braden Allenby discusses the possibilities for the future. |
The result is, according to Braden R. Allenby, author of The Techno-Human Condition, a future that is unpredictable and radically contingent, as both our planet, and the human itself, become design spaces subject to human intervention and deliberate change in ways never before possible.
Allenby is the Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and of Law, at Arizona State University. He previously served as the Environment, Health and Safety Vice President for AT&T. Dr. Allenby received his BA from Yale University, JD and MA (economics) from the University of Virginia, and his MS and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers University. His areas of expertise include Design for Environment, industrial ecology, telework and net centric organizations, and earth systems engineering and management.
In the video below, Allenby discusses how the latest version of humanity, is equipped with a fully re-engineered immune system; the latest set of cultural assumptions about gender, ethnicity, and sexuality; and a suite of customized enhancements, including artificial joints, neurochemical mood modulators, and performance-boosting hormones. He explores what it means to be human in an era of incomprehensible technological complexity and change and argues that if we are to have any prospect of managing that complexity, we will need to escape the shackles of current assumptions about rationality, progress, and certainty, even as we maintain a commitment to fundamental human values.
Humans have been co-evolving with their technologies since the dawn of prehistory, when tool making and meat eating co-evolved with brain development and social complexity. What is different now is that we have moved beyond external technological interventions to transform ourselves from the inside out--even as we also remake the Earth system itself. Coping with this new reality, says Allenby, means liberating ourselves from such categories as "human," "technological," and "natural" to embrace a new transhuman techno-human relationship. Describing the- terms of this relationship, and exploring sociotechnical systems ranging from railroads to modern military technology, Allenby ultimately locates individual authenticity in the quest for a new humility in the face of the rapidly disappearing moorings of the Enlightenment.
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