Martine Rothblatt Talks Transhumanism and Xenotransplantation at DARPA

Transhumanism  

Summary When DARPA states it wants to explore unconventional approaches in biology to create transformational new technology, it is fitting that they got transhumanist Martine Rothblatt as a keynote speaker for their "Biology is Technology" symposium.  Check out the incredibly interesting video.

Martine Rothblatt, Chairman and CEO of United Therapeutics, delivered a keynote address at DARPA’s "Biology is Technology" symposium in New York City recently.

The two-day event was held by DARPA's newly created Biological Technologies Office to bring together leading-edge technologists, start-ups, industry, and academic researchers to look at how advances in engineering and information sciences can be used to drive biology for technological advantage.

The Biological Technologies Office or, BTO, was created to explore the increasingly dynamic intersection of biology and the physical sciences. The office's goal is to harness the power of biological systems by applying the rigorous tools of engineering and related disciplines.

"Achieving our mission of developing breakthrough, transformative technologies often demands taking unconventional approaches and challenging assumptions. We bring together the best innovators, set aggressive technical goals, and provide focused funding and active program management."

"Weird does not mean unethical—as long as the utility exceeds the yuckiness, social acceptance wins."

It is fitting therefore that Rottblatt spoke at the symposium, because she is undoubtedly a unconventional person—but also greatly successful at implementing such transformational technology.

Rothblatt's next project is to grow 100,000 lungs, hearts, and other transplantable organs per year using synthetic biology and other biotech breakthroughs.

“I’m using technology to create an unlimited supply of transplantable organs, and I’m doing it now, with no delay,” she added. Rothblatt said. “How man made dogs, how biotech made medicine, we’ll make organs.”

Rothblatt’s company, United Therapeutics, is preparing to grow human organs in genetically modified pigs. Animal-to-human transplantation, or xenotransplantation, isn’t a new idea—the heart valves of pigs are regularly transplanted into humans all the time. Transplanting entire pig organs into humans has been something of a pipe dream for a while, which is why Rothblatt is trying a new approach.

“Organs from porcine donors fit nicely in terms of size and function, but they do not fit nicely in how the molecules mesh together,” she said. “The idea began to percolate—maybe the way an artist of a sculpture chisels off rock, maybe we can chisel off enough genes to make a human-compatible genome.”

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"My technologies were extensions of my biology."

Rothblatt started United Therapeutics and has served as Chairman of its Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Prior to forming United Therapeutics she created SiriusXM Satellite Radio and served as its Chairman & CEO.

Rothblatt earned a Ph.D. in Medical Ethics from the Royal London College of Medicine & Dentistry, chaired the International Bar Association’s Law & Medicine Committee and authored the book Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve the Conflict Between Public and Private Interests in Xenotransplantation.

“Weird does not mean unethical. There’s a 45-degree line on a graph—as long as the utility exceeds the yuckiness, social acceptance wins,” said Rothblatt. “Taking organs from dead people and putting them in living people once seemed weird, it’s not weird anymore. It would be stupid to abjure nature’s greatest invention since chemistry.”


Dr. Rothblatt has also published several other books on mindware ethics, satellite communications, gender differences, genetic engineering, organ transplantation and Middle East peace.

SOURCE  DARPAtv

By 33rd Square

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