Superhuman Tech? Most Americans Fear the Worst
Superhuman Tech? Most Americans Fear the Worst
By Sara G. Miller, Staff Writer | July 26, 2016 10:00am
ET
A majority of Americans are worried about scientific
advances aimed at enhancing humans' natural abilities, according to a new
survey from the Pew Research Center.
In the survey, released today (July 26), researchers got
people's opinions on three emerging medical technologies: gene editing to
reduce a baby's risk of disease, brain chip implantations to make people
smarter, and synthetic blood to improve athletic performance. These
technologies are not available right now, but some researchers are moving
toward making these advancements a reality one day, according to the survey.
The survey included a nationally representative sample of
about 4,700 American adults. In addition, Pew held six small focus groups with
a total of 47 people to discuss the technologies and their potential
implications, and to learn more about people's opinions than could be gleaned
with only the survey.
Overall, the focus-group participants felt that
"while no effort should be spared to help the sick, society should proceed
with caution" regarding technologies that would boost the abilities of
healthy people, "fearing a slippery slope toward the creation of
'superhumans' or human 'robots,'" the researchers wrote in their summary
of the focus groups' discussions.
Here's how Americans feel about three major enhancements
that the future may bring.
Gene editing
Gene editing has recently gained ground, particularly
with the advent of a technique called CRISPR, which lets scientists easily make
changes to DNA. The technology has not yet been used in living people, and many
researchers argue that changing a human's DNA is unethical.
In the survey, 68 percent of American adults said that
they were either "somewhat worried" or "very worried" about
using gene editing on a human embryo to reduce a baby's risk of getting certain
diseases later in life. Less than half said that they were "somewhat
enthusiastic" or "very enthusiastic" about using gene editing
for this purpose.
However, when the survey participants were asked specifically
if they would agree to let researchers use gene editing to reduce the disease
risk for their own child, 48 percent of adults said they would
"probably" or "definitely" want it, 50 percent of adults
said that they would not want this for their own child and 2 percent said they
didn't know.
Brain chips
Currently, brain chip implants, also called
neuroprosthetics, are available to patients with certain neurological
conditions, such as deafness or Parkinson's disease, according to Pew. In the
survey, Pew asked the respondents what they thought about a brain chip implant
that could be used on people without a specific medical need for it. Rather,
the purpose of the implant would be to improve a person's ability to
concentrate and process information, according to Pew.
The researchers found that 69 percent of Americans were
somewhat worried or very worried about brain chips that would significantly
improve cognitive abilities, and only about one-third (34 percent) of the
adults surveyed reported being somewhat or very enthusiastic about the
technology.
Many Americans believe that such technologies would widen
the divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots." In the
survey, 73 percent of the respondents said that brain chips initially would be
available only to the wealthy, for example, which could lead to an increase in
inequality.
Synthetic blood
"Synthetic blood" is currently being developed
to help alleviate blood shortages, according to Pew. However, it may be
possible to develop a type of synthetic blood that could enhance a person's
athletic performance — particularly by making a synthetic blood that could
carry more oxygen than human blood can normally carry.
But 63 percent of the survey respondents said that they
were somewhat or very worried about synthetic blood being used to improve
people's physical abilities, according to the poll. Only 36 percent, on the
other hand, reported that they were somewhat or very enthusiastic about this
enhancement.
The degree to which the enhancements were intended to
improve human abilities played a role in how people viewed them, the
researchers noted. For example, with synthetic blood, 47 percent of the
respondents said that they would consider the technology
"appropriate" if the blood gave people the ability to perform at a
level "equal to their own peak abilities," the pollsters found. But
if the improvements were "far beyond that of any human known to
date," only 28 percent viewed the technology as appropriate.
The Pew Research Center poll was conducted online and by
mail between March 2 and March 28, 2016.
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