The ethics of brain augmentation

If intelligence, empathy, love, spirituality, or memories could be altered by taking a pill, implant, or even microbe, would you say yes?. Mind-enhancing drugs will be capable of manipulating our brains. They will also challenge our society’s morals, offset playing fields of business and global power, and what we consider “normal”. Futurist and IEET Fellow Jamais Cascio suggests a Magna Carta for the upcoming age of biohacking.

Jamais Cascio

Jamais Cascio is a Senior Fellow of the IEET.
Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009, Cascio writes about the intersection of emerging technologies, environmental dilemmas, and cultural transformation, specializing in the design and creation of plausible scenarios of the future. His work focuses on the importance of long-term, systemic thinking, emphasizing the power of openness, transparency and flexibility as catalysts for building a more resilient society.
Cascio’s work appears in publications as diverse as Metropolis, the Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Policy. He was featured in National Geographic Television’s SIX DEGREES, its 2008 documentary on the effects of global warming, and on History Channel’s SCIENCE IMPOSSIBLE, its 2009 series on emerging technologies. Cascio has spoken about future possibilities around the world, at venues including South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas, Mobile Monday in Amsterdam, the Singularity Summit in San Francisco, and the TED 2006 conference, “The Future We Will Create,” in Monterey, California.
Cascio has worked in the field of scenario development for over a decade, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Future. After several years as technology specialist at scenario planning pioneer Global Business Network, he went on to craft a wide array of scenarios on topics including energy (for an industry think tank), nuclear proliferation (for a political research non-profit), and sustainable development (for a multi-client project). He also serves as the Director of Impacts Analysis for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.
In 2003, Cascio co-founded WorldChanging.com, the award-winning website dedicated to finding and calling attention to models, tools and ideas for building a “bright green” future. In his time at WorldChanging, he wrote the plurality of the site’s content, covering topics including urban design, climate science, renewable energy, open source models, emerging technologies, social networks, “leapfrog” global development, and much more. In March, 2006, he started Open the Future as his online home.
Cascio has also applied his scenario development skills in the entertainment industry, advising multiple television and film projects, and designing several well-received science fiction game settings, including Transhuman Space: Broken Dreams (speculating on the future of the developing world) and Transhuman Space: Toxic Memes (examining future popular culture and political movements).
Cascio lives outside of San Francisco, California, with his wife, two cats, four Macs, and the inevitable hybrid cars.

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20141104