Ethicists clash with researchers over creating genetically-engineered babies

Genetic mapping

Carol Forsloff - "One has to wonder about motives of parents who seek the “superior” child. What is so bad about the average little-leaguer?"are the questions ethicists pose, even as new advances tell us that genetically- compromised children can be avoided through three-parent pooling to allow skipping the problem genes.

Reports say that three-parent gene pooling to create children and avoid genetic problems will be possible soon in a short time.  But the idea is not without controversy

Ethics experts like Stan Dundon, however, wonder using those initial quotes about whether creating genetically engineered intelligent children might be the right thing to do. 

Scientists in genetic research who met at a world conference several years ago told the world then it is possible to create intelligent children and eradicate some medical and physical illness through manipulation of the gene pool, but ethicists like Stan Dundon, in his remarks at the time wondered whether picking the superior child through genetic manipulation might create its own set of special problems. 

The Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, is pointing the way to a revolution in medical genetics that could selectively create smart kids or heal mental or physical illnesses. 

 The work is being done in order to advance science, but it is not without debate in the area of ethics. 

Medical genetics takes place at what is called " the cross-roads of psychiatry, medical and behavioral genetics, environmental science and medical sociology." 

In summary, cutting edge research looks at  the issues of nature and nurture and says that those diseases most rooted in the genetic code can be controlled by genetic manipulation. 

Robert Plomin, professor of behavioural genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, has been one of the leaders on genetic manipulation that can make kids smart, but folks have wondered whether or not moving in this direction is really ethical. 

The Australian  and Kurzweil Intelligence  highlight Plomin's research, based upon studying the abilities of 4000 children, as the future of genetic selection that will allow parents to literally pick intelligent children by allowing medical scientists to manipulate the gene pool.  Plomin believes this can happen and is advancing the research to that end.

But what do ethicists and theologians say.  The New York Times reported the stance of the churches on the matter of genetic manipulation. "Those who would play God will be tempted as never before,''  was the statement reported issued by officials of the National Council of Churches, the United States Catholic Conference and the Synagogue Council of America in 1981.  

Stan Dundon, a bio-ethicist, asks the question in his manuscript, "The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation of Human Offspring."   He also discussed the problems involved in some of the scientific research with embryos, with the lack of proper medical controls, research ethics and disclosure of problems that can cause experiments to fail.  What happens, he has asked, when those experiments fail and the failure means a failed human being? 

Dundon offers the ultimate ethical issue about all this. " If  an agent insists on a right to act because a monstrous side effect is merely plausible, that agent has placed him/herself outside the moral community of mankind."  At the same time scientists believe that by moving forward, civilization will be advanced by having more smart people and fewer folks who are mentally ill, an advancement worthy of the ethical challenges.

A 'brave new world' begins from germinating ideas at Singularity University

Hydroponics

Carol Forsloff - Saving the world from ecological, man-made and environmental collapse at times seens a herculean task, but if you had ten weeks to figure out a way to fix things what would you do?. 

Singularity University is a form of think tank in California that allows students to immerse themselves in ideas and projects through lectures, projects and brain-storming.  It is a concept where students combine knowledge in different areas to problem solve.  One summer the notion was ten weeks to come up with solutions for the world's economic and ecological difficulties. 

Futurists like Ray Kurzweil and other scientists are behind the concept that allows students to create and problem solve in unique ways.  One summer's notion of finding solutions in ten weeks that could save the world is just one of the umbrella ideas from the Kurzweil group. 

There are ideas at Singularity in virtually every area of living.  One of them had to do with transportation Ideas into action by students who presented a series of fleets of zero-emissions vehicles not privately owned by able to be accessed by users.  One of the students said about this, a project called GetAround "The vision inspires, but you get believability from the first step."

How about three-dimensional printing.  This concept would allow printers to make their own replacement parts, for example, an idea that would put power into designing on local levels as opposed to productions from China.

 SU graduate Devin Fidler, who had been working on his doctorate in Budapest, put aside those formal studies temporarily to be part of a project called 'Acasa those several years ago."  This was said would allow the building of houses in the developing world for $4,000 using the equivalent of 30 light-bulbs of power. 

As for food, the emphasis is on aeroponics or hydroponics, growing plants without soil.

Students, after putting together ideas like these, then look for individuals to invest in their development of ideas generated in ten weeks in the novel ideas of which ones could save the world environmentally and ecologically. 

Singularity University brings fresh ideas from around the world, as students learn ideas that can help them shape a brave, new world.  But this world is unlike the science fiction one, in that it recognizes the need of the individual as well as the community and the planting of ideas that can grow into other ideas, so that the growth of learning and development continues.

November 2015 will offer a 4-day program where technology and medicine branches will be undertaking brain-storming ideas to develop a new awakening of what is possible.  For at Singularity virtually anything is possible that the brain, and the enthusiasm for learning, can bring about.

Modern medicine can replace the heart, other organs, but can it replace the mind?

                                                                      Ray Kurzweil

Gordon Matilla---In the world of modern medicine, many things are possible.  Doctors can transplant hearts, offer prosthetic limbs to those with severed legs, and can diagnose complex diseases, but can scientists replace the mind?

Ray Kurzweil is a well-known futurist whose ideas have often been found quaint by some and embraced by others.  His latest book maintains the digital brain and mind is in our future.

Kurzweil's latest book,  Tendencias 21, is on the New York Times best seller list.  Kurzweil maintains that in only a few years the reverse engineering of the human brain will be finished and that by the year 2029 artificial intelligence will actually be developed to the point where it will be superior to human intelligence.  His book examines how people think, then presents a model of the neocortex and raises his theory of mind, looking at the brain and its evolution.  The brain has evolved and so has technology, with the latter capable of bringing superior intellect to advance technology even further.

Much of that artificial intelligence is already on the horizon.  Science may not have the brain reproduced, but there are ways to fashion programs that can test mood and meaning of what a person says and does.  Facebook hopes to harvest this information from their online social media site.  It hopes to learn everything it can about you, and that can help its advertisers, its business associates, and help plan its network's future as well as the future for everyone who interacts with it.  Zuckerberg layed out his plans today, in some details, letting the world know that what we think and do is something Facebook wants to use to offer its users more than it already does with its present offerings.  They intend to do that not just about what is said on Facebook but even the types of photos a user posts.

And for those who want to keep up with the latest in Artificial Intelligence and sort through the research as it unfolds, an online site offers journal articles for the man or woman who wants to keep in the know and to use human intelligence and the human brain to understand what might be the replacement for both, according to futurist thinking.

Global Internet security risk imperiled by public, media apathy

Individual computer security as well as organizational security threatened on Internet[/caption]

Carol Forsloff — If you are one of those who belongs to a social media site, such as Facebook, Fandalism, or Twitter, you likely experienced errors and glitches doing Internet interaction. And if you were a business, it's likely you did as well. That's because the biggest online attack in the history of the Internet occurred this last week.

Kurzweil reports this online attack impacted many servers around the world. For that reason, users saw a widespread number of errors in commenting, posting new information, or even accessing sites.

The attackers faked IP addresses, replacing them with that of the target, a method called "IP spooking". It means that rather than the user going to the expected address on the Internet, instead the server pointed to the address of the fake address.

Despite this huge attack, the news about it was not high profile in the past week. This is in spite of the fact that most of the world's business is conducted over the Internet and the security risks have been discussed for many years. In 2001, some of these details were enumerated in a post by a consulting firm, dedicated to examining and enumerating security risks on the Internet. A security breach would risk the following factors necessary for good business and interaction, for as the consulting firm reminds us the expectations impact critical factors:

• Availability - assets and services are available to all authorised parties as required.


• Confidentiality - all private communications, transactions, and data are accessible only to authorised parties.


• Integrity - provides confidence that assets and data have not been modified by any unauthorised party.

Security issues can impact defense and government interaction and security, as reflected in a demonstration provided by Air Force Lt. Col. Buzz Walsh and Maj. Brad Ashley who met with military leaders and showed them how easy it is to get the Social Security numbers, codes and other key information from the Internet.

Walsh said, "You don't need a Ph.D. to do this,"Walsh said about the ability to gather the information. "There's no rocket science in this capability. What's amazing is the ease and speed and the minimal know-how needed. The tools (of the Net) are designed for you to do this."

But despite the problems related to security, many people neither know how critical these issues are nor are they aware of what to do to protect themselves. The lack of security for both individuals and businesses may relate to the short shrift given the problems. This means private information and financial data can be threatened by security attacks. The need to know is especially important since last week's security breaches reflect how critical it is to provide extra security, precautions, and information so that the public is served, since a global shutdown in many areas is a potential threat so long as security problems exist, businesses, governments and individuals do not have the proper safeguards to deal with them and the media fails to underline the seriousness of the issue itself.

Will robots cause the death of mankind?

[caption id="attachment_14415" align="alignleft" width="200"] Robot[/caption]

Nick Bostrom, a professor of philosophy at Oxford,  tells us that we will destroy ourselves if we don’t harness technology properly.

Already there are those repetitious activities on the Internet that once set in motion continue to be perpetuated despite attempts to stop them.  Use your email for establishing social media contacts, and that email request to the friend may continue long after you ask for it to end.  Furthermore Facebook glitches have included messages sent out from past postings, making people believe they are current.   Software developers have created programs to fix those errors, which users may not understand and know how to correct.  The users often believe these errors are incidental or coming from some intentional act.   But those blips in our technology, if they occur in strategic areas, could result in a far greater problems than an error message sent to the wrong friend or on the wrong day, according to scientists.

“I think the definition of an existential risk goes beyond just extinction, in that it also includes the permanent destruction of our potential for desirable future development. Our permanent failure to develop the sort of technologies that would fundamentally improve the quality of human life would count as an existential catastrophe,” says Bostrom in an interview with Kurzweil, a technology and science group studying the scope of artificial intelligence.

During the interview Bostrom spells out how technology is advancing,  but in that advancement it is assuming too much control over human life, to the extent that it could dominate the future in negative ways.

He goes on to detail the problems:  “In the longer run, I think artificial intelligence—once it gains human and then superhuman capabilities—will present us with a major risk area. There are also different kinds of population control that worry me, things like surveillance and psychological manipulation pharmaceuticals.   Bostrom says robotic intelligence, the kind we have seen in films such as IRobot, has a dark side, that if not harnessed appropriately could mean disaster for the human race.  In the film, a policeman investigates a robot thought to be creating a great threat to man’s survival.

What is some of that greater risk?  Bostrom maintains, “If one day you have the ability to create a machine intelligence that is greater than human intelligence, how would you control it, how would you make sure it was human-friendly and safe? There is work that can be done there.”

Other scientists support Bostrom’s view of the risks involved in artificial intelligence.  A major risk, according to Eliezer Yudkowsky, a scholar who has been one of those individuals who has studied both the positive and negative aspects of artificial intelligence, reminds us that we can go too far in trusting our capabilities of understanding the range of issues associated with the growth of technology.  In other words, we think we know what’s happening and what the future can be but in taking that view we can overstep the boundaries to the point of losing control.  Yudkowsky reminds us that we think we understand artificial intelligence and its capability, and that could be what pushes man beyond the boundaries of safety into a vast area of the unknown, which could be a disaster.

In other words, we might not plan to start a war, but something in the system could indeed make that happen.  In that aspect, the movies might not be too far off what scientists believe could occur if the social and scientific areas are not examined fully and safeguards put in place to prevent the worst case scenario, which is the total destruction of man.

Instructions for creating disaster germ creates dilemma for science,governments

[caption id="attachment_11862" align="alignleft" width="211" caption="Influenza virus research - wikimedia commons"][/caption]

The specter of an H5N1 pandemic keeps research scientists up at night because of the virus’ power to kill,” warns Science Insider. “Of the known cases so far, more than half were fatal.”  And one scientist has made an airborne H5N1 influenza virus that has that power, according to a recent article at Kurzweilai.net.

Virologist Dr. Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam,  has produced research that describes his discovery and  presented his study during a meeting in Malta this past September.  The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) can recommend the paper not be published but doesn’t have the authority to actually prevent publication.  It does create potential problems, as scientists have worried for some time about the development of a virus that could kill millions.

Scientists have been particularly concerned that a destructive virus could be developed and that research might fall into the hands of terrorists that could use it to create a widespread panemic.  For that reason some of these same scientists who publish in scientific journals are concerned enough not to want to provide the kind of technical information that could be misappropriated and used by  terrorists.   At a workshop in 2003 a number of authors asked the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) for permission to withhold critical information in their research because of the risks involved.

Michael Kurilla, who is the director of the Office of Biodefense Research Affairs of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, expresses concerns about the potential threat from synthetic biology.  He worries that research like the one conducted by Foucher and his colleagues might fall into the hands of terrorists.  He says “The threat and the reality of synthetic biology is becoming greater and greater every day.” Scientists have recommended carefully guarding specific details in the formulation of dangerous viruses for that reason for many years, back to the time of Ronald Reagan when these issues were discussed.  At the time President Reagan was concerned about keeping the balance between transparency in research on the one hand and the safety of the United States on the other.  The impetus for developing a virus through synthetic biology comes from the need to having an anecdote in the event of a biological threat.

The threat of biological weapons is particularly acute in East Africa, according to Indiana Senator Richard Lugar.   Al Qaeda is known to be trying to find the ingredients and instructions for making biological weapons at a time when many of the nations are weak from economic problems and internal turmoil caused by violent clashes among antagonistic groups.  The problems of maintaining safety in the midst of all this combined with the fact that the details for making an ultimate weapon for bioterrorism are available poses serious risks raised by the scientific community and the politicians who have focused on the challenge. It’s a “potentially disastrous predicament,” says Lugar.

The Kurzweil world of the future moving speedily to modern plates

Carol Forsloff - Whether
its super computers the size of a sugar cube or Facebook's new social
communication strategies developing over the next few months, cutting
edge computer interaction is moving at warp speed.



Kurzweil underlines some of the recent research in its regular newsletters.
This organization is that cutting edge resource that looks at science in
a variety of directions, accenting information that moves folks in
"nano" ways towards the brave new world.

Facebook is now integrating chat, email and its usual and customary Facebook activities.

IBM tells us that powerful supercomputer processors will be the size of a sugar cube and done through revolutionary research.

 Molecular
animations will allow students to watch visual representations of some
of life’s deepest secrets, as plants grow right in front of their eyes
at the molecular level.

The
computer of today that folks find fascinating, helpful and the way to
connect across the world will be extinct as we know it, replaced with
new gadgets that harness our interests and ideas, as Kurzweil notes, for
that future world we used to have in our imaginations, now becoming

real.