This brief introductory chapter offers a guided tour through the book. Starting with the basic observations (Sec. 1.1) and unfolding its objectives (Sec. 1.2), it provides an overview of the nine chapters (Sec. 1.3) and their background (Sec. 1.4).
1.1 The Point of Departure: Observations
The scientific and technological advance has made the traditional boundary between inanimate technology and the realm of the living more permeable. Developments in, e.g., synthetic biology, genome editing, human enhancement, and germline intervention demonstrate huge advances in science and technology. Deeper and deeper technological interventions into living organisms are possible, covering the entire range of life, from bacteria through plants and animals to humans. Living organisms are increasingly regarded as the point of departure to investigate and understand them at the micro-level, to modulate them as technically functioning systems, and then to rebuild or replace natural processes with technical ones, according to human intention. Far-ranging change and manipulation of natural organisms has become possible.
Simultaneously, a complementary development is ongoing. Recent developments in the field of digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) make increasingly autonomous technologies possible: robots for customer service, intelligent prostheses, autonomous cars, and social bots on the Internet. In this line of development, traditional technology is empowered by capabilities known only from living organisms: self-organization, recognition of its environment and adaptation to changes, the capability to move in an unknown territory, to develop problem-solving strategies on its own, and to learn from experience. Inanimate technology begins to show properties of life.
Therefore, my first observation motivating this book is: We are on the track, metaphorically speaking, to create living technology and technical life. The boundaries between life and technology are currently becoming more and more permeable from both sides. We are witnessing deeper and deeper technological intervention in life and are experiencing technology acquiring more and more attributes of life (e.g., Funk et al., 2019; Giese et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2012; Sternberg, 2007).
A plethora of new opportunities opens up, e.g., for overcoming diseases and disabilities but also for applications in energy supply and industrial production, for mobility, and in the military. The scientific and technological advance empowers humans to manipulate living organisms to a formerly unknown extent, e.g., by genome editing or enhancement technologies. Autonomous and intelligent technologies can replace humans for dangerous or boring routine activities, thereby also increasing economic efficiency. New services and systems combining technicalized life and living technology can be designed, serving human needs and creating new markets. The health system, agriculture, production, industry, environmental protection, and other areas will benefit. Expectations are high in many fields.
However, concerns as to the possible risks involved are posed, building on earlier debates on the risks of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and food (GMF) for health, the environment, and related social issues. Some of them touch upon specific issues, while others are visionary and more speculative. Artificially produced or technologically modified life could develop further according to the principles of self-organization and could potentially reproduce and get out of control. Challenges to distributional justice and equity could arise, together with questions about the carriers of responsibility in cases of increasingly autonomous technology. Autonomous robots which are able to move independently in an unknown environment, to learn, and to behave similarly to humans motivate and fuel new debates around responsibility, new human–machine interfaces,1 control, and the moral status of the robots themselves.
Therefore, the second observation guiding this book is the emerging need for orientation in coping with all the new opportunities and dealing with the challenges and risks responsibly. Contested issues such as the dignity of life, limits to enhancing animals for human purposes, interventions into the human germline, control and power, as well as distributional justice with regard to harvesting the benefits of the new opportunities provide a vast field of challenges for responsible deliberation, decision-making, and action. Applied ethics, in particular bioethics, medical ethics, and the ethics of technology are called for (e.g., Comstock, 2000; Buchanan, 2011; Paslack et al., 2012; Gunkel, 2018; Li et al., 2019).
Furthermore, transgressing the boundaries between life and technology is a deep challenge beyond morality and applied ethics. It affects the traditional cultural, religious, philosophical, and ontological order that has emerged over the course of human history. While living beings have traditionally been regarded as having their origin in nature, in evolution, or in God’s creation, artificially produced or deeply manipulated living beings would be human creations. In particular, the relations of technology and life, as well as between humans and technology, need to be reflected. Core notions of the human perception of the world, such as “life” and “technology,” must be reconsidered.
Accordingly, the third observation fueling this book is that dissolving the boundaries between life and technology needs deeper philosophical understanding, beyond applied ethics. Questions about reviewing and sharpening core issues of human perception of the world, and our self-conceptions, lie behind many of the tasks for ethical reflection. Therefore, philosophy of nature, philosophy of technology, and anthropology also have to be engaged in achieving a better understanding of the ongoing fundamental changes in human civilization driven by science and technology (e.g., Winner, 1982; Glees, 2005; Habermas, 2005; Sandel, 2007; Savulescu and Bostrom, 2009; Hurlbut and Tirosh-Samuelson, 2016).
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1 Throughout this book, gender neutral and non-binary language will be used.
