Moore Institute Visiting Fellow seminar and workshop

12.30 – 14.00: Seminar by Moore Institute Visiting Fellow – Dr. Mirko Daniel Garasic   

Why should we regulate the use of cognitive enhancers?: “Let me tell you why I should tell you that I took Ritalin before this talk”

Abstract: It is now well documented that the use of cognitive enhancers (CE) is not only increasingly common in Western countries, but also gradually accepted as a normal procedure by the media as well. In fact, its implementation is not unusual in various professional contexts and it has its peak in colleges (where the trend has been characterized as “academic doping”). Even when certain restrictions in the legislation of a country are indeed in place (i.e. through prescriptions requirements), they are without doubts easy to overcome. The legitimacy and appropriateness of such restrictions will not be the focus of this presentation. The concern is instead related to the moral and social reasons to publicly acknowledge the use of cognitive enhancers in competitive-selective contexts. These reasons are linked to a more neutral analysis of contemporary Western society: it is a fact that an increasing number of competitive-selective contexts have a substantial number of contenders using CE. Through the use of some examples, the problems related to its use will be analyzed. In particular, focus will be given to the tension between one of the main arguments used by bio-liberals (the use of CE is an eligible procedure that society does not impose on anyone) and the actual implementation of the drugs in competitive, or semi-competitive contexts.

Dr Mirko Daniel Garasic

Research Scholar, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, Rome, Italy

Adjunct Professor in Bioethics, LUISS University, Rome, Italy

More info: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mirko_Garasic

14.30 – 17.00: Beyond normality? technologies between assistance and enhancement workshop

14.30 – 14.35: Heike Felzmann: Overview of workshop

14.35 – 14.50: Oliver Feeney: Human Enhancement Technologies: key challenges and opportunities

14.50 – 15.05: Discussion

15.05 – 15.20: Heike Felzmann: ELS issues in wearable robots between assistance and enhancement of motor function – a taxonomy.

15.20 – 15.35: Discussion

15.35 – 15.50: Su-Ming Khoo: Algocracy and the threats to democratic inclusion – interrogating democratic capabilities in transhumanist times

15.50 – 16.05: Discussion

16.10 – 17.00: Launch of B-CAUSE IRC COALESCE project

Su-Ming Khoo, (with wine reception).