Week 6: BioTech + Art

My primary concern in relation to biotechnology is ethics. Specifically, I am concerned with the creation of suffering.

As we technologically progress, we become more able to modify biology. We are able to directly edit genes and create organisms with preferred traits (e.g. Kac’s bioluminescent GFP Bunny). This progression may eventually allow us to generate and directly edit consciousness, or conscious entities. How can we be sure that we are not creating concomitant suffering?

Kac’s GFP Bunny.

A common tenet I find across moral doctrines is that people should avoid causing others suffering. People develop intuitive understandings of suffering, but most people outside of the philosophically-inclined do not delineate these beliefs. Our intuitive understanding serves better than worse in the context of intra-human relations. However, I fear that such understanding will not suffice in the context of inhuman entities. For example, what if we were able to create human-like organisms that feel neither happiness-related neurobiological chemicals (e.g. dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, etc.) nor the lack thereof. How could we know that such entities are not suffering even though they cannot detect that lack thereof? We could not possibly mimic their subjective experience, nor come close to it as such compounds are intrinsic to normal human functioning. Would it be acceptable to create such human-like organisms, even briefly for the sake of experimentation or art?

An explanation of how such neurotransmitters affect the brain.

Discussions of AI-related ethics often contain a similar strain of thought; how can we know whether artificial consciousness is capable of feeling suffering? Books like Brave New World by Huxley give me a better understanding of the issue, but I’m still unsatisfied. Feel free to recommend any other related books.

The version of Brave New World I have. A must-read for anyone interested in technology and ethics.

Huxley, Aldous. “Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited: Paperback.” Barnes & Noble, HarperCollins Publishers, 5 July 2005, www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brave-new-world-and-brave-new-world-revisited-aldous-huxley/1100552382.

lbreuning. “Happy Brain Chemicals: Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin, Endorphin.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Aug. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldPuBk7a9V4. 

Kac, Eduardo. GFP BUNNY, www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor. 

Kelty, Chris. “Meanings of Participation: Outlaw Biology?”. Web. 4 May. 2021.

Levy, Ellen. “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.” Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts. Eds. Margot Lovejoy, Christiane Paul, and Victoria Vesna. University of Chicago Press: 2011.

Silverman, Ed. “The 5 most pressing ethical issues in biotech medicine.” Biotechnology healthcare vol. 1,6 (2004): 41-6.

Vesna, Victoria. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., Web. 4 May 2021.

Young, Emma. “Mutant Bunny.” New Scientist, 22 Sept. 2000, www.newscientist.com/article/dn16-mutant-bunny/.