{"id":12696,"date":"2016-08-04T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/why-americans-are-wary-of-using-technology-to-enhance-humans\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:17:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:17:50","slug":"why-americans-are-wary-of-using-technology-to-enhance-humans","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2016\/08\/04\/why-americans-are-wary-of-using-technology-to-enhance-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Americans are wary of using technology to \u2018enhance\u2019 humans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Emerging technologies that draw from biomedical technology, nanotechnology, information technology and other fields are developing at a rapid pace and may lead to any number of ways people might be able to \u201cupgrade\u201d themselves. Such technologies, in the pipeline now to address medical and therapeutic needs, could produce new ways for humans to push the boundaries of their abilities, making their minds sharper and their bodies stronger and healthier than ever before.<\/p>\n\n

But a new Pew Research Center survey<\/a>\u00a0shows that majorities of Americans greet the possibility of these breakthroughs with more wariness and worry than enthusiasm and hope.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

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The Center\u2019s study focuses on the U.S. public\u2019s reactions to three emerging technologies that could fundamentally improve people\u2019s health, cognitive abilities or physical capacities. The specific examples were gene editing to give a healthy baby a much reduced risk of serious diseases and conditions over their lifetime; implanting a computer chip in the brain to give a healthy person a much improved ability to concentrate and process information; and a transfusion with synthetic blood to give healthy people much improved speed, strength and stamina.<\/p>\n\n

These are but three of many enhancements scientists and bioethicists say could arise from biomedical technologies now under development. They were chosen to capture the range of enhancements on the horizon. All are tied to breakthroughs unfolding in labs, such as CRISPR for gene splicing or the Human Connectome Project for brain science, and these developments are intensifying debates about the uses of emerging technologies. None of the techniques behind these ideas is being used for \u201cenhancing purposes\u201d today, although all exist in some form of development for therapeutic or medical applications. They each raise potentially enticing prospects: What if we, as a society, could virtually do away with illness? What if humans could all raise their thinking capacity manyfold? And what if synthetic \u201csuper blood\u201d could boost physical prowess to \u201csuperman\u201d and \u201csuperwoman\u201d levels?<\/p>\n\n

Thus, it may be surprising in light of all that promise to see that Americans are largely cautious about using emerging technologies in ways that push human capacities beyond what\u2019s been possible before. Among the findings from the survey of 4,726 U.S. adults conducted March 2-28, 2016:<\/p>\n\n