Delphi - Interdisciplinary Review of Emerging Technologies

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The search returned 2 results.

Jean-Aymeric Marot

Delphi - Interdisciplinary Review of Emerging Technologies, Volume 1 (2018), Issue 1, Page 20 - 25

The Western world has undergone a paradigm shift over the course of the last 50 years, whereby individuals have increasingly gained control over their own body and life choices. Meanwhile, new technologies have increased their breadth of application, progressively blending into manifold aspects of our daily life. Human enhancement technologies in particular will bring a new set of risks and opportunities that may significantly disrupt the health and employment sectors, leading us to rethink our approach to science and the human body.

Sean Blanchet, Sean Devine

Delphi - Interdisciplinary Review of Emerging Technologies, Volume 1 (2018), Issue 1, Page 26 - 30

Pharmaceutical products aimed at enhancing cognitive performance – smart drugs, nootropics, etc – have garnered considerable attention. Many ethical questions accompany their growth in popularity. Three of these questions will be addressed in this paper: Do nootropics preclude authenticity? Are nootropics a good thing for society? And, is it fair to use nootropics? We argue that these questions can be answered by appealing to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concepts of individuation, Society of Control, and dividuation. On the one hand, drawing on the concept of extrinsic individuation, we posit that nootropics have the potential to expand horizons, disrupt traditional human-object interactions, and allow users to experience their surroundings in novel, more authentic, ways. On the other, it also risks concentrating success in the hands of a minority of individuals and reinforce the normative power of the Society of Control. Ultimately, we suggest that whether it is fair, indeed ethical, to use nootropics depends on the control the user has over herself and her cognition within the Society of Control.

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