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that these interventions imply no values other than preservation itself;
ethical values are the business of society and the political process.
James Collins:
In addition to gene work, my group here at Boston Uni–
versity does a fair amount of work on designing devices to enhance sen–
sory function, sensory prosthetics. I would agree with Ray that I have seen
very little controversy in terms of the interface of the body with machines.
In particular, I've seen very little, if any controversy, in instances when
these devices are used to replace lost function. In an individual who, as a
result of age, disease, or an injury, has lost a function, I've never heard
complaints. But controversy arises as technology is getting better and
cheaper, and people are beginning to think of using biomedical technol–
ogy to enhance functions in healthy individuals. There's actually a lot of
controversy right now in the sporting world about to what extent people
are already using gene therapy to enhance their performance, to boost
either their capacity to carry oxygen through their blood or to create
stronger and bigger muscles. We, as a bioengineering community, are
going to be facing some interesting challenges in the next decade.
Ray Kurzweil:
There's a design for something called a respirocyte, which
is actually a robotic red blood cell. This design is not completed, but it
appears that it would work.
If
you had these respirocytes inside, you
could do an Olympic sprint for sixteen minutes without taking a breath.
They would be very hard to detect. But assuming you could detect them,
presumably we'll ban them in Olympic sporting events. But then you're
going to have kids in junior high school gymnasiums routinely outper–
forming Olympic athletes.
Edward Rothstein:
One other question. Gerald, several times in your
talk you spoke about the impact of entrepreneurial enterprise, suggest–
ing that it has been more effective than public programs and govern–
mental declarations of intention for spurring technological advance. In
fact, you and Ray and Jim are all entrepreneurs and inventors as well as
scientists. To what extent does this help explain the dominant achieve–
ments of America in technology and science? Is American centrality in
these areas related to the importance of the entrepreneurial idea?
Ray Kurzweil:
I think we have a frontier culture, a history of embarking
on new frontiers, whether that's opening up a new area of our country,
going to the moon, or to new technological or scientific or cultural fron–
tiers. We are also the only country organized to take advantage of the
