2009 Symposium Speakers
TED PETERSGenetic Manipulation and Nano-TecEnhancement: Should We Make Superhumans?An increased ability to identify human gene function and select preferred genes may place future parents in a position of ‘designing’ their babies. Nanotechnologists dream of enhancing human brain power through electrical implants. Perhaps a new field of nano-bio-technology is just around the corner, providing an opportunity to create superhuman beings and influence the future of human evolution. Transhumanists are willing to work toward cybernetic immortality. Just how should we assess such extravagant images of the human future in light of theological anthropology and justice ethics? This lecture will expose and evaluate assumptions at work in transhumanism regarding evolution and progress, evaluating them in light of what we can expect from human nature.
Peters:
Degrees Recommended Readings: The Stem Cell Debate, by Ted Peters (Fortress Press. 2007) “Transhumanism and the Post-Human Future: Will Technological Progress Get us There?” by Ted Peters, The Global Spiral, 9:3 (June 2008)
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ANNE FOERSTThe Community of Human and Non-Human PersonsTraditionally we think that the group of humans and the group of persons are identical; in fact, we often use the terms “person” and “human” interchangeably. However, new developments in animal studies, biotechnologies and robotics have made this intuitive understanding of personhood questionable. This lecture will introduce a new concept of personhood, that is based on a relational approach to theology as well as insights from evolutionary psychology, that will include some robots into the community of persons as well.
Foerst:
Degrees Recommended Readings: “You Are Accepted” by Paul Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” by Bill Joy, Wired (www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html)
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ROBERT LEBELThe Genetic Horizon: Rolling to Greater ComplexityOnce genetics could be summarized by the phrase “one gene, one enzyme” — a given gene governed a given function, so it was responsible for one disease. Now we know that multiple genes might all cause the same clinical problem and an individual gene may cause multiple different clinical problems. We thought this was due to varying mutations in the gene, but we now know it may have to do with temporary changes called “imprinting.” Imprinting differs when it occurs during oogenesis compared to when it occurs during spermatogenesis, and it evolves. Additionally, variability between individuals is no longer limited to “single nucleotide polymorphisms” but is also tied up in “copy number variations.” The clinician races to keep up with the technologist. It’s exhilarating, exhausting and exasperating.
Lebel:
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Ted Peters, the 2009 Martin E. Marty Professor of Religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College, is a professor of systematic theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He served as principal investigator of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences research project funded by the NIH to study the “Theological and Ethical Questions Raised by the Human Genome Initiative.”
Anne Foerst has been an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at St. Bonaventure University since 2005. Prior to that she spent four years on the St. Bonaventure faculty as a visiting professor for theology and computer science. Foerst has worked as a research scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was also affiliated with the Center for the Studies of Values in Public Life of Harvard Divinity School. 
Robert Lebel is a Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Internal Medicine and Pathology, Lecturer in Ethics and Humanities, and Chief of Medical Genetics at State University of New York and Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York. He has delivered hundreds of lectures on topics ranging from philosophy and ethics to fetal autopsy and cancer genetics to audiences ranging from the general public to physicians.
