IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2013 - 48
information coding (binary code in
silicon-based systems that are fused
with humans for the HIA scenario
and ternary coding in DNA/RNA
human biochemistry for the gene
therapy scenario). Second - the
example of the regulatory schemes
and processes that have governed
genetic science and technology as
applied to human beings is relevant
as indicative of how Constitutional
authority in our three branches of
government work to ensure a public
and transparent process and outcome into the future.
Information
Weapons as Genomic
At APSA in Toronto in 2009, we put
forth a compelling case that a logical analysis of the threat of genetic
technology WMD (also explained
as an information weapon [11]) posits a logical response in the form of
potentially a public policy of genetic
human enhancement as the only reliable form of individual and statistically significant national defense.
From international relations theory,
this is the security dilemma applied
to genetic war. What is particularly
problematic here is the element of
human enhancement and for matters of genetic science this automatically corresponds, when matched to
public policy, to eugenics.
While information appliance
implantation/augmentation in humans may not be exactly eugenics, it
remains a form of human enhancement and therefore sets forth a very
definite ethical, political, legal, and
economic construct that we must
contemplate from the perspective
of both citizen and society. We borrow from the 2009 APSA paper
here to initiate the ethical analysis
of the HIA scenario that we have
presented above.
Computational power is now
approaching the necessary
speed and reliability that
genomic programming - for
either existing genomes - or
for the construction of unique
48
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genomes - will soon be
possible for initial experimentation.
In January 2009 in Austin, TX, an
event occurred at a major computing technology conference that,
according to some scientists and
philosophers of science, may begin
to move human science beyond the
standard model of scientific exploration and discovery that we have
used for nearly four hundred years.
At the conference a major computing feat was realized for the first
time: computer scientists and engineers were able to build and operate a supercomputer that broke the
petaflop barrier. For our analysis
this has significant implications.
First, the process of scientific discovery as observation, hypothesizing, testing, refining, replication,
etc., may now give way to a process
of doing all of this in an ever more
pure digital manner using massive data sets of growing empirical
validity over time. Two things happen in this model: 1) the difference
between virtual models and the
real world will decrease, and 2) the
time expended in the entire process
of discovery will be compressed
meaning that discovery will accelerate and be available for applied
engineering activities that will also
accelerate. The major point for us
to consider, as policy architects for
genomic-informed therapies and/
or weapons/defense schemes is that
we can now begin to see the early
formation of models and machines
that can perform the massive calculations necessary to effect recombinatorial biological outcomes within
the scope of information size that
we have previously discussed.
Human Regulatory
Analysis and Deployment
Is a Political Process
The obvious reason that the deliberate engineering of the human
germ line remains controversial is
due to human ethics, values that
surround the meaning of life, past,
present, and future and involve
"should questions." The reason
that engineering the human germ
line is becoming less controversial
for the purpose of ending disease,
creating weapons, or defending
against them is due to the mathematics of information and the
efficiency of creating algorithms
for lesser complexity and involve
"how questions." A robust and
just regulatory scheme for such
technologies as they are evolving
within the above narrative will not
be constructed from scratch; rather
they are already greatly impacted
and delimited by recent regulatory decisions by the Congress as
advised by the National Academy
during proceedings discussions
and debates in 2004.
Noting the volatility of Washington, DC, politics that surround
this kind of policy debate, we
would expect the primary policy
work to be done with regard to how
best to govern the progression of
genetic science and engineering
in a post 9/11 environment? We
would expect this to be performed
by appropriate agencies that use
these accepted risk analysis and
assessment modeling technologies.
The results of these studies - after
proper legal review by the Constitutional authorities in the Congress
and Executive Branches - would
rationally inform legislation that
would then build the policy regulatory bodies and schemes. Indeed,
what we have just described is a
quick generalization of real processes, real regulatory bodies,
and real managerial outcomes
for numerous biological activities
in the United States for decades
(i.e., the Human Genome Project, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Commission (RAC), etc....).
Within this process , very important to the legitimacy and scientific
accuracy of these assessments is
the work of the regulatory scientific groups - many still largely ad
hoc after the demise of the Office
of Technology Assessment - that
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