TY - CHAP
T1 - Human Enhancement Technologies and Democratic Citizenship
AU - GAGNON, Jean-Paul
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This chapter articulates that scholars write about Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) in two ways. This is not a reflection of a reality in the literature but rather a heuristic designed to contextualize democratic citizenship within contemporary HET discussions. The first way is to write about HET as possible realities far off into the future. The second way is to write about HET that can be realised seemingly as soon as tomorrow. For democratic citizenship, writing in the first case is either utopian or dystopian. It is either the projection of democracy's total triumph or its utter collapse caused by the type of rots that lead to democide. But writing in the second case is stimulating and vibrant. There are, for example, numerous calls for HET-led reforms in the literature. These reforms are needed to help answer the crisis of the citizen's august discontent (the growing and increasingly legitimized political apathy and political abstention observed in, and performed by, the citizenry). The purpose of this chapter is to focus on this second case-this more developed body of literature-and to theorise the interface between democratic citizenship and HET.
AB - This chapter articulates that scholars write about Human Enhancement Technologies (HET) in two ways. This is not a reflection of a reality in the literature but rather a heuristic designed to contextualize democratic citizenship within contemporary HET discussions. The first way is to write about HET as possible realities far off into the future. The second way is to write about HET that can be realised seemingly as soon as tomorrow. For democratic citizenship, writing in the first case is either utopian or dystopian. It is either the projection of democracy's total triumph or its utter collapse caused by the type of rots that lead to democide. But writing in the second case is stimulating and vibrant. There are, for example, numerous calls for HET-led reforms in the literature. These reforms are needed to help answer the crisis of the citizen's august discontent (the growing and increasingly legitimized political apathy and political abstention observed in, and performed by, the citizenry). The purpose of this chapter is to focus on this second case-this more developed body of literature-and to theorise the interface between democratic citizenship and HET.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84946103537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/human-enhancement-technologies-democratic-citizenship
U2 - 10.4018/978-1-4666-6010-6.ch010
DO - 10.4018/978-1-4666-6010-6.ch010
M3 - Chapter
SN - 1466660104
SN - 9781466660106
T3 - Global Issues and Ethical Considerations in Human Enhancement Technologies
SP - 176
EP - 190
BT - Global Issues and Ethical Considerations in Human Enhancement Technologies
A2 - Thompson, Steven John
PB - IGI Global
CY - Hershey
ER -