An Explanation of Fukuyama’s Views on Altering Human Beings
It is no question that technology, specifically biotechnology, has been advancing at a rapid rate in today’s modern world. Fukuyama’s “Our Posthuman Future” is a book focused on tackling the inevitable issues that will arise with advances in biotechnology and potential ways to solve them. In handling these problems, it is necessary to establish a baseline of what makes humans unique, and how to draw the line in terms of what is ethically sound to do to humans. In his book, Fukuyama describes his ideas on what makes humans alone unique and the consequences of this. In this paper, I will detail how Fukuyama describes the ideas of human nature and human dignity, as well as how he attempts …show more content…
These characteristics must be species-typical and have some sort of small variance, meaning they require an average point and have some sort of divergence away from that. The key factor of this definition relies on the idea that these differences must arise from genetic factors alone, rather than environmental factors. Environmental factors would give rise to changing cultures and environments that can impact the way that humans react and behave in certain circumstances, effectively limiting what would connect us as a species. For example, sociability, emotions, and empathy are all characteristics that would constitute human nature. However, no one characteristic alone can describe human nature; the key idea of this definition is idea that these characteristics all contribute together to form human …show more content…
According to Fukuyama, it is not the single characteristics that make up human nature, but rather, all of the characteristics combined. No single one thing gives humans dignity, but rather, the whole of human nature combined creates a universal dignity among the human species and gives us the Factor X. For example, computers are capable of being programmed to do much of what humans can mentally do, but without the same emotion that humans possess, they are less than human and therefore not worthy of the same dignity and
It is no question that technology, specifically biotechnology, has been advancing at a rapid rate in today’s modern world. Fukuyama’s “Our Posthuman Future” is a book focused on tackling the inevitable issues that will arise with advances in biotechnology and potential ways to solve them. In handling these problems, it is necessary to establish a baseline of what makes humans unique, and how to draw the line in terms of what is ethically sound to do to humans. In his book, Fukuyama describes his ideas on what makes humans alone unique and the consequences of this. In this paper, I will detail how Fukuyama describes the ideas of human nature and human dignity, as well as how he attempts …show more content…
These characteristics must be species-typical and have some sort of small variance, meaning they require an average point and have some sort of divergence away from that. The key factor of this definition relies on the idea that these differences must arise from genetic factors alone, rather than environmental factors. Environmental factors would give rise to changing cultures and environments that can impact the way that humans react and behave in certain circumstances, effectively limiting what would connect us as a species. For example, sociability, emotions, and empathy are all characteristics that would constitute human nature. However, no one characteristic alone can describe human nature; the key idea of this definition is idea that these characteristics all contribute together to form human …show more content…
According to Fukuyama, it is not the single characteristics that make up human nature, but rather, all of the characteristics combined. No single one thing gives humans dignity, but rather, the whole of human nature combined creates a universal dignity among the human species and gives us the Factor X. For example, computers are capable of being programmed to do much of what humans can mentally do, but without the same emotion that humans possess, they are less than human and therefore not worthy of the same dignity and