FastForward Radio

By | June 29, 2008
2 Comments

Sunday night Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon hosted a panel on The Future of of Fit (and Fat). The panelists were PJ Manney, Brian Wang, and fitness expert and entrepreneur Shawn Phillips.

Stream the latest show:

Or:

add_to_itunes.gif

Or download MP3′s for all the archived shows at:

Listen to FastForward Radio... on Blog Talk Radio

Click “Continue Reading” for the show notes:

  • http://nextbigfuture.com Brian Wang

    On the subject of personal choice and enhancement:
    Millions use steroids. I saw a survey result which said 80% use it for
    better appearance instead of sports competition. (7 million is the the
    number of users statistic that I have seen). It is an optional
    performance enhancement.

    Tens of millions use cosmetic surgery, including various kinds of liposuction.
    Breast surgery and botox is sometimes correlated with improved
    earnings (strippers, actors, models, waitresses – increased tips,
    etc…)

    Tens of millions have lasik surgery and an increasing percentage end
    up with better than 20-20 vision. I ended up with 20-15 from my lasik.
    Tiger Woods had lasik and it can be argued that it helped his
    performance reading greens even though he was using contacts before.
    This is uncontroversial when the impact could be more than steroids.
    Lasik can help with jobs of pilots and other occupations.

    Tommy john surgery has been indicated to improve pitching performance.

    I think when people are asked or choose on a case by case basis for
    particular kinds of enhancement then there is less controversy and
    ethical issues raised than when it is phrased as enhancement. Also,
    there is less controversy when the result is not a level of
    musculature or appearance which can be viewed as personally
    threatening. Some breasts are enlarged to a level that is hardly
    considered natural but it is generally not considered threatening.
    There is usually not a discussion of level playing field for models or
    strippers. There is an online website and donation system where woman
    can apply to have donations for breast augmentation surgery.

    Tens of millions are choosing various kinds of augmentation. It is
    generally not controversial at the personal choice level.
    Ove-regulation and restriction in the USA will mean more medical
    tourism to Mexico and Asia. The high costs of the US medical system
    are increasing the amount of medical tourism anyway. BLue cross is
    setting up formal systems with overseas hospitals. China already has
    approved gene therapy and stem cell procedures.

    Link

    Link

    Gene therapy in China
    http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/hum.2006.17.970

    http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/hum.2008.0519

    ===
    The moral and ethical issues associated with less safe and effective
    current technology (steroids) will not be the same for new procedures
    which are far safer
    and more effective.

    Brain enhancement – drugs and devices
    http://nextbigfuture.com/2007/12/brain-enhancing-drugs-and-procedures.html

    Framing transhumanist debate
    http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/03/proper-framing-of-transhumanist-debate.html

    20% of Nature readers use cognitive enhancers
    http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/04/20-of-readers-of-nature-use-cognitive.html

    AI
    http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/03/artificial-intelligence-youre-soaking.html

    Craig venter supports cognitive enhancement and mentions improvement
    by 10 times. Was it an offhand remark or does his view of the genetic
    research lead him to believe 10 times is an achievable goal. What
    would that mean if he is right than genetic control would provide a
    ten times enhancement in cognition.
    http://nextbigfuture.com/2007/09/craig-venter-billionaire-geneticist.html

    We can look around society and see that we can stack the deck and
    change the genetic hand that people have been dealt. Giving everyone
    full houses, four of a kind or royal flushes with safe and effective
    procedures is different than eugenics of the past.

    We can look around the animal kingdom and see that being able to
    integrate the best capabilities there into humans would have a huge
    effect (this would not have to be radical appearance changing things,
    muscles of gorilla or cheetah but without fur and claws etc…).
    Clearly the deeper the enhancement then the more potential for
    controversy, ick factor and ethical issues.
    technology could reduce the need or work along side enhancements. For
    breathing underwater. Compact Rebreather devices are available now and
    artificial gill devices seem likely to be made.

    - the best and most impactful enhancements
    - cognitive enhancement
    - life extension
    - regeneration and improved immune system, health and healing
    - enhancing senses
    - strength, speed, dexterity.

    Regeneration funded for $250 million through DOD Afirm.

    Speed ,strength and dexterity and appearance enhancement can be always
    on enhancement but will be optional and less impactful economically
    and socially than cognitive enhancement and devices for work and
    science productivity.

  • https://blog.speculist.com Phil Bowermaster

    Brian –

    The fact that people are more opposed to enhancements in general than they are to any particular enhancement has a corollary in the debate about life extension. There are many who express grave doubts about “life extension,” but who have no problem whatsoever with a new treatment for cancer or Alzheimer’s. And, in fact, most of these people would be hard pressed to find a cause of death or deterioration of well-being that they’re really in favor of, or even indifferent to. Ask them how they feel about a new to deal with any of these in particular, and they’ll be all for it.