Enhancement and Obsolescence: Avoiding an "Enhanced Rat Race".

A claim about continuing technological progress plays an essential, if unacknowledged, role in the philosophical literature on "human enhancement." I argue that-should it eventuate-continuous improvement in enhancement technologies may prove more bane than benefit. A rapid increase in the power of available enhancements would mean that each cohort of enhanced individuals will find itself in danger of being outcompeted by the next in competition for important social goods-a situation I characterize as an "enhanced rat race." Rather than risk the chance of being rendered technologically and socially obsolete by the time one is in one's early 20s, it may be rational to prefer that a wide range of enhancements that would generate positional disadvantages that outweigh their absolute advantages be prohibited altogether. The danger of an enhanced rat race therefore constitutes a novel argument in favor of abandoning the pursuit of certain sorts of enhancements.

Llamada de atención: ¿queremos verdaderamente un modelo económico basado en el aporte de conocimiento? / Pay attention: Do we really need an economical model based on knowledge?

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One danger of biomedical enhancements.

In the near future, our society may develop a vast array of medical enhancements. There is a large debate about enhancements, and that debate has identified many possible harms. This paper describes a harm that has so far been overlooked. Because of some particular features of enhancements, we could come to place more value on them than we actually should. This over-valuation would lead us to devote time, energy, and resources to enhancements that could be better spent somewhere else. That mistake might not be trivial. By spending too much time, energy, and resources on enhancements, we could set back our pursuit of our deepest goals such as living happily and leading ethical lives.

Reflexiones sobre la relación dirección gerencia- Servicio de Farmacia / Reflections about the relation between the general management and pharmacy services

En este artículo se analiza la relación actual y la deseada entre la Gerencia y el Servicio de Farmacia de un hospital, transmitiendo la necesidad de interactuar y establecer una buena comunicación con el objetivo de conseguir una óptima gestión de los medicamentos en el hospital (AU)

This article analyses the present relation and that desired between General Management and the Pharmacy Service of a hospital, transmitting the need to interact and establish good communication with a view to achieving optimum management of medicines in the hospital (AU)

Converging technologies for enhancing human performance: science and business perspectives.

Our goal is to provide a rough sketch of some of the possible implications of converging technologies for enhancing human performance ((Roco and Bainbridge, 2002)) from both a science and a business perspective. Converging technologies refers to a type of coevolutionary progress that is characterized by rapid advances across multiple areas of technology (nano-bio-info-cogno or NBIC), accelerated by interdisciplinary cross-fertilization as the advances in one area spill over and speed progress in other areas. The rapid, multi-front progress characteristic of converging technologies results in better technological capabilities which are faster and cheaper, and can be broadly applied for many different purposes. In this paper, we specifically explore applications of converging technologies for enhancing human performance, that is, enhancing our human ability to achieve goals both individually and collectively. These applications hold the promise to make people healthier, wealthier, and wiser as well as to make businesses more responsive, resilient, and adaptive.

Early convergence research and education supported by the National Science Foundation.

The following pages describe research grants awarded by the National Science Foundation that illustrate how different fields of science and technology can converge in order to increase human potential. Technological convergence involves the unification of the sciences of Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and new technologies based on Cognitive Science (NBIC). Because it supports research across all major branches of science and technology, including the social and behavioral sciences, the NSF has been a focus of discussions about converging technologies to enhance human capabilities and serve human needs.