**Preface to "Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines"**

This book represents a collection of papers that comprised two Special Issues which were published in the online journal *Philosophies*. Eight of the papers are from the Special Issue on "Human Enhancement Technologies and Our Merger with Machines", which was edited by Woodrow Barfield and Sayoko Blodgett-Ford. Three of the papers are from the Special Issue on "Cyberphenomenology: Technominds Revolution", which was edited by Professor Jordi Vallverdu (who kindly consented to the use of papers collected for his Special Issue in this edited book). All the papers discuss issues related to emerging technologies designed to enhance human bodies and minds from the perspective of ethics, law, and policy. Considering the papers which comprise this book, we do not focus solely on the integration of technology within human bodies, such as in neuroprosthetics; instead, we emphasize a wider scope of the topic and also include a discussion of genetic, biological, and pharmacological enhancements to humans. Diverse approaches are leading to a future world where humans may be permanently or temporarily enhanced with technology through the use of artificial parts, by manipulating (or reprogramming) human DNA, and other enhancement techniques that will surely emerge in the coming decades (and combinations thereof). Such techniques could include precision medicine, more sophisticated genome sequencing and gene editing (CRISPR), cellular implants, and computationally powerful wearable devices that can be implanted in the human body, including the brain. Other enhancements for humans could result from nanoscale drugs (including antibiotic "smart bombs") to target specific strains of bacteria and to repair cells. And, in the future, we may be able to implant devices such as bionic eyes and bionic kidneys within the human body, or even artificially grown and regenerated human organs. Whatever the form of the enhancement technology, important ethical, legal, and policy issues arise. The collection of papers in this book continues the discussion on this important topic which has already garnered interest within the philosophy community. Here, we present some unique issues, and we hope to motivate further discussion on this topic.

Should the reader think we are operating in the realm of science fiction, only discussing issues of ethics, law, and policy which may be relevant for a distant future, consider that in 2018, in research funded in the US by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a person with a brain chip piloted a swarm of drones using signals from the brain. More recently, a research team from Columbia University tested the convergence of neural networks. This was achieved by combining brain implants, artificial intelligence, and a speech synthesizer to translate brain activity into recognizable robotic produced words. The implications of this neuromorphic technology for human enhancement are tremendous, including allowing paralyzed people the ability to communicate more easily and the potential to read human thoughts via cognitive imaging. In the view of the editors, we are on the cusp of significantly upgrading (or at least modifying) the human ecosystem. We are already witnessing the merging of artificial circuitries with biological intelligence, retrieved in the form of electric, magnetic, and mechanical transductions. These and other technologies that will be integrated into or combined with the human body all give rise to the ethical, legal, and policy issues considered in this book. They also require a continuing effort to re-evaluate current laws and, if appropriate, modify or develop new laws that address enhancement technology. A legal, ethical, and policy response to current and future human enhancements should strive to protect the rights of all parties involved, and to recognize responsibilities of humans to other

conscious and living beings, regardless of what they look like or what abilities they may have (or lack). In the final paper, a potential ethical approach is outlined in which rights and responsibilities should be respected even if enhanced humans are perceived by non-enhanced (or less-enhanced) humans as "no longer human" at all.

> **Woodrow Barfield, Sayoko Blodgett-Ford** *Editors*
