In January 2016, the Academy held an exploratory workshop convening leaders from a diverse range of academic disciplines – including neuroscience, social science, law, history, and ethics – alongside military and corporate experts to undertake a review of the field of human performance enhancement (HPE). The workshop was led by Steven Hyman (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard) and provided an opportunity to review and analyze the current state of research and public discourse on HPE, and identify issues that require further attention from scholars and policy-makers.
The workshop, supported by a gift from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, was rooted in an understanding that while advances in science and engineering have highlighted the potential benefits of HPE in health care, engineering, and military applications, the rapid expansion of the HPE field also raises new ethical dilemmas that must be resolved in order for society to integrate these approaches in a socially responsible manner. The multidisciplinary group of scholars from medicine, neuroscience, ethics, law, and economics, along with experts from government agencies and the private sector, discussed the current state of research and policy discourse on HPE with particular focus on the area of neuromodulation.
[An article in the Summer 2016 Bulletin provides additional information about the workshop.]