APPLETON, WIS. -- James Hughes examines the current and future methods for improving human intelligence and controlling emotional states in the opening address of Lawrence University's annual Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics.
Hughes, the executive director and co-founder of the Connecticut-based Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), presents "We Can be Smarter and Happier: The Future of Cognitive Enhancement" Friday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. in Lawrence's Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
From psychopharmacology and genetic engineering to nanotechnology, Hughes will discuss several converging technologies, their impact on accelerating human intelligence and the ethical and political questions posed by those technologies.
He teaches health policy as a visiting lecturer at Trinity College and is the author of the 2004 book "Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future." He also produces Changesurfer Radio, a syndicated weekly program. Elected a Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, Hughes earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.
Hughes' appearance is supported by the Edward F. Mielke Lectureship in Ethics in Medicine, Science and Society. The lectureship was established in 1985 by the Mielke Family Foundation in memory of Dr. Edward F. Mielke, a leading member of the Appleton medical community and the founder of the Appleton Medical Center.
