The politics of emerging strategic technologies : implications for geopolitics, human enhancement and human destiny / Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-332) and index.

General Introduction -- PART I: EMERGING STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGIES -- GEOPOLITICAL IMPLICATIONS -- Introduction -- Information and Communications Technology (ITC) -- Energy and Climate Change -- Health Care -- Biotechnology -- Nanotechnology -- Materials Science -- Artificial Intelligence -- Conclusions of Part I -- PART II: EMERGING STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGIES -- HUMAN ENHANCEMENT, DIGNITY AND DESTINY IMPLICATIONS -- Introduction -- Human Enhancement: The Nature of the Debate -- The Science and Technology of Human Enhancement -- The Geopolitics of Human Enhancement: Applying the 'Multi-Sum Security Principle' -- Criteria for a Regulatory Framework on Human Enhancement -- Conclusions of Part II -- General Conclusions.

Emerging technologies hold great promise but also pose major challenges to global politics, national and international security, human dignity and human destiny. This book examines the latest innovations, key trends and geopolitical and human implications of emerging strategic technologies such as Biotechnology, Nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence. The potential use and misuse of these technologies in human enhancement (physical and cognitive) is considered to be one of the major challenges of our time. Nayef Al-Rodhan argues that human enhancement and the future evolution into transhumans is inevitable. To prepare for these potential existential threats, the global community is urged to establish strict moral and legal guidelines that balance the need for innovation with the guarantee of dignity for all.