The First Conference on Human Enhancement at the House of Lords
On the 27th of February 2024, the Enhanced Games hosted the First Conference on Human Enhancement at the House of Lords, the United Kingdom’s upper chamber of governance.
Sponsored by the kind invitation of the Lord Stone of Blackheath, the conference convened 45 leading scientists, clinicians, thought-leaders, academics, entrepreneurs, government officials, and investors – including individuals from or previously associated with the Olympics, the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, the Rejuvenation Olympics, and Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint – and discussed the present realities and near-future of human enhancement and longevity, and how sports can be made safer for all athletes, regardless of enhancement status.
Performance Medicine: A New Paradigm
Currently, the medical industry is centered around a curative model – in which only patients who are critically ill are treated. “The NHS is a disease management apparatus designed to take sick people and make them not sick” stated Dr Aron D’Souza, “it’s not even designed to make people healthy”.
Performance medicine, and human enhancement more broadly, is a proposed paradigmatic shift – in which one’s health is optimised, or ‘enhanced’, as measured and tracked by key biomarkers. This way, potential illness is treated as – or even before – it becomes a critical threat, thus reducing the pressure on hospitals, and the curative health system more broadly.
Economic Impact
One only needs to look at Denmark and the contribution of Ozempic to the country’s GDP to know that performance medicine and anti-ageing technology will be the greatest economic drivers of the 21st Century.
Moreover, it is estimated that adding one year of life expectancy is worth $38 trillion for the global economy, whereas AI is forecast to only contribute $10 trillion in the next decade. Each year we win back is equivalent to 3.8 AI revolutions.
The UK as a Global Player: Looking Towards the Future
Despite the promise of this novel sector, the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world – an expert at the conference even going as far as to say it’s not even a player.
Taking place at the heart of British democracy, this Conference on Human Enhancement represents a possible future for the UK; one that rectifies its mistakes of the past: “Britain led the world in the internet in the 1990s, and AI in the early 2000s.” Dr Aron D’Souza explained. “However, the UK lost out on all the economic growth due to short-sighted policies and the inability to retain talent.”
The Conference on Human Enhancement wants to break this pattern, proposing a two-pronged approach to tackle both the systemic and regulatory challenges:
A Minister for Human Enhancement
From a systemic perspective, institutional space and conversations need to be carved out in order to address this emerging sector. A proactive approach is required by the UK, rather than retroactive compensation – a “Minister for AI” was only recently appointed, a move that was done five years too late.
As such, a “Minister for Human Enhancement” is proposed as a necessary first step for the UK government to adapt to and have its citizens benefit from this new era of science and technology.
Bodily Autonomy: Following Suit From the Financial World
From a regulatory perspective, a concept exists within the financial world known as the “accredited investor threshold” – individuals above a certain wealth, education, or work experience are granted the ability to invest in unregulated financial products.
This empowerment of consumers within the financial services has enabled innovation, as ‘riskier’ investments (start-ups) are unhampered by the slow and rigid confines of having to repeat what has been done before.
This structural protection model could be applied to consumers of scientific products – by maximising the choices for medically supervised care and informed consenting consumers, scientific innovation is just as possible.
Conclusions and Retrospective
While this conference was a leap forward for the science and movement of human enhancement, it is only the first of many necessary steps.
Thanks to our invaluable community of brave and free-thinking world leaders, the Enhanced Games is committed to making this the world’s premier conference on Human Enhancement and bringing in the UK as a formidable and global player.
Science is real. A better future is possible.
Media Articles and Further Reading
More about the Conference can be read in the articles written in the following publications:
