All in the Mind on Chimeras, Implants and Evolved Morality

Natasha Mitchell’s Radio Australia’s program “All in the Mind” is awesome and highly recommended. [RSS]

Here are their last three programs:

(Dec 9 2006)  The Chimeric Brain  [Listen |  Download]  Transplanting our brain cells into our closest primate relatives has raised eyebrows, and the prospect of the ‘humanzee’. Could this make their brain more human-like? Might this change their moral status in the lab? Top stem cell scientist, John Gearhart, bioethicist Jason Scott Robert, and neuroscientist Peter Schofield join Natasha Mitchell to discuss the scientific and moral questions at the core of creating chimeric brains.  Read Transcript

(Dec 2 2006) The Brain Computer Interface  [Listen |  Download]  Artist Pro Hart died of it, so did actor David Niven - the nightmarish legacy of Motor Neurone disease which paralyses the body as the disease progresses. Communication can become restricted to an eye-blink, with the mind remaining intact and active in a frozen body. But the technological cutting edge of the brain-computer interface could make a difference, and help people communicate with the outside world using the only thing they have left…their mind. Turn on the TV, switch off the lights and even send emails, just by thinking about it? No, it’s not hocus-pocus.  Read Transcript

(Nov 25 2006) Moral Minds: The Evolution of Human Morality  [Listen |  Download]  Incest, infanticide, honour killings - different cultures have different rules of justice. But are we all born with a moral instinct - an innate ability to judge what is right and wrong? Could morality be like language - a universal, unconscious grammar common to all human cultures? Eminent evolutionary biologist Marc Hauser and philosopher Richard Joyce take on these controversial questions in impressive new tomes, and to critical acclaim. But could their evolutionary arguments undermine the social authority of morality? Is biology the new ‘religion’?  Read Transcript

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