Ninth Oxford Conference Organised by the Oxford International Biomedical Centre (OIBC)

摘要

The ninth Oxford International Biomedical Centre (OIBC) conference was held at Magdalen College School followed by dinner at Mansfield College, Oxford. There have been many benefits as a result of the discoveries of science but as humanity enters the21st century, it has become more aware of the dark side of science, of grave consequences either by design, error or terror. Indeed, the voices of thinkers are now being raised that if science continues to pursue the new technologies before us such as bio-, cyber-, nanotechnology, pharmacology and the wider exploration of space, then there is a fifty-fifty risk that this century will be the last century for humanity. At present, humanity stands on the threshold of a millennium which could become the post-human era, with a new type of human being genetically tailored to be disease-free, socially perfect or a Frankenstein monster. Attempts are being made to resolve moral problems with science, an equation doomed to failure, as it is being realised by a nervous public, if not scientists. It is therefore, both an opportune and an appropriate moment to ponder upon "The Future of Man", the subject for this year's conference.