LECTURE BY DR. ADEMOLA FAYEMI
Dr. Ademola K. Fayemi, a Cluster member and an African philosopher and bioethicist delivered a lecture on Wednesday, Agust 19, 2026
Enhancement technologies are innovations that improve human capacities beyond typical levels. Global debates about the ethics of these technologies tend to focus on the influential transhumanist and/or bioconservative views, with voices from the periphery missing. While bioconservatives defend the preservation of natural human traits, transhumanists support technological interventions that address the limitations of human abilities.
It employs Achille Mbembe’s account of the politics of life and death to explore how enhancement technologies may reinvent old patterns of colonial domination that structurally determine whose physical traits, cognitive capacities, and emotional and moral impulses are valued.
This presentation argues that enhancement technologies are not neutral.
They reflect social values, political interests, and unequal global relationships that affect access to enhancement and whose needs are recognised.
To address the power imbalance that disadvantages marginalised groups in accessing human enhancement technologies, this presentation applies a recently developed African decolonial account of solidarity. Inspired by the beehive metaphor, this account motivates and justifies living in harmony with people who share similar circumstances and vulnerabilities through joint efforts underpinned by integrated virtues (humility, sharing, hospitality, cooperation, participation) and duties (listening, co-agency, reciprocity, reflexivity, and accommodation).
Previous Post
Next Post
