From bionic limbs and neural implants to prenatal screening, researchers around the world are hard at work developing a myriad of technologies to fix or enhance the human body.
Fixed: The Science/ Fiction of Human Enhancement takes a close look at the drive to be “better than human” and the radical technological innovations that may take us there.
What does “disabled” mean when a man with no legs can run faster than most people in the world?
“Fixed” combines some of the most challenging questions facing the disability rights movement with the cutting-edge science of human enhancement. The result is eye-opening and raises provocative questions our civilization struggles to answer. [Marilyn Golden, Disability Rights Education Defense Fund]
What does “normal” mean when cosmetic surgery procedures have risen over 450% percent in the last fifteen years and increasing numbers of people turn to “smart drugs” every day to get ahead at school or work? With prenatal screening able to predict hundreds of probable conditions, who should determine what kind of people get to be born? If you could augment your body’s abilities in any way imaginable, would you?
Featuring:
disability studies scholar and artist Dominika Bednarska
disability justice educator Patty Berne
exoskeleton test pilot Fernanda Castelo
bionics engineer Hugh Herr
journalist and radio host John Hockenberry
scientist and ability studies scholar Gregor Wolbring
Also with:
robot scientist Rodney Brooks
futurist Jamais Cascio
bioethicist Marcy Darnovsky
brain-computer interface study participant Tim Hemmes
philosophy professor Cressida Heyes
transhumanist James Hughes
reproductive rights advocate Sujatha Jesudason
disability lawyer Silvia Yee
Hosted by Adrienne Lauby, Sheela Gunn-Cushman and Josh Elwood. Produced and edited by Adrienne Lauby and Sheela Gunn-Cushman.
