Ethical Considerations 
Young: In the communication sphere especially, the deve- 
lopment of prostheses of all sorts, from computers onwards, 
produces possibilities which are quite fantastic. We cannot 
imagine what sort of answers we may be able to get to problems 
which now seem utterly insoluble, just as this discussion would 
be an absurd concept fora monkey population. Prosthesis seems 
to me the most likely source of change in the foreseeable future. 
Huxley: Haldane also raised the very good point, that we 
need a new terminology before we can begin coping at all 
adequately with the subject. 
Lederberg: I would like to stress that these are not long-term 
problems, they are upon us now, and we cannot afford to wait 
indefinitely for the kind of philosophy on which we can base 
our solutions. 
Comfort: We have all been assuming that the exponential 
progress of science can go on indefinitely. I would have thought 
from what we said earlier about rates of change in society that 
our descendants might well benefit from a period of relaxation. 
They might have a period in which they have a rather less 
intense social drive, and perhaps become more shallow and 
superficial in some of their attitudes, by our standards; at the 
same time they may have less incentive to go on adding to dis- 
covery at quite our rate. I wonder if the preoccupations we 
have shown here may not seem as grotesque to our descendants 
as some of Oliver Cromwell’s theological discussions do to us. 
We may be going to produce a generation, not so much of 
scientific puritans or of scientific activists, but of beatniks who 
are going to enjoy, for a while at any rate, the proceeds of what 
we are now laying down. Though Professor Haldane has not 
suggested it in quite this form, I feel he hinted at this when he 
talked about some of the uses which we may make of increased 
somaesthesia. The ancient Indians cultivated the art of love 
for both religious and practical reasons, and I think we may find 
ourselves cultivating similar aesthetic elaborations of pleasure. 
At least I hope our descendants will do so. 
Huxley: I am sure you are right, Comfort, in thinking that 
the exponential curve of the growth of science will start bending 
363 
