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Chimeric Sensing

Stefan Helmreich, Sophia Roosth, and Michele Friedner

in Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond

This chapter examines auditory chimerism, an experimental technique in which sound recordings are decomposed and then reconstituted otherwise, often with the aim of testing the limits and ... More

This chapter examines auditory chimerism, an experimental technique in which sound recordings are decomposed and then reconstituted otherwise, often with the aim of testing the limits and possibilities of human hearing. Auditory chimeras are sound events realized through a technical practice of sieving one sound through another. The auditory chimera delivers a kind of structured nonsense meant to force listeners to confront their assumptions about how and what they are hearing when they hear. The chapter considers auditory chimerism through the work of the electronic composer Florian Hecker, who has experimented with this technique to produce against-the-grain redescriptions of sound. Its goal is to show how to think of bio-chimerical human hearing next to the technical process of making auditory chimeras, and what happens when chimeric listening meets chimeric composition.Less

Transhumanity: A Moral Vision of the Twenty-First Century

John Harris

in Ethics and Humanity: Themes from the Philosophy of Jonathan Glover

This chapter takes seriously the idea that in the future there will be no more human beings but that this is not one of the things that should concern us unless the creatures that replace us are ... More

This chapter takes seriously the idea that in the future there will be no more human beings but that this is not one of the things that should concern us unless the creatures that replace us are worse than humans. I emphasize the continuity in evolution which shows us that not only are present‐day humans interspecies creatures, but also that objections to human–animal combinations, “humanimals” as I call them, are misconceived on any grounds other than those of safety. If the creatures that replace us are no longer human, then so long as they are better the loss of humanity will be well worth paying. One consequence will be that we should take the “human” out of human rights and possibly also the “dignity” out of human dignity. If we do this we will be true to Jonathan Glover's insight that what matters is that in the future there will be people and not at all what sort of people they will be so long as they are an improvement on what has gone before.Less

Bones of Contention

Mary Orr

in Flaubert's Tentation: Remapping Nineteenth-Century French Histories of Religion and Science

This final chapter reconsiders the famous set‐pieces of the ‘Sphinx and the Chimera’ and the ‘être la matière’ epiphany closing the text by close attention to real ‘monsters’ of Antoine's imagination ... More

This final chapter reconsiders the famous set‐pieces of the ‘Sphinx and the Chimera’ and the ‘être la matière’ epiphany closing the text by close attention to real ‘monsters’ of Antoine's imagination now that the Devil and Hilarion have left him to his solitary human condition. By arguing that Antoine equates to a Cuvier pitched against Saint‐Hilaire (and his theories of teratology) in the famous ‘querelle des analogues’ of 1832, the chapter investigates for the first time how the two famous sections above and the ‘parade of the monsters’ mesh with Cuvier's wide‐ranging contributions to comparative anatomy and palaeontology. The chapter thus identifies and reconstructs ‘real’ imaginary monsters (fossils), and adds science intertexts—Humboldt's Cosmos for example—to Flaubert's famous library for the first time. Further contemporary scientist interlocutors aptly replace Saint‐Hilaire and Laplace as the final (reference) matter of the chapter, the contributions of the Pouchets to theories of spontaneous generation and micropalaeontology.Less

Response to Commentaries

Jonathan D. Moreno

in The Future of Bioethics: International Dialogues

Tomoko Sato’s suggestion is an heroic attempt to rescue the notion of species membership from the operations of modern biology by associating it with the idea of family membership. But the findings ... More

Tomoko Sato’s suggestion is an heroic attempt to rescue the notion of species membership from the operations of modern biology by associating it with the idea of family membership. But the findings of evolutionary biology itself complicate matters. The comments of Satoshi Kodama and Kyoko Takashima demonstrate the usefulness of comparative bioethics. The author would add that the influence of conservative cultural views of the human embryo and its “inviolability”, even for medical science, is a distinct factor, in addition to the sharp delineation that they mention between human and non-human species.Less

Stem Cell Research

Bonnie Steinbock

in Life Before Birth: The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research involves the destruction of embryos. On the interest view, embryos lack moral standing, but research that kills embryos is deeply offensive to many people. ... More

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research involves the destruction of embryos. On the interest view, embryos lack moral standing, but research that kills embryos is deeply offensive to many people. Moreover, it is claimed that the research is unnecessary because just as much progress can be made using either adult stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells, neither of which involves destroying embryos. Thus, the chapter begins with an in-depth look at the science. The chapter concludes that, while no one can guarantee that the research will pan out, the potential benefit to humanity makes it clearly worth pursuing. However, embryos are not mere stuff. They have moral value and are entitled to a kind of respect, even if not the kind of respect due to persons. We demonstrate respect for embryos by restricting our use of them to important purposes. The chapter argues that it is not disrespectful to create embryos for research, and it is permissible to pay women who donate eggs for research. It then looks at attempts to ban the creation of chimeras and hybrids, arguing that virtually all of the proposed legislation is based on a misunderstanding of the science. The chapter ends with a look at law and policy in the United States and abroad with respect to cloning and stem cell research.Less

The Use of Animals in Research

Adil E. Shamoo and David B. Resnik

in Responsible Conduct of Research

This chapter provides a brief history of animal research and examines the ethical arguments for and against animal experimentation. It discusses the animal rights views of Peter Singer and Tom Regan ... More

This chapter provides a brief history of animal research and examines the ethical arguments for and against animal experimentation. It discusses the animal rights views of Peter Singer and Tom Regan and considers some morally significant similarities and differences between animals and humans. The chapter also discusses oversight systems for animal research, including federal and state laws, institutional animal care and use committees, and animal research accrediting agencies. This chapter describes some principles for the ethical treatment of animal in research, such as the “three Rs”—reduction, replacement, and refinement—as well as some ethical dilemmas scientists face when they work with animals.Less

Production and analysis of ES cell aggregation chimeras

Andras Nagy and Janet Rossant

in Gene Targeting: A Practical Approach

Embryonic stem (ES) cells behave like normal embryonic cells when returned to the embryonic environment after injection into a host blastocyst or after aggregation with earlier blastomere stage ... More

Embryonic stem (ES) cells behave like normal embryonic cells when returned to the embryonic environment after injection into a host blastocyst or after aggregation with earlier blastomere stage embryos. In such chimeras, ES cells behave like primitive ectoderm or epiblast cells (1), in that they contribute to all lineages of the resulting fetus itself, as well as to extraembryonic tissues derived from the gastrulating embryo, namely the yolk sac mesoderm, the amnion, and the allantois. However, even when aggregated with preblastocyst stage embryos, ES cells do not contribute to derivatives of the first two lineages to arise in development, namely, the extraembryonic lineages: trophoblast and primitive endoderm (2). The pluripotency of ES cells within the embryonic lineages is critical to their use in introducing new genetic alterations into mice, because truly pluripotent ES cells can contribute to the germline of chimeras, as well as all somatic lineages. However, the ability of ES cells to co-mingle with host embryonic cells, specifically in the embryonic, but not the major extraembryonic lineages, opens up a variety of possibilities for analysing gene function by genetic mosaics rather than by germline mutant analysis alone (3). There are two basic methods for generating pre-implantation chimeras in mice, whether it be embryo ↔ embryo or ES cell ↔ embryo chimeras. Blastocyst injection, in which cells are introduced into the blastocoele cavity using microinjection pipettes and micromanipulators, has been the method of choice for most ES cell chimera work (see Chapter 4). However, the original method for generating chimeras in mice, embryo aggregation, is considerably simpler and cheaper to establish in the laboratory. Aggregation chimeras are made by aggregating cleavage stage embryos together, or inner cell mass (ICM) or ES cells with cleavage stage embryos, growing them in culture to the blastocyst stage, and then transferring them to the uterus of pseudopregnant recipients to complete development. This procedure can be performed very rapidly by hand under the dissecting microscope, thus making possible high throughput production with minimal technical skill (4). In this chapter we describe some of the uses of pre-implantation chimeras, whether made by aggregation or blastocyst injection, but focus on the technical aspects of aggregation chimera generation. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of aggregation versus blastocyst injection for chimera production. Less

Chimeras: Natural History and the Shapes of The Tempest

Suparna Roychoudhury

in Phantasmatic Shakespeare: Imagination in the Age of Early Modern Science

It was commonly perceived during the Renaissance that imagination could engender monstrous offspring: a mother’s imaginings could deform the fetus in her womb. This chapter notes that the early ... More

It was commonly perceived during the Renaissance that imagination could engender monstrous offspring: a mother’s imaginings could deform the fetus in her womb. This chapter notes that the early moderns thought of outlandish phantasms as monsters too, akin to the chimera—an unnatural creature, part lion, serpent, and snake. Ironically, the power of imagination to produce chimeras through combination is unconsciously mimicked by early modern natural history texts, in which exotic beasts are routinely described as assemblages of other animals. Shakespeare in The Tempest challenges the supposed difference between natural and unnatural forms using a motif of “shape”—misshapen Caliban, but also shape-shifting Ariel, and the shapely Miranda and Ferdinand.Less

The Ethnogenetic Drama of Russian History

Mark Bassin

in The Gumilev Mystique: Biopolitics, Eurasianism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia

This chapter discusses Gumilev's views on Russian history. Gumilev's work on ancient and medieval history is where he made the fullest attempt to illustrate the operations and implications of his ... More

This chapter discusses Gumilev's views on Russian history. Gumilev's work on ancient and medieval history is where he made the fullest attempt to illustrate the operations and implications of his ethnogenetic theories. Although his historical research was dismissed by more orthodox academic colleagues as “fantasy” or, more generously, as “poetry,” it did help lay the foundation for the yet more wanton post-Soviet manipulation of the historical past in the form of so-called alternative history. But however fanciful, his historical accounts vividly brought to life the “scientific” principles of his ethnogenetic theories, above all the juxtaposition between the contending dynamics of positive and negative complementarity—between symbioses and antisystemic chimeras. In the final analysis, his entire reconstruction of Russian history was based on this simple opposition and represented a chronicle of Manichean confrontation between druzia i nedrugi (friends and enemies)—the forces of good and evil.Less

Chimeras of Form

Aarthi Vadde

in Chimeras of Form: Modernist Internationalism Beyond Europe, 1914-2016

The introduction establishes the framework of the book by explaining the conceptual foundations and function of modernist internationalism as it is developed over the course of Chimeras of Form. I ... More

The introduction establishes the framework of the book by explaining the conceptual foundations and function of modernist internationalism as it is developed over the course of Chimeras of Form. I guide my inquiry through two quotations - one from Salman Rushdie who coined the phrase “chimeras of form” in The Satanic Verses (1988) and one from political philosopher Thomas Nagel who argues that “the idea of global justice without a world government is a chimera” in “The Problem of Global Justice” (2005). I argue that chimeras of literary form, by pushing the boundaries of legibility and comprehensibility in language, extend the range of possibility in philosophical thought and consequently make it difficult to separate a chimera, defined in Nagel’s sense as an unfounded fantasy, from a chimera, defined in my sense as a site in which the line between the possible and the impossible is in dispute and capable of being redrawn. The tradition of modernist internationalism which the book develops attends to how writers from Rabindranath Tagore to Zadie Smith have pushed the epistemological limits of imagining community and international obligation within the context of an uneven and rapidly globalizing modernity. The introduction situates this large argument of the book within a necessarily selective review of internationalism’s more influential articulations, beginning with the publication of E.H. Carr’s The Twenty Years’ Crisis (1939) during the interwar years and leading into more recent approaches to cosmopolitanism. I argue that these recent cosmopolitan approaches have tried to rid internationalism of the chimeric taint that my study makes a case for restoring.Less

Human-Animal Chimeras and Hybrids

Sheldon Krimsky

in Stem Cell Dialogues: A Philosophical and Scientific Inquiry Into Medical Frontiers

This dialogue presents a fictional account of a public symposium where the participants explore the ethics of creating human-animal chimeras and hybrids involving the use of stem cells for research ... More

This dialogue presents a fictional account of a public symposium where the participants explore the ethics of creating human-animal chimeras and hybrids involving the use of stem cells for research and therapeutic purposes. Chimeras can be artificially produced in research by transplanting embryonic cells from one organism onto the embryo of another, as in injecting mouse stem cells into mouse blastocysts. There has been great interest among developmental biologists in transplanting human stem cells into the embryos of animals. In stem cell research, human-to-animal chimera experiments typically involve the transfer of multipotent or pluripotent human stem cells into animals in embryonic, fetal, or postnatal stages of development to study stem cell behavior. Here symposium participants discuss some of the reasons for moving human genes into the genomes of other species; commercial applications of chimeras; public opinion on interspecies gene and cell transfer; the distinction between human-animal hybrids and human-animal chimeras; blanket prohibition of transferring human genes into animals; and the moral boundary for managing experiments involving human-animal chimeras.Less

: Civilized Lepers

in Mixed Medicines: Health and Culture in French Colonial Cambodia

This chapter, which explores the local meanings/representations of leprosy and the sorts of actions authorized by cultural readings of it, describes the attempted transformation of an autochthonous ... More

This chapter, which explores the local meanings/representations of leprosy and the sorts of actions authorized by cultural readings of it, describes the attempted transformation of an autochthonous leper village into a French leproserie, which in its ideal state was to be an efficient, rational totalizing institution. The exceptional nature of the leper in the French colonial context is exemplified by the example of a leprous prisoner discovered in Cambodia. In the French conception, the leper was to be excluded from all levels of society for reasons that went beyond health. Experiments on potential cures played a vital part of leprosy management. It is noted that the medical “treatment” was not the primary factor in leprosy management in Cambodia. The leper in Cambodia was a disease chimera, policies constructed around which were ultimately ineffective.Less

Life’s Sensibilities

in Chimeras and Consciousness: Evolution of the Sensory Self

This book concentrates on connected themes: organisms interacting and consciousness arising. The word “chimera” refers to a mythical beast that blends the parts of real animals. This book also ... More

This book concentrates on connected themes: organisms interacting and consciousness arising. The word “chimera” refers to a mythical beast that blends the parts of real animals. This book also describes life’s components. The significance of chimeras in evolution is explored. It also presents a comparison of different brains. This book is designed to put upstart primates in the sensory context of other life forms. It proffers a modest, tentative beginning of a scientific inquiry into the evolution of the collective sensory capacity of life. An overview of the chapters included in this book is given.Less

Smart Bacteria

Eshel Ben-Jacob, Yoash Shapira, and Alfred I. Tauber

in Chimeras and Consciousness: Evolution of the Sensory Self

This chapter reviews how social bacteria sense dwindling resources and respond. It specifically examines how bacteria together sense the environment, extracting matter and energy from it as they ... More

This chapter reviews how social bacteria sense dwindling resources and respond. It specifically examines how bacteria together sense the environment, extracting matter and energy from it as they engage in de facto cognitive processes. It proposes a third information-processing system for the coordination and synchronization of the engine and the machine. This chapter suggests that biotic systems are analogous to chimeras of three types of artificial machines: thermodynamic engines, pumps, and information-processing systems. It shows that bacteria offer a striking example of how organisms change their environment to accommodate themselves, and of how the immediate surroundings should be understood not only as context but as an integratable part of organismic identity.Less

Nested Communities

James MacAllister

in Chimeras and Consciousness: Evolution of the Sensory Self

This chapter deals with the state of the interdisciplinary appreciation of group actions in natural communities through geological time. It reveals that the role in the evolution of groups—chimeras, ... More

This chapter deals with the state of the interdisciplinary appreciation of group actions in natural communities through geological time. It reveals that the role in the evolution of groups—chimeras, ranging from symbiotic partners to the largest ecosystem, Gaia—has been dangerously underemphasized. It specifically explores two scientific concepts: Gaia and symbiogenesis in the context of community. This chapter shows that the scientific ideas of Gaia and symbiogenesis offer a desperately needed community view of life and of planet Earth, but they are unorthodox concepts.Less

Brains and Symbols

John Skoyles

in Chimeras and Consciousness: Evolution of the Sensory Self

This chapter develops the concept that the human brain has evolved to the point that changing symbols are integrated into brain neurobiology. This development led to notable evolutionary ... More

This chapter develops the concept that the human brain has evolved to the point that changing symbols are integrated into brain neurobiology. This development led to notable evolutionary consequences. It uses “chimera” in order to refer to the blending of symbols with the human brain’s neural apparatus. It describes how symbols manage the brain-change trick. This chapter suggests human evolution, neuroscience, and cultural anthropology are a single phenomenon that need to be studied together. It shows that the information processing of the brain depends on cultural symbols and on transmitted learning.Less

“I Know Who You Are; I Know Where You Live”

Judith Masters

in Chimeras and Consciousness: Evolution of the Sensory Self

This chapter associates chimeras and consciousness in yet another way by showing how acoustic and olfactory signals are used in primate troops and families for tracking and communication. It follows ... More

This chapter associates chimeras and consciousness in yet another way by showing how acoustic and olfactory signals are used in primate troops and families for tracking and communication. It follows jungle primates that keep track of one another in dispersed social networks. It describes some of the findings regarding the olfactory and auditory signals emitted by greater galagos (Otolemur), the largest of the African bushbabies. This chapter reveals that the signals encode at least two levels of information: species and individual identity. It also shows that mate recognition takes place well in advance of mating.Less

Zardino

Sebastiano Vassalli

in Italian Tales: An Anthology of Contemporary Italian Fiction

This chapter discusses Sebastiano Vassalli's historical novel, The Chimera, which is set in a rural Piedmont village in the seventeenth century. In the work excerpted here, the ever-present fog ... More

This chapter discusses Sebastiano Vassalli's historical novel, The Chimera, which is set in a rural Piedmont village in the seventeenth century. In the work excerpted here, the ever-present fog clouding the Padania landscape parallels the clouding of anthropological memory. The writer, as a time traveler and investigative archeologist, must first of all unearth history or better his story: the story of Antonia, the “witch of Zardino,” resurrected by its late twentieth-century chronicler. Vassalli provides an indirect explanation here for his own later development into a maker of historical fictions accessible to a much wider readership: “I asked myself what on earth can help us to understand the things of the present unless they are in the present? Then it dawned on me. Looking out over this landscape, the nothingness of it, it came to me that in the present there is no story worth telling. The present is hubbub.”Less

Primary Topic Article: Why Would It Be Morally Wrong to Create a Human-Animal Chimera?

Stuart J. Youngner

in The Future of Bioethics: International Dialogues

This exploration of the origin and meaning of moral boundaries in bioethics asks questions such as: by what authority and methodology are boundaries created, identified, and defended; what could ... More

This exploration of the origin and meaning of moral boundaries in bioethics asks questions such as: by what authority and methodology are boundaries created, identified, and defended; what could motivate one to cross a moral boundary; what could motivate one to protect a moral boundary? Examples of moral boundaries include: human/animal; male/female; life/death; killing/allowing to die; and natural/unnatural. This chapter focuses on species boundaries, particularly the boundary between humans and animals in the creation of chimeras for research purposes. It concludes that in modern, pluralistic society, religious dictates, the so-called “wisdom of repugnance” and simple resistance to change must be taken into account in the political sphere, but have little to offer to a rational discussion and resolution of the issues.Less