Can science edit what it means to be human — and should it?

CRISPR technology can now rewrite the genetic code of a living embryo. Scientists are already doing it. But who decides where the line is? And what do those decisions reveal about how we understand consciousness, identity, and what it means to be human at all?

In this episode of Good Is In The Details, host Gwendolyn Dolske and guest co-host Jacob Weber sit down with Professor Peter Ross — Professor of Philosophy at Cal Poly Pomona, specialist in Perception and Cognitive Science, and Director of the Science, Technology, and Society Program — to explore one of the most urgent intersections of science and philosophy today.

What we get into:

• What CRISPR gene editing actually is, and how close we already are to designer babies
• The bioethics of genetic engineering — who gets to decide what traits count as "enhancements"?
• Whether editing human DNA violates human dignity, and what philosophers mean by that
• The philosophy of mind dimension: if you alter the brain genetically, do you alter the self?
• How the infamous "CRISPR babies" case in China forced the world to confront questions it wasn't ready for
• What cognitive science tells us about how well we actually know our own minds — and why that matters for genetic ethics

This is an episode where science fiction has become science fact, and philosophy is the tool we need to navigate what comes next. Recorded at Cal Poly Pomona, one of the earliest episodes of Good Is In The Details, and still one of the most urgent.

Good Is In The Details is hosted by Gwendolyn Dolske, Ph.D. and Rudy Salo — a philosophy and books podcast exploring the questions at the edges of science, ethics, and the examined life, in the spirit of Socrates.

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