IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2017 - 16

opinion

Laszlo G. Lovaszy

n December 3, 2016,
the world celebrated
the 10th anniversary
of the adoption of
the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities (UNCRPD). As a
member of the UNCRPD Committee,
my job is to scrutinize the implementation of the Convention in the more
than 160 states that have joined it. It
is not our responsibility to extend
or modify the Convention, but perhaps the time has now arrived for
governments to update the human
rights legislation, or even, the Convention itself, too. Why?
Ten years after the Convention was
introduced, we are beginning to face

O

Humanity could soon have
the ability to re-design itself
biotechnologically.
new issues that no one could have
dreamt of and that are completely
uncovered by it, while technology
and science have been developing at
a previously unimagined speed.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2017.2654281
Date of publication: 6 March 2017

16

What if My
Disability Will not be
Relevant in the Future?
On The Occasion of the
10th Anniversary of the
United Nations Convention on
Persons with Disabilities
I believe that robotics,
biotechnology, and DNArelated scienti fic breakthroughs are becoming
increasingly high-profile
and will be industrialized
for everyday consumers very
soon. The consequences
seem to be unknown to
even the most competent
decision-makers and the most powerful politicians, as well as to the
scientists in charge of these innovations. Articles in publications like
the Economist, Newsweek and Scientific American describe almost
every week how something has
changed, something very profound.
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

When I was born, my parents
were told that I would have the life
of a seriously hearing impaired
person and I would have to cope
with that condition all my life. But
what if that were not true anymore? What if my disability will not
be relevant in the future and my
hearing capacity (or its alteration)
could be corrected or restored? Or
even upgraded?
After all, our brains can learn and
understand any kind of information
eventually, regardless of the source
of the input. Very soon, based on
new biotechnological innovations,
we may be able to process information that is currently exclusively
∕

march 2017



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