Such prognostications are currently more speculation than science. Indeed, during a panel on legal and ethical issues, Roco jumped to his feet to distance the NBIC mission from any connection to the "transhumanist" philosophy that supports overcoming biological limitations through technology. While some of the vision for NBIC may bleed over into a fringe interested in "posthuman" civilization, talk of cyborgs and mutants is presumably not good for winning support and funding for sober science.

In fact, Roco emphasized that upgrading human beings and culture over the next two decades through interdisciplinary science must be done in a way "that respects human dignity." How that idea gets parsed as the debate moves ahead remains an open question.

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