A genealogical examination and grounded theory of the role of human enhancement technology in American political culture

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a grounded theory and, in fact, anticipatory knowledge about the role of human enhancement technology in American political culture. A review of the technology assessments of human enhancement technology revealed a startling lack of critical history in scholars' attempts to predict future outcomes of technological development and societal uptake on the basis of historical knowledge. The absence of such critical history---defined as the ability to examine the minute linkages and relationships between historical artifacts operating under the theory that all such relationships are rightly subject to criticism and cannot be assumed to lend themselves to a linear historical progress---has led to a body of literature that succumbs to what is referred to in this dissertation as the "linear fallacy." The "linear fallacy" is a flawed syllogism whereby the naive and uncritical comparison of a present technology to a similar technology in the past is used to develop predictive knowledge. This dissertation proceeds by establishing a method of critical history based on Nietzsche's genealogy, applying it to a case study of the development of IQ and mental testing, mapping the current sociotechnical context of cognitive enhancement, supporting that map through public opinion data, and, finally, developing the concept of the "linear fallacy." It is demonstrated through the case studies and supporting empirical evidence that the literature on human enhancement does indeed succumb to the "linear fallacy"; that a critical historical method is well suited to technological assessment; that general theories of intelligence are central to the sociotechnical context of cognitive enhancement; and, that critical historical case studies should be added as a preliminary stage of Real-time Technology Assessment.