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I just spent two days at the Humanity+ Summit at Harvard.  Now that I'm back home, I keep wondering what I would say if someone asked me if I'd like to live longer (maybe forever), be healthier, smarter, and happier? What if in order to reach these goals I'd have to use technologies that would change my human nature and make myself what some people call "post human?" My answer to the first question is yes, probably, and no to the second. Maybe your answers would be different. Whatever your point of view, it's crucial for all mothers to have answers to these questions--and soon.

The answers matter. At the Summit, I spent time with a community of brilliant people who say "yes" to both questions. They call themselves Transhumanists and they are anticipating and working toward a future in which a range of new technologies combine to enable human beings to transcend the constraints of our biology and expand our capacities. The Humanity+ Summit was a marathon session of more than fifty, mostly ten-minute, highly informative presentations by leading experts in genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology, among other fields--all exploring ways in which the accelerating pace of technological change might transform the human condition.

I admit, it was difficult not to get caught up in the excitement as experts spoke optimistically of curing diseases, of extending life, of brain-computer interfaces, of artificial consciousness, of do-it-yourself biotech engineering projects, and more. I was disappointed though by how little attention was paid to the many profound ethical issues raised by these technologies. The only real discussion about ethical questions came in George Dvorksy's presentation that touched on ethical obligations to machines once they become conscious and in Ronald Bailey's presentation on "the democratic threat to transhumanism."

There are other important questions to consider. These technologies should be of particular concern to those of us who mother--who have for all of human history presided over a particular way of bringing children into the world-a way that has at its core the values of connectedness, concern for the other, and stewardship. That way of creating human beings is now being fundamentally transformed by technology. What will this mean for the values at the heart of mothering?

The one message that came through loud and clear at the Summit is that new technologies will keep coming-and at an accelerating pace. In the coming months, I will be arranging for interviews on our Blog Talk Radio program with several Humanity+ presenters and with other experts who hold contrary views. My goal is to help inform mothers about technologies that are sweeping out of the laboratories and into our lives, and to create a space for conversation about their implications. That is what is needed most now: conversation, even with people with whom we might disagree, so that we will all be prepared to participate in the decision-making about these technologies.