“Right now, there is a common equality because we are all human,” he says.“But all of this changes once we start giving some people significantly new powers.”

Boston University’s Annas shares these concerns.“I think at some point it will be inevitable that enhanced people will see the unenhanced as subhuman,” he says.“[Enhanced] people would probably assume they had the right to rule us, and the rest of us might try to kill them, ending in a lot of dead and hurt people.”

Supporters of human enhancement say the goal is not to create a race of superhumans but to use technological tools to improve humanity and the human condition.Indeed, they say, it is an extension of what humans have been doing for millennia: using technology to make life better.“I don’t believe in utopias and I don’t believe in perfection,” says Vita-More, adding that: “For me, enhancement is a very practical way to give us new options to make our lives better.It’s that simple.”

A good example, Vita-More says, is cognitive enhancement.