Lesson idea: It’s the future
What might we look like? How might we change the way we look? Use our imagined scenarios to debate and discuss issues of enhancement
To complement our issue ‘How We Look’, we have imagined five potential scenarios.
Ask students to debate and discuss these ideas. Are they ethical? Are there any real-life examples that are close to these?
- Marrying machines
- Miteymuscle
- Artificial wombs for the elderly
- Olympiad for artificially enhanced athletes
- Pre-birth cosmetic enhancement
Next, ask them to imagine other potential scenarios. Can they write an imaginary article or advert for their idea? Ask them to share and debate the possibilities.
Lead image:Composite images: newspaper (Kokoro Company Ltd); others iStockphoto: ‘MiteyMuscle’ (Jamie Evans), ‘Let’s Do It!’ montage of pregnant woman (Ira Bachinskaya) and older woman (Andreas Reh); Olympiad programme torch silhouette (Paul Pantazescu); ‘Globerania’ montage of newsreader (Philip Dyer), globe (Ufuk Zivana) and filming (Oktay Ortakcioglu); blog coathangers (Joseph C Justice) and mannequins (Anna Bryukhanova).
Related resources
Real Voices interview: Jan Upfold
Meet Jan, a market researcher, who has undergone cosmetic surgery on several occasions
Further resources and activities on appearance and development
As well as ‘Big Picture’, the Wellcome Trust has funded many other organisations to produce the following activities and resources to engage young people and help them understand more about how we look