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Becoming a Better Person: Modifying Cognition and Emotion to Enhance Virtue

Becoming a Better Person: Modifying Cognition and Emotion to Enhance Virtue. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies For more information: http://ieet.org Executive Director: James J. Hughes Ph.D. Public Policy Studies, Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut USA

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Becoming a Better Person: Modifying Cognition and Emotion to Enhance Virtue

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  1. Becoming a Better Person:Modifying Cognition and Emotion to Enhance Virtue Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies For more information: http://ieet.org Executive Director: James J. Hughes Ph.D. Public Policy Studies, Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut USA director@ieet.org(work) 860-297-2376 or (cell) 860-428-1837

  2. Self-Control and Responsibility • Understanding causes of behavior allegedly undermines personal accountability • But enhancement technologies make us even more responsible Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  3. Taking Responsibility “So who is to tell us that being human and having dignity means sticking with a set of emotional responses that are the accidental byproduct of our evolutionary history? ... why don’t we simply accept our destiny as creatures who modify themselves?”- Francis Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  4. Obliged to Attempt Self-Mastery • Includes obligation to use or not use neurotechnology for self-mastery • Immorality of intoxication when it endangers others • Immorality of not drinking coffeee or taking modafinil when it endangers others Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  5. Finding Better Tools Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  6. Controlling Our Vices “We may be able… to control our passions by some more direct method than fasting and flagellation…to deal with perverted instincts by physiology rather than prison.” - JBS Haldane, “Daedalus, or Science and the Future” Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  7. Therapies for Drug Dependency Alcohol aversion drugs Buprenorphine for opiates Vaccines and gene therapies to prevent or cure: • Alcoholism • Cocaine addiction • Heroin addiction • Nicotine dependency Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  8. Testosterone Suppression Matthew 19:11-12 Jesus: "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it." Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  9. Five Personality Factors • Neuroticism - A tendency to easily experience unpleasant emotions such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability. • Extroversion - Energy, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others. • Agreeableness - A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. • Conscientiousness - A tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement. • Openness to experience - Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas; imagination and curiosity. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  10. Five Factors and the Virtues Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  11. EQ, Agreeableness, Empathy Enhancing the genetic and neurophysiological bases of EQ, empathy and agreeableness Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  12. Conscientiousness and Emotional Control • Emotional self-control • Ability to suppress conditioned responses • Ability to carry through on commitments • Too much conscientiousness can make you stuffy and un-spontaneous Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  13. Expert Moral Reasoning Systems Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  14. Moral Self-Direction • Having an internal locus of control • Becoming aware of external • Turning off submission to authority Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  15. Better Citizens and Persons… • More happy & intelligent • More self-aware & independent • More socially minded • Better moral & political decision-making Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  16. …or Neuro-Authoritarianism? • Brain fingerprinting and e-collars on thoughtcriminals • Blissed-out citizens • Amoral workers and soldiers • Corporate-owned brain operating systems: Microsoft Brain 9.0 • Self-enforced cognitive uniformity: - transgenders fix brain or body? • Enhanced authoritarian China • Neuro-enforced patriarchy and theocracy Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  17. Defense of Basic Rights… • Importance of cognitive libertyEvery person controlling their brain in self-determined ways • Defense of liberal and social democracy - Liberté, egalité, solidarité - celebration of diversity Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  18. A Positive Liberal Model of the Good Personality • We need a liberal but still positive normative model of the good life to guide public policy • Some ways of thinking and feeling should be discouraged and others encouraged Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

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