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The Benefits and Risks of Virtue Engineering

The Benefits and Risks of Virtue Engineering. James J. Hughes Ph.D. Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Public Policy Studies, Trinity College director@ieet.org ieet.org. Body and Enhancement Technology – Oct 4-6, 2012 POSTECH, Pohang, South Korea.

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The Benefits and Risks of Virtue Engineering

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  1. The Benefits and Risks of Virtue Engineering James J. Hughes Ph.D. Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesPublic Policy Studies, Trinity Collegedirector@ieet.orgieet.org Body and Enhancement Technology – Oct 4-6, 2012 POSTECH, Pohang, South Korea

  2. Emerging, Converging Tech Tech that will radically change the human brain: • Psychopharmacology • Genetic engineering • Nanotechnology • Artificial intelligence • Cognitive science • The accelerating convergence of all these • “for improving human performance”

  3. Types of Enhancement • Physiological Enhancement • Curing disabilities • Health • Longevity • Cognitive Enhancement • Intelligence • Emotional control • Heightened senses • Moral Enhancement • Spiritual experiences • Improved moral sensibilities and behavior

  4. The Goal? Happiness? or More? • Chemical Happiness • Wireheading • Hedonic happiness vs. eudaemonia • Good mood vs. a feeling of true accomplishment and developed virtue

  5. Moral Enhancement Necessity Savulescu and Persson 2012 Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement • Humanity isn’t morally foresighted enough to survive our challenges • Tech super-empowers malevolent individuals • Widespread moral enhancement is necessary for survival

  6. Moral Suppression? Rewards at work or military for • less empathy or honesty • cold rational calculation We need a social discussion about the risks of moral suppression and the need for moral enhancement

  7. Treating Psychopaths • Identifying and treating psychopaths

  8. Civilization is Moral Enhancement • Learning to act like a human being • Neo-Confucian morality: manners, social skills • Alasdair Macintyre: Virtues are social skills specific to societies

  9. Hardware Software Internal External Broad Moral Enhancement Brain Systems Mirror neurons Innate sentiments Self-control capacity Neurotech therapies Internalized norms Moral reasoning Pedagogical methods Meditation Ethical software Laws, religion Social norms Decision support Lie detectors Plagiarism checkers Trading surveillance Ehicalwarbots Institutions Schools and churches Police and prisons Moral gadgets Uniforms Wedding rings Wiring teeth, diet trackers, FitBit

  10. Morality Gadgets • Enclothed cognition: Religious clothing, hair shirts, tefillin, lab coats • Behavior-triggered morality aids: e.g. email language filters, sobriety locks on cars

  11. Moral Enhancement Has Always InvolvedBoth Enculturation and Technology • Shamanic use of entheogens • Iayuvredic vegetarianism: vegan diet makes people calmer, more pure • Tryptophan • Chinese herbs for moral control • Moral benefits of fasting • Alcohol and drugs lead to loss of moral self-control

  12. Suppressing Vice is Enhancing of Virtue • Causes of auto accidents • Driving norms • Traffic laws and policing • Alcohol • Cell-phones • ADHD • Fatigue • Immorality of intoxication when it endangers others • Immorality of not drinking coffee or taking modafinil when it endangers others

  13. Moral Enhancement Makes Us More Responsible • Understanding neurological causes of behavior allegedly undermines personal accountability • But moral enhancement technologies make us even more responsible • Did you take your pill? • Using moral enhancement tech will be both motivated by social control and be an exercise in self-control

  14. Binding Ourselves is Self-Control

  15. Buddhist Virtues • Self-Control • Generosity • Wisdom • Diligent effort • Patience • Honesty • Determination • Loving-kindness • Equanimity

  16. Self-Control as Foundation • All philosophical and religious traditions agree • Without self-control we can’t practice any other virtues

  17. Cognitive Liberty • Liberal democratic values • Bodily autonomy: right to control own body • Freedom of conscience, thought: right to control your brain • Liberal democracy’s goal of facilitating self-realization • Decriminalizing psychoactive drugs • Brain privacy

  18. Risks to Cognitive Liberty Moral enhancement doesn’t pose novel challenges, but offers novel solutions • Lack of Privacy • Overt Control • Ownership • Social Norms • New addictions • Unequal access to neurotech

  19. Overt Control • Soviet psychiatry • Extension of debates over freedom of thought, communication, indoctrination, involuntary commitment • Uses of neurotech to control desire, identity, ideation, knowledge • Defend liberal society, fight totalitarianism Ongoing need to parse legitimate cognitive liberty from insanity and criminality

  20. Normative Neuro-Authoritarianism Self-Imposed: • Neuro-enforced patriarchy and theocracy • Amoral workers and soldiers • Transgenders fix brain or body?

  21. Moral Progress and Cognitive Liberty • Moral enhancement will change social norms and definition of criminality • Continually redraw ing of boundaries of cognitive liberty • Slippery slopes apply as much to cultural norms as to moral enhancement technologies • All societies have evolving lines of what constitutes criminal or insane behavior • Sex/gender nonconformity • Rape: from Leviticus, execution and castration to prison and testosterone suppression

  22. Therapies for Drug Dependency • Safer drugs • Control of addictions • Alcohol aversion drugs, e.g. naltrexone • Buprenorphine (suboxone) for opiates • Vaccines and gene therapies to prevent or cure addictions • Brain Repair • Radical change in drug war debate

  23. Wrath: Intermittent Explosive Disorder • 6% prevalence? • Brain lesions, genetically linked • Treatments: antidepressants, antipsychotics, beta-blockers, alpha(2)-agonists, phenytoin and mood stabilizers. Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

  24. Moral Self-Direction • Becoming aware of and controlling external influences • Conscious control of susceptibility to pressure to conform, obey • Spam filters, pop-up blockers, Mean Girl and anti-bullying training

  25. Diligence and Concentration • Stimulants for attention deficit disorder

  26. Loving-Kindness Impairments in • Early attachments • Oxytocin • Mirror neurons

  27. Empathy Therapies Diagnosis for, and subsidized enhancement of, the genetic and neurophysiological bases of empathy and agreeableness • Oxytocin and serotonin • Attitudes toward immigrants has a genetic component • Pathological racism & homophobia as mental disorders

  28. The Right to Be a Jerk Balancing between • Suppressing sociopathy • Encouraging pro-social values • Criminalizing free thought and emotion

  29. Haidt’s Five Moral Intuitions Liberals: • Harm/care • Fairness/reciprocity Conservatives • Ingroup loyalty • Respect for authority • Purity/sanctity Being ethical may require suppressing some moral intuitions and enhancing others

  30. Suppressing (Im)moral Sentiments • Propranolol suppresses disgust/fear, racism • Pinker and violence – the gradual victory of Enlightenment moral codes • Universalism • Tolerance of diversity

  31. Reinforcing Reasonable Sentiments • Oxytocin & in-group empathy • Serotonin and harm aversion • What is fairness? Who is a cheater/cheated? • Need for wisdom and insight

  32. Openness to Novelty, Ambiguity • Openness to novelty, tolerance of ambiguity, 50% genetic • Related to authoritarianism and fundamentalism • (Eidelman et al 2012) Alcohol makes people more conservative, caffeine more open minded • Psilocybin has long term effect on increasing openness

  33. Moral Cognition vs. Sentiment • Balancing wisdom and compassion

  34. Discriminating Wisdom • Moral character is a balanced composite of sentiments, habits and reasoning • Truth is not always virtuous • Wisdom & compassion: The ability to determine right action in the situation is a virtue • Moral effect of enhancement of alertness, memory, cognitive speed, predictive accuracy • Overcoming cognitive biases

  35. Brain-Machine Interfaces

  36. Boundlessness & Absorption • Meditation and drugs breaks down the illusion of continuous, discrete self • Trans-Cranial Magnetic Simulation (TMS) to suppress proprioception

  37. The Promise of Moral Enhancement Moral enhancement • Continuation of ancient spiritual aspirations • Help for living together • Balance against empty hedonism • Prophylactic for psychopaths, especially once they are enhanced

  38. The Risks • Overt state control of moral sentiments • Self-imposed normative control • Suppression of moral sentiments in order to be more successful as a worker, soldier or socially

  39. For more: • http://ieet.org/archive/ • director@ieet.org

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