A widespread increase in wisdom and rationality could lead to a better society, but there is a risk that neurotechnologies that seem like enhancements could degrade individuals’ or society’s reasoning ability (analogous to how the internet promised access to the world’s knowledge but ended up being a vector for misinformation.
More concerningly, neurotechnology intrinsically manipulates a user’s beliefs and motivation systems, which are interconnected with the person’s values. This value shift could occur inadvertently (e.g. a neurotechnology designed to increase empathy might unintentionally lead to a society tolerating antisocial behaviour) or with malicious intent (e.g. imagine if re-education camps were made 99% effective). This is not to even mention the morality of using neurotechnology to reform criminal behaviour.)
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A widespread increase in wisdom and rationality could lead to a better society, but there is a risk that neurotechnologies that seem like enhancements could degrade individuals’ or society’s reasoning ability (analogous to how the internet promised access to the world’s knowledge but ended up being a vector for misinformation.
More concerningly, neurotechnology intrinsically manipulates a user’s beliefs and motivation systems, which are interconnected with the person’s values. This value shift could occur inadvertently (e.g. a neurotechnology designed to increase empathy might unintentionally lead to a society tolerating antisocial behaviour) or with malicious intent (e.g. imagine if re-education camps were made 99% effective). This is not to even mention the morality of using neurotechnology to reform criminal behaviour.)
- View Highlight
-