the benefits and risks of virtue engineering

THE BENEFITS AND THE BENEFITS AND RISKS OF VIRTUE RISKS OF VIRTUE ENGINEERINGENGINEERING

James J. Hughes Ph.D.

Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesPublic Policy Studies, Trinity Collegedirector@ieet.orgieet.org

Moral Brain Conf – New York Univ – Mar 30-Apr 1, 2012

Civilization is Moral Enhancement

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization. ~Sigmund Freud

Alasdair Macintyre: Virtues are social skills specific to societies

Moral Enhancement Has Always InvolvedBoth Enculturation and Neurotechnology Shamanic use of

entheogens

Iayuvredic vegetarianism: vegan diet makes people calmer, more pure

Chinese herbs for moral control

Moral benefits of fasting

Alcohol and drugs lead to loss of moral self-control

Broad Moral Enhancement

Neurotechnology is continuous with neural software modification and external technology

Internal

External

Hardware Software

Mirror neurons Innate sentimentsSelf-control capacityChemical, genetic, nanotech moral therapies

LawsSocial normsEthical software (decision support, plagiarism checkers, trading surveillance, ethical warbots, etc.)

Internalized normsMoral reasoningPedagogical methodsMeditation

Schools and churchesPolice and prisonsMoral gadgets (wiring teeth, diet trackers, FitBit, etc.)

Morality Gadgets

Religious clothing, hair shirts, tefillin

Behavior-triggered morality aids: e.g. email language filters, sobriety locks on cars

Suppressing Vice is Enhancing of Virtue

Causes of auto accidents Driving norms

Traffic laws and policing

Alcohol

Cell-phones

Fatigue

Immorality of intoxication when it endangers others

Immorality of not drinking coffee or taking modafinil when it endangers others

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

Binding Ourselves is Self-Control

The Enlightenment and Moral Enhancement

Focusing and shaping our moral sentiments with moral reasoning and technology instead of faith and magic

In 1780 Benjamin Franklin wrote to Joseph Priestley, “It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter. …all diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured (not excepting even that of old age) and our lives lengthened at pleasure, even beyond the antediluvian standard. Oh that moral science were in as fair a way of improvement, that men would cease to be wolves to one another, and that human beings would at length learn what they now improperly call humanity.“

Benjamin Franklin:“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.”

Coffee and the Enlightenment

(Eidelman et al 2012) Alcohol makes people more conservative, caffeine more open minded

Beer was a “Foggy Ale” that “besieg'd our Brains”

Coffee:

...that Grave and Wholesome Liquor,

that heals the Stomach, makes the Genius quicker,

Relieves the Memory, revives the Sad,

and cheers the Spirits, without making Mad.

Anonymous 1674

Coffeehouses: “penny universities” and hotbeds of Enlightenment radicalism

Haidt’s Five Moral Intuitions

Liberals: Harm/care Fairness/reciprocityConservatives Ingroup loyalty Respect for

authority Purity/sanctityBeing ethical may require

suppressing some moral intuitions and enhancing others

Suppressing (Im)moral Sentiments

Harris’ objection: more to morality than sentiment

Haidt argues for tolerance of all moral sentiments

Enlightenment values and moral reasoning compel us to suppress some moral sentiments – disgust, in-group loyalty, submission to authority

Propranolol suppresses disgust/fear, racism

Irony of Haidt’s appeal for tolerance of conservative values

Pinker and violence – the gradual victory of Enlightenment moral codes

Universalism

Tolerance of diversity

Reinforcing Reasonable Sentiments

Oxytocin & in-group empathy

Serotonin and harm aversion

What is fairness? Who is a cheater/cheated?

Empathy towards who? Expressed how? The over-taxed 1% or the 99%

or the poorest?

Paternalism versus tolerance

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

Flynn effect means that capacities for rational reflection, complex moral reasoning, and abstract empathy are growing

Enhancement of alertness, memory, cognitive speed, predictive accuracy

Overcoming cognitive biases

Cognitive Liberty

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

Moral Progress and Cognitive Liberty

Moral enhancement will change social norms and definition of criminality

Need to continually redraw 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

Risks to Cognitive Liberty

Moral enhancement doesn’t pose novel challenges, but offers novel solutions

Lack of PrivacyOvert ControlOwnership Social NormsAddictionInequality

Needed: Positive Liberal Model of the Good Personality

Liberal but still positive normative model of the good life

Some ways of thinking and feeling should be discouraged and others encouraged

Better Citizens and Persons

More compassion and wisdom

More self-aware & independent

Better moral & political decision-making