far worsethan mere fire or ice, and one that could stem from a simple laboratory accident.

"We can't simply do our science and not worry aboutthese ethical issues

genetic engineering technology is already very far along.

Butnature, I suspect, is on the side of the machines.

My life has been driven by a deep need to ask questions and find answers. When I was 3, Iwas already reading, so my father took me to the elementary school, where I sat on theprincipal's lap and read him a story. I started school early, later skipped a grade, andescaped into books

Moravec's view is that the robots will eventually succeed us—that humans clearly faceextinction.

Biological species almost never survive encounters with superior competitors

Our overuse of antibiotics has led to what may be the biggest suchproblem so far: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant and much more dangerous bacteria.Similar things happened when attempts to eliminate malarial mosquitoes using DDTcaused them to acquire DDT resistance; malarial parasites likewise acquired multi-drug-resistant genes

some merit in the reasoning in this single passage

They will see to it that everyone's physicalneeds are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions,that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may becomedissatisfied undergoes "treatment" to cure his "problem."

On the other hand it is possible that human control over the machines may be retained

human race would never be foolish enough to handover all the power to the machines

In that casepresumably all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines and nohuman effort will be necessary.

machines might bepermitted to make all of their own decisions without human oversight,

What’s more, no libertarian would ever endorse the principle of prepun-ishment.

They just don’t necessitate it

onsciousness of a decision arises only after the decision has already been made! If so, then consciousness would seem to be an epiphenomenon—an ineffectual by-product of brain activity—rather than the initiator of it.

Believing something to be true, however, doesn’t make it true.

It could turn out that our experience of free will is an illusion, just as it could turn out that our experience of the exter-nal world is an illusion—we could be living in a computer simulation like the Matrix where neither our external nor our internal perceptions are accurate

f we had to consciously considerour every move, we’d be bumbling fools

doesn’t neuroscience show thatour brains make decisions before we are conscious of them suchthat our conscious decisions are bypassed?

will and responsibility are compatible with determinism

sou

Not in the sense we think

difficult for societyto function under a system in which this concept was abandoned

magic of the soul

onstant awareness of consciousthought processes that seem to affect our behavior.

consciousness is something that follows, and does not pre-cede, unconscious neural activity in the brain.

is that WILL has causal properties (WILL affectsbehavior) and yet WILL arises in a noncausal way; society“demands”that WILL be“free”—we want to be able to holdpeople accountable for their actions

genetic rearrangement associatedwith the development of the immune system, and the process of X-chromosome inactivatio

soul (and hencethe mind)

gods had a dailyimpact on the lives of individuals

random swerves

lectrical and chemical transmission

here can be no responsibilit

But could Alex the sociopath really choose goodness

In the future, violent offenders could agree to take pharmaceuticals to boost their COMT and MAOA enzyme activity in exchange for their freedom.

For example, elevated levels of dopamine and norepinephrine are associated with impulsivity and violence

blame and responsibility

Why do we not react in the same way to a defective man: a murderer, say, or a rapist

When a computer malfunctions, we do not punish it.

uncaused

Should we do it?

Or we could require that the fetuses of pregnant carriers be genetically screened and then abort those carrying the offending genes

People who commit crimes have simply been programmed improperly

People who commit crimes have simply been programmed improperly

Commit all criminals to rehabilitation centers

If hard determinism is true, though, we’re all like the culprit. We do only what we’re programmed to.

According to traditional materialism, then, the universe is a great, intri-cate mechanism ticking and turning ceaselessly in fixed ways

homicidal somnambulism.

When one hand reaches for a pencil, the other bats it away. No matter how hard the patient tries, he cannot make his alien hand not do what it’s doing.

“practical reasoners,”

We are likewise influenced by the environments in which we grow up

98.1 percent of death-row inmates do

People’s brains are vastly different.

human behavior cannot be separated from human biology

breaking out in song at inappropriate times

glioblastoma

overwhelming violent impulses

Maybe free will enters at the last moment,

consciousness kicks in

seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them.

The technology is also expected to lead to improvements in thought-controlled wheelchairs and artificial limbs that respond when a person imagines moving.

certain degree of certainty

70% accuracy

patterns of activity

ms. Very well, then; and if we don't pay after committing them, we must pay

f we don't pay after delivery, we must pay before. Why shouldn't it be the same with punis

fence. But there is nothing in this view, thus stated, which prescribes that he should suffer after rather than before the offe

This, however, is irrelevant. I do not claim that anyone will ever have such

Ben's belief is surely based on evidence which puts it beyond reasonable dou

Algy for planning to exceed the speed limit and to prepunish him for actu

n moral

“You could give people a prison sentence and anopportunity to get fixed.”

Under these circumstances, most people say it’s not O.K. to kill one personto save five.

If you hit aswitch, the train veers onto a side track and kills another person. Mostpeople confronted with this scenario say it’s O.K.

For example, he suggested, lawyersmight even select jurors for different cases based on their different brain-activity patterns.

our privacy and mental freedom, leading someto call for the legal system to respond with a new concept of “cognitiveliberty.”

Lawyers routinely orderscans of convicted defendants’ brains and argue that a neurologicalimpairment prevented them from controlling themselves

violent video games tomake children behave aggressively

To suggest that criminals could beexcused because their brains made them do it seems to imply that anyonewhose brain isn’t functioning properly could be absolved of responsibility

or example, when an innocent suspect denies185knowledge of a victim’s apartment not because he committedthe crime but because they were having an affair)

“a [lie-detection] expertcan supply the jury only with another opinion, in addi-tion to its own, about whether the witness was telling thetruth”

physical tests that aim to re-veal the contents of his blood2or urine

EEG andfMRI techniques need not raise special privacy concernsthat make them any more objectionable than accepted tech-niques such as polygraphs or tissue samples

Butwe'llallfeelabitsaferifthiskindoftechnologyisusedinplaceslikeairports

withpassengersbeforeboardingaplane,orduringinterviewswiththosewhohavebeensingledoutforindividualsearches.

95percentofthetime

rucially,theareasofmybrainassociatedwithemotion,conflict,andcognitivecontrol–theamygdala,rostralcingulate,caudate,andthalamus–were"hot"whenIwaslyingbut"cold"whenIwastellingthetruth

Ifocusinsteadonformingthewordsclearlyandcalmlyinmymind,asiftoatelepathicinquisitor.

neurologicalevidenceofthedecisiontolie.

CIAdoubleagentAldrichAmespassedpolygraphtestsandresumedtheircriminalactivities

So, just putting false thoughts into someone's thoughts(sic)does not seem nearly as invasive or potentially harmful.

And in a separate Pew poll published this July, 23% of American adults said it would be morally acceptable to surgically implant devices in healthy people’s brains to improve their cognitive abilities.

These participants were asked to imagine the case of an obese client seeking professional support for weight los

Without this client’s knowledge, the therapist would attempt to plant false childhood events in the client’s memory

falsely informed that during their childhoods they became sick from eating spoiled peach yoghurt

hese false memories can occur spontaneously,

Rather, they seem to erase the traumatic memories themselves.

It affects only the emotional aspect of memory, while the cognitive aspect remains intact.

But using propranolol does not erase memories, it only dampens the link between the cognitive aspect and the emotional aspect of memories.

f a memory manipulation technique threatens personal numerical identity, then it should be regulated from an ethical viewpoint

numerical identity.

Erasing a memory or using propranolol can threaten personal identity

We tend to forget painful and hurtful events and this isimportant to psychic happiness.

Ultimately, the point of using memory modification formost of us will be to enhance our personal well-being

After all, forgiveness is an importantmoral act that requires us to overcome our indignation

When theymade the mice produce an excess of this protein,memories of painful events were completelyeliminated.

why shouldn’t he be able to do away with that sad memory, if it isa safe process, and could lead to a significant increase in happines

“Changing or losing memories could make you happier or sadderdepending on if you’re losing sad or happy memories.”

ncluding our personalities, and in some important ways,

Memories make upour identity,

When you pull one brick out of the wall of memories, manyother memories go with it.

then to delete our memories would be to destroy apart of ourselves

headacheswith an electric eel,

Even if only a tiny fraction of humanity is immoral enough to want to cause large-scale harm by weapons of mass destruction in their possession, there are bound tobe some such people in a huge human population, as on Earth, unless humanity isextensively morally enhanced

He asked theworld: what are the greatest threats to the survival of humanity and what can we do aboutthem so that the human race can survive the next century

With biomedical and genetic enhancement ofour cognitive powers we may be even closer to the invention of such monsters or otheras yet unimagined demons

The US military routinely uses both modafiniland Ritalin for its pilots.

So far in history the cognitive enhancement of human beings has taken the shape ofeducation, or knowledge which has been transmitted from earlier generations to laterones, first orally, then by writing as well.

What is prudentially good for you may, however, be prudentially bad for others, foryour success in respect of fulfilling your prudential goals may make it more difficultfor others to fulfil their prudential goals.

they might be required to wear a tracking device that wouldshow where they had been at any given time, so that they wouldknow that if they did commit a crime, they would be detected.

hose who are at much greater risk ofcommitting a crime might be offered the morality pill

Couldcriminals be given the option, as an alternative to prison, of a drug-releasing implant that would make them less likely to harm others?

Given the many otherstudies linking biochemical conditions to mood and behavior, andthe proliferation of drugs to modify them that have followed, theidea is not far-fetched.

Evenwhen the free rats could eat up all of a quantity of chocolate beforefreeing the trapped rat, they mostly preferred to free their cage-mate. The experimenters interpret their findings as demonstratingempathy in rats.

Last October, in Foshan, China, a 2-year-old girl was run over by avan. The driver did not stop. Over the next seven minutes, morethan a dozen people walked or bicycled past the injured child. Asecond truck ran over her.

Not making CEDsavailable among the healthy, whohave a right to make an informed choice to use them, is leading people to break the law

a sympathetic physician

The distinction between therapy and enhancement

reflects the traditional medical model that medicine is for the treatment of disease only, and conservativesare against any use of medicine for enhancement

enhancing one area of the brain we are most likely sacrificing the natural optimal functioning of another.

Buchanan and many others point out, “enhancement is an ancient and characteristic human endeavour

Cognizant as we are of the fact that laws and regulationscan be changed, it is nonetheless likely that as neuroint-erventions become options for employers and employees,issues of their permissibility and desirability will likely behashed out first within the systems of laws and regulationsthat already govern employmen

eliminating the need forsleep,

Numerous studies haveindicated that a wide array of cognitive and behavioralphenomena can be affected by such interventions, frommemory to mood to morality

o, Alice wouldhave to agree to use such techniques as warranted forspecific situations. The company, of course, wouldprovide the modifications or reimburse the cost

will agree to be tested for any drugsthat might affect performance

However, none of the ethical issues mentioned insection 4 appear to be a show stopper for human enhancingneurotechnologies.

Risk-taking behavior can also be affected by tES. Inparticular,Sela et al. (2012)have shown that left stimulation of thedorsolateral pre-frontal cortex (DLPFC)—an area that is knownto be involved the process of evaluating risks and benefits—resulted in participants exhibiting a much riskier decision-making behavior than participants receiving right hemisphereor sham stimulation.

Recently, researchers have started exploring the possibilityofbrain-to-brain communication, i.e., physically and directlyconnecting brains for the purpose of allowing direct exchangesof information.

The most popular non-invasive technologies for recording neuralactivity are electroencephalography (EEG

what fraction ofthe population might benefit from such technologies

If it seems that making ourselves "artificially" smarter is somehow inhuman

n academics, whether you’re a student ora researcher, there is an element of competition, but it’s secondary. The main purpose is to try to learn things, to get experience, to write papers, to do experiments.

The original purpose of medicine is to heal the sick, not turn healthy people into gods.”

Some argue that such use could be worse, given the potentially deep impact on society

perform on exams, or prepare presentations and grants,

admitted to regular use of prescription drugs like Adderall

If a woman is having difficulty in giving birth [and her life is in danger], one cuts up the fetus within her womb and extracts it limb by limb,

“mere fluid.” These facts form the basis for the Jewish legal view on abortion.

An unborn fetus in Jewish law is not considered a person (Heb.nefesh,lit. “soul”) until it has been born.

the lights are on, but nobody’s home.

Whole-brain death is now a sufficient condition for declaring a person to be legally dead in every U.S. state.

declaring a person to be dead?

brain and mind is to regard them as fundamentally different substances

A member of a group of orcas, orkiller whales, in Patagonia had adamaged jaw and could not feed.The elderly whale was fed and keptalive by its companions.

We're saying the science has shown thatindividuality - consciousness, self-awareness - is nolonger a unique human property. That poses all kindsof challenges."

t is based on years of research that has showndolphins and whales have large, complex brains anda human-like level of self-awareness.

When the patient isincapacitated by the grave nature of accident or illness, we presume that thereasonable person would want to be treated aggressively, and we rush toprovide beneficent intervention by stemming the bleeding, mending thebroken or suturing the wounded

The bad effect must not bethe means of the good effect,

The action itself must not be intrinsicallywrong;

imply that the patient has the capacity to act intentionally, withunderstanding, and without controlling influences

opportunity to make an informed choice about hisor her care.

d God co uld havemadethemri ght

God is bo th the aut horand the enforcerof th e morallaw

The sim plefact that peopledisa gree,then,does not pr ove th at ther e ar e no abs olut emoralstandards

But that do esn’t makethe acti on bot h right a

An actioncan bebelievedto be right and wr ong at the same

“Bec ause I’m geneti -call y predisposedto vi ew womenas infer ior to

re the bio log ic al roo ts of moralbeh av

sociobiology

Th ou shaltnot kil

r ong. The rightnessof an act ion doe s not dependon the good -ness of the pe rson perf

God’swork.

Somefeel that whatLes ter did was rig ht; othersfeel thatit was wro

The Stat e of New Jerse y didn ’tthinkso

Appealto FearTo use the threa t of harm to adv anc e one’s pos ition is tocommitthe fallacy of the app

When someonetri es to rebu t an argument by cr iti ciz -in g or denigratingits presenterrather than by de aling wi th the iss ues itraise s, that person is guilty of the fallacy

Equi vocationEquivocatio n occ urs when a word is us ed in two differen tsenses in an argu

Unfortunately,there is no formulafor ap ply ing the cri ter ia o

Si nce th e purposeof logic is to help us dis cover the trut h, there mu st bemore to being a good deductiveargument than being vali d. In addition, thepremisesmust be

lid, regard le ss of whetherthe stat ement s it cont

vali d argume

enth ymeme

God exi st s since the worl d nee

g it s con

If we suffered from total amnesia and were unable to remember anything about ourselves, there would be grounds for saying that we had ceased to exist.

truth.

Derive a test implication. Ask, “What if the hypothesis were true?” “What does it imply?” “What does it commit us to?” Test implications have the following form: If hypothesis H is true, then concept X should apply in this situation.

In their view, we are nothing but a pack of atoms—indivisible material particles that are in constant random motion. If Crick and Leucippus are right, then most religious believers are wrong—we can’t survive the death of our bodies. When our bodies die, we cease to exist.

Consider, for example, the beliefs that the universe contains only mate-rial objects and that we have minds.

Whatisvalue?• Whatarethesourcesofvalue?• Whatmakesanactionrightorwrong?• Whatmakesapersongoodorbad?

Do we have a duty to help others, or is our only obligation to not harm them?