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 ieet.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 Involved Both 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 HardwareSoftware Mirror neurons Innate sentiments Self-control capacity Chemical, genetic, nanotech moral therapies Laws Social norms Ethical software (decision support, plagiarism checkers, trading surveillance, ethical warbots, etc.) Internalized norms Moral reasoning Pedagogical methods Meditation Schools and churches Police and prisons Moral gadgets (wiring teeth, diet trackers, FitBit, etc.)

Morality Gadgets  Religious clothing, hair shirts, tefillin  Behavior-triggered morality aids: e.g. 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/reciprocity Conservatives  Ingroup loyalty  Respect for authority  Purity/sanctity Being 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 Privacy  Overt Control  Ownership  Social Norms  Addiction  Inequality

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