... that committing atrocities or acts of kindness are identically psychologically motivated, no? — 180 Proof
Yeah but, anecdotes aside, my reply addressed "mastery of the reward circuitry ..." with which any sort of "experience" happens and motivates seeking / reproducing it. Such "mastery" can turn any perception or behavior into a "peak experience". Any, or rather every "experience" – even boredom, even e.g. slow amputation without anaesthesia / pain-killer – because "experience" is output of perception-memory-biases through our "reward circuitry". Psychosurgery, it seems to me, that results in (btw, whose?) "mastery of the reward circuitry" would give every autocrat / theocrat a permanent hard-on.Speaking from my experience with peak experiences [ ... ] — Pfhorrest
My mother used to wonder how bodies would look in heaven, and I wonder the same about transhuman bodies. Would they look artificial, rather like steampunk robots? — Jack Cummins
Direct interventions to enhance emotional well-being could enrich everyone's default quality of life. For sure, whether we consider using drugs, genes or electrodes, such tools could also be abused. But we need a a serious ethical debate. Do we want to conserve our existing reward architecture indefinitely? Or aim for radical hedonic uplift?"mastery of the reward circuitry" would give every autocrat / theocrat a permanent hard-on. — 180 Proof
It's counterintuitive. But "disincentives for (i.e. intrinsic negative feedback of) antisocial and immoral behaviors" can play out just as effectively within the upper and lower bounds of even a vastly higher hedonic range than today's norm. Leave aside here my wilder transhumanist speculations on future life based on information-sensitive gradients of superhuman bliss. Focus instead on today's genetic outliers - "hyperthymics" with an unusually high hedonic set-point. OK, I don't know of any rigorous quantitative study to prove it, but there's no evidence that hyperthymic people are more prone to antisocial and immoral behavior than their neurotypical counterparts. Sure, people with mania are prone antisocial and immoral behavior. But that's because (as in chronic unipolar depression) their information-signaling system for good and bad stimuli has partially broken down.Still, it seems to me, the ethical problem remains: if 'negative affects' are eliminated by "radical hedonic uplift", then disincentives for (i.e. intrinsic negative feedbacks of) antisocial and immoral behaviors will be, effectively, eliminated as well. How will this not produce catastrophic consequences? – they would be unintentionally yet foreseeably 'harmful' and, therefore, ought to be avoided, no? — 180 Proof
Like that old blues song says
"Everybody wants to go to heaven
But nobody wants to die"
which is the essence of the transhumanist daydream. — 180 Proof
It'll probably take many many billions (trillions?) of dollar$ (or euro€) of discretionary spending to hoover up all the best, world-class, researchers around the globe working in hundreds of labs to meliorate mid/late-life crises of Bezos & co who are seriously financing the latest technotopian-crazed iteration of "Gilgamesh's quest" (which actually just might cash-out down stream ... :chin:)What do you think will it take for humanity to look at death as a problem that needs to be circumvented with technology or longevity extension type ideas? — Shawn
Link to a sketched premise for a story where I link "cancer" to "immortality / longevity" as an unforeseen consequence (curse? blessing?). Definitely a biotech cautionary tale I wish I was smart (talented) enough to write.As an unforeseen consequence of a (universal) cancer vaccine [ ... ] — 180 Proof
what else do you do with your time? — Book273
continuity is, as far as I'm concerned, "the soul". — 180 Proof
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