Posted on 08/17/2020 8:10:26 AM PDT by EBH
My research in bioethics focuses on questions like how to induce those who are noncooperative to get on board with doing what’s best for the public good. To me, it seems the problem of coronavirus defectors could be solved by moral enhancement: like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior. Could a psychoactive pill be the solution to the pandemic?
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But I believe society may be better off, both in the short term as well as the long, by boosting not the body’s ability to fight off disease but the brain’s ability to cooperate with others. What if researchers developed and delivered a moral enhancer rather than an immunity enhancer?
Moral enhancement is the use of substances to make you more moral. The psychoactive substances act on your ability to reason about what the right thing to do is, or your ability to be empathetic or altruistic or cooperative.
For example, oxytocin, the chemical that, among other things, can induce labor or increase the bond between mother and child, may cause a person to be more empathetic and altruistic, more giving and generous. The same goes for psilocybin, the active component of “magic mushrooms.” These substances have been shown to lower aggressive behavior in those with antisocial personality disorder and to improve the ability of sociopaths to recognize emotion in others.
These substances interact directly with the psychological underpinnings of moral behavior; others that make you more rational could also help. Then, perhaps, the people who choose to go maskless or flout social distancing guidelines would better understand that everyone, including them, is better off when they contribute, and rationalize that the best thing to do is cooperate.
(Excerpt) Read more at theconversation.com ...
AMEN!!!!
The is how Democrats think.
Democrats are evil.
They could call it Soma.
Soma
The fact that someone is even considering this as an option is terrifying.
She’s setting the stage for its introduction. Get people used to the idea and after a while, it’s not os far fetched.
Forget it!!!!!!!
As W.C. Fields said, “Water? Never touch the stuff. Fish pee in it.”
Thank goodness for beer.
"Noncooperative"? Is that like "Deplorable"? Somebody please talk me out of the suspicion that shooting bioethicists is in the interest of the public good.
They've already been medicating the water supply for decades. What's to stop them from adding more goodies to our drink?
I think they need a pill that makes everyone tear off their clothes. Then there would be honestly.
Add this to the pile of public water behavior-modifying chemical studies through lithium fortification a few days back.
Me either, my post was sarcasm.
“Does the good of covertly dosing the public with a drug that would change people’s behavior outweigh individuals’ autonomy to choose whether to participate? “
That this ‘ethicist” would ask this question tells me everything I need to know about them.
And I agree, this is horrifying. Who gets to decide what the right thing to do is? Hitler would have loved this idea. Stalin. Mao. Saddam. The Saudi Royals.
Hillary would have used this on the deplorables in a heart beat.
I scrolled through the article’s reader comments. I only saw God mentioned once, and that was in passing. These people are monsters. Even those opposing this despotic author don’t have a clue as to what morality really is. Yes, it’s horrifying.
These people think like Nazi doctors
Eggs Ackley! And the author of their twisted thought processes is the same, the father of lies a murderer from the start.
These evil people want to control others.
All the time. Not that any of us are surprised.
It is all just so unbelievable at this point.
I always wondered what the Jews and Gypsy thought during the rise of Hitler. We see it coming, but there’s apparently no real way to stop it.
I am feeling very much like if we re-elect President Trump we are quasi safe for another 3-4 years. But every election is going to be about keeping ourselves from their fire.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t want to live like this.
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