Re:The Brain on Trial
by jerf on Sunday June 19, 2011 @01:16PM
(#2671243)
Barring total collapse of civilization (in which case this will be a golden era), we will be seen as barbaric. But it isn't very easy to predict in what ways, without merely falling prey to ideas that will further prove to be modern fashionable ideas that don't actually work.
And there's no guarantee we wouldn't likewise consider the future barbaric. Is it really that "civilized" to be able to look at someone's brain, figure out precisely what it is that makes them $YOUR_LEAST_FAVORITE_POLITICAL_ORIENTATION, and precisely remove it with surgery and personalized drugs, forcibly applied? Or possibly even $YOUR_POLITICAL_ORIENTATION? I can provide arguments in favor of any political position of your naming being proof that the holder is a bad person that threatens all that is good in civilization and all necessary steps should be taken to eliminate the ideation entirely, lest it successfully spread. (Including mine.) Just as one for instance.
And there's no guarantee we wouldn't likewise consider the future barbaric. Is it really that "civilized" to be able to look at someone's brain, figure out precisely what it is that makes them $YOUR_LEAST_FAVORITE_POLITICAL_ORIENTATION, and precisely remove it with surgery and personalized drugs, forcibly applied? Or possibly even $YOUR_POLITICAL_ORIENTATION? I can provide arguments in favor of any political position of your naming being proof that the holder is a bad person that threatens all that is good in civilization and all necessary steps should be taken to eliminate the ideation entirely, lest it successfully spread. (Including mine.) Just as one for instance.