David Eagleman's lecture on neuroscience and law is fascinating. But I can't help but thinking about Bender's upgrade to be compatible with Robot 1-X.
About a half-hour in, he starts talking about neuro-based aversion techniques to train folks to dislike smoking, or to improve criminals' impulse control problems. I favour this kind of thing where it's a voluntary self-constraint mechanism. But it's not hard to imagine a healthist line that drug users shouldn't be put in prison but should rather be forced to undergo brain modification. I'm somewhat comforted by Eagleman's noting that none of these techniques work on people who don't want to change. But only somewhat.
"I'm somewhat comforted by Eagleman's noting that none of these techniques work on people who don't want to change."
ReplyDeleteThat could be a really bad thing if they work to a certain extent but not very well. Rather than "this isn't working, let's leave the poor addict alone," the healthists are more likely to say "we must try harder to fix him!" That could get nasty pretty quickly.