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Abstract:

Our understanding of the neurochemical bases of human love and attachment, as well as of the genetic, epigenetic, hormonal, and experiential factors that conspire to shape an individual's sexual orientation, is increasing exponentially. This research raises the vexing possibility that we may one day be equipped to modify such variables directly, allowing for the creation of "high-tech" conversion therapies or other suspect interventions. In this article, we discuss the ethics surrounding such a possibility, and call for the development of legal and procedural safeguards for protecting vulnerable children from the application of such technology. We also consider the more difficult case of voluntary, adult "conversion" and argue that in rare cases, such attempts might be permissible under strict conditions. © 2014 Copyright © Brian D. Earp, Anders Sandberg, and Julian Savulescu.

Abstract:

Whole brain emulation (WBE) is the possible future technology of one-to-one modelling of the function of the entire (human) brain. It would entail automatically scanning a brain, decoding the relevant neural circuitry, and generate a computer-runnable simulation that has a one-to-one relationship with the functions in the real brain (as well as an adequate virtual or real embodiment)2.

Obviously this is a hugely ambitious project far outside current capabilities, possibly not even feasible in theory3. However, should such a technology ever become feasible there are good reasons to expect the consequences to be dramatic4 : it would enable software intelligence, copyable human capital, new ethical problems, and (depending on philosophical outlook) immortality and a posthuman species. Even if one does not ascribe a high probability to WBE being ever feasible it makes sense to watch for trends indicating that it may be emerging, since adapting to its emergence may require significant early and global effort taking decades5.

Predicting when a future technology emerges is hard, and there are good reasons to be cautious about overconfident pronouncements. In particular, predictions about the future of artificial intelligence have not been very successful and there are good theoretical reasons to have expected this6. However, getting a rough estimate of what is needed for a technology to be feasible compared to current trends can give a helpful “order of magnitude estimate” of how imminent a technology is, and how quickly it could move from a primitive state to a mature state.

This paper will describe a simple Monte Carlo simulation of the emergence of WBE as a first tool for thinking about it.

Abstract:

The enhancement debate in neuroscience and biomedical ethics tends to focus on the augmentation of certain capacities or functions: memory, learning, attention, and the like. Typically, the point of contention is whether these augmentative enhancements should be considered permissible for individuals with no particular "medical" disadvantage along any of the dimensions of interest. Less frequently addressed in the literature, however, is the fact that sometimes the diminishment of a capacity or function, under the right set of circumstances, could plausibly contribute to an individual's overall well-being: more is not always better, and sometimes less is more. Such cases may be especially likely, we suggest, when trade-offs in our modern environment have shifted since the environment of evolutionary adaptation. In this article, we introduce the notion of "diminishment as enhancement" and go on to defend a welfarist conception of enhancement. We show how this conception resolves a number of definitional ambiguities in the enhancement literature, and we suggest that it can provide a useful framework for thinking about the use of emerging neurotechnologies to promote human flourishing.

Abstract:

The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the strong likelihood of alien intelligent life emerging (under a wide variety of assumptions) and the absence of any visible evidence for such emergence. In this paper, we extend the Fermi paradox to not only life in this galaxy, but to other galaxies as well. We do this by demonstrating that travelling between galaxies - indeed even launching a colonisation project for the entire reachable universe - is a relatively simple task for a star-spanning civilisation, requiring modest amounts of energy and resources. We start by demonstrating that humanity itself could likely accomplish such a colonisation project in the foreseeable future, should we want to. Given certain technological assumptions, such as improved automation, the task of constructing Dyson spheres, designing replicating probes, and launching them at distant galaxies, become quite feasible. We extensively analyse the dynamics of such a project, including issues of deceleration and collision with particles in space. Using similar methods, there are millions of galaxies that could have reached us by now. This results in a considerable sharpening of the Fermi paradox. © 2013 IAA.