Ethical considerations (and other petty hindrances to progress):

No regulation = sweet, sweet anarchy

Right now, ethics are not being dealt with.  In the sense that nothing is being done. 

Intelligence & Biotechnology

How far are we willing to go?

People fear an extreme where humans are turned into mindless drones of a uniform intelligence. This would be ethically reprehensible if it were even mildly possible. 

The greatest immediate concern is the lack of understanding about the properties of intelligence.  Scientists would be tampering with something that they have very limited knowledge about.

• intelligence is not centralized; it is highly dispersed.  We have no way of knowing how manipulation of one gene will affect other qualities.

Who will be allowed to benefit from advances in this arena? 

• Unequal access could mean discrimination.

Intelligence and Mental Illness

Should doctors be allowed to force treatment on the mentally ill? 

Who decides whether a person is sane enough to make qualified decisions about his or her future?

Artificial Intelligence

• No guarantee for how nonhuman entities will behave under the influence of human intelligence.

• At what point do these hybrids warrant human rights?

Don't Drink and Think!

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This website was created for H0NOR210: The Ideal, a course offered at Monmouth College during the fall 2005 semester.