Suppose your biology instructor asks you to volunteer for an experiment. You'll get a microchip implanted in your brain. It will make you feel really good. But it may mess up your health, lop ten years off your life, and destroy part of your brain. Your behavior will change for the worse. You may have trouble finishing school, keeping a job, and having a normal family life.
The longer the chip is implanted, the less you will want to give it up. You won't get paid. You will pay the experimenter--first at bargain rates, then a little more each week.
Would you volunteer? and should this chip be illegal?
chip in brain
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Re: chip in brain
Post #3Can we just drop the pretense and say that you are talking about drugs?TQWcS wrote:Suppose your biology instructor asks you to volunteer for an experiment. You'll get a microchip implanted in your brain. It will make you feel really good. But it may mess up your health, lop ten years off your life, and destroy part of your brain. Your behavior will change for the worse. You may have trouble finishing school, keeping a job, and having a normal family life.
The longer the chip is implanted, the less you will want to give it up. You won't get paid. You will pay the experimenter--first at bargain rates, then a little more each week.
Would you volunteer? and should this chip be illegal?
Gilt and Vetinari shared a look. It said: While I loathe you and all of your personal philosophy to a depth unplummable by any line, I will credit you at least with not being Crispin Horsefry [The big loud idiot in the room].
-Going Postal, Discworld
-Going Postal, Discworld
Post #4
I'm sure you are proud of your problem solving abilities and you want everyone else to see how good they are, but in the future can you just answer the question.Can we just drop the pretense and say that you are talking about drugs?
Re: chip in brain
Post #5I thought he was talking about religion. It makes you feel really good, but it causes you to think and act irrationally. Paying the experimenter sounds like passing the plate or tithing.ENIGMA wrote:Can we just drop the pretense and say that you are talking about drugs?TQWcS wrote:Suppose your biology instructor asks you to volunteer for an experiment. You'll get a microchip implanted in your brain. It will make you feel really good. But it may mess up your health, lop ten years off your life, and destroy part of your brain. Your behavior will change for the worse. You may have trouble finishing school, keeping a job, and having a normal family life.
The longer the chip is implanted, the less you will want to give it up. You won't get paid. You will pay the experimenter--first at bargain rates, then a little more each week.
Would you volunteer? and should this chip be illegal?
Who is the experimenter in the example? Is it the doctor who prescribes Neurontin, Hydrocodone, Morphine? Is it the chocolatier who is peddling truffles? Maybe it's a used car salesman trying to get you to buy any British car from the 1970s. Or it could be cable TV or health insurance or rooting for the Cubs.
Freedom of choice is a tricky thing. Either you have enough information to make an informed choice or you don't. I, for one, am in favor of increasing the amount of information available.
If the experimenter is using human subjects, I assume he got the necessary go-ahead from the proper authorities. I would probably not volunteer, because I take pleasure in everyday living, but I see no reason to make it illegal.
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nikolayevich
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Re: chip in brain
Post #6It should only be illegal if Microsoft manufactured it.TQWcS wrote:Would you volunteer? and should this chip be illegal?
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nikolayevich
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Post #7
I forgot to support my response:
Microsoft products are too bug-ridden and often encourage viruses.
Microsoft products are too bug-ridden and often encourage viruses.
Post #8
The experimenter didn't, in fact the authorities are against this experiment and if you get caught with the chip in your head you will be in trouble.If the experimenter is using human subjects, I assume he got the necessary go-ahead from the proper authorities. I would probably not volunteer, because I take pleasure in everyday living, but I see no reason to make it illegal.
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Dilettante
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Post #9
So, apart from "feeling good", what's in it for me? 
Nah...better be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied!
Nah...better be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied!
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potwalloper.
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Re: chip in brain
Post #10An interesting question.TQWcS wrote:Suppose your biology instructor asks you to volunteer for an experiment. You'll get a microchip implanted in your brain. It will make you feel really good. But it may mess up your health, lop ten years off your life, and destroy part of your brain. Your behavior will change for the worse. You may have trouble finishing school, keeping a job, and having a normal family life.
The longer the chip is implanted, the less you will want to give it up. You won't get paid. You will pay the experimenter--first at bargain rates, then a little more each week.
Would you volunteer? and should this chip be illegal?
I wouldn't volunteer but neither would I make the chip illegal.
I can think of a number of benefits for such a chip - relieving depression and suffering in the terminally ill for one, for whom a reduction in overall life span would matter little.
And in the end the choice ultimately lies with the individual - and who knows what medical advances could come from further developing such a product - the repair of language centres following a stroke perhaps, or the alleviation of clinical depression, and even a reduction in reliance on mood-altering drugs.
...and you can't get Aids from a chip in the brain.
