We Could Hack Our Brains to Become Better, More Moral People
"Would you ever consider implanting a “virtues control panel” inside your brain, one that
could turn you into a fairer and more compassionate person? Granted, you’d have to
let scientists send electrical currents down your brain’s neurons for about ten minutes
each day, or consent to having a brain chip embedded inside your head. Take all the
time you need to think it through, but know that the future is already here: in the last
two decades, neuroscientists have consistently tampered with specific structures of our
brain to gauge the effect on our moral code.
“A part of the argument relies on what’s called brain lateralization,” James J. Hughes
—associate provost for the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and executive
director of the university’s techno-progressive think tank, Institute for Ethics and
Emerging Technologies—tells Popular Mechanics.
Brain lateralization is the view that different parts of the brain perform different
functions; by turning up or turning down activity in those different sections, we can
influence the way we think, feel, and behave, scientists believe. It’s this property of the
brain that neuromodulation, the delivery of electrical or pharmaceutical agents
specifically to an area of the body to affect or change nerves, could exploit to bring
about a more morally and cognitively enhanced humanity. Hughes explains this concept
in-depth in a chapter in the book Policy, Identity, and Neurotechnology: The Neuroethics
of Brain‐Computer Interfaces."
See:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/sci...neuromorality/