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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Could Deep-Brain Stimulation Fortify Soldiers’ Minds?

By S. Matthew Liao
Scientific American Blog
Originally posted September 4, 2014

Here is an excerpt:

Brain implants that reduce or eliminate our sense of morality are morally undesirable and are not really enhancements as such. Efforts should therefore be made to ensure that the kind of brain implants we develop do not have these unwanted side effects. In the short term, the brain implants we develop may well be imperfect in just such a way. If so, this would be a good reason to ban such devices in the short term. The interesting theoretical issue is what happens when we have perfected the technology and have brain implants that would enable a soldier to kill at the right time, for the right reasons, and in a proportionate manner? Would we still have ethical problems with soldiers using such a technology

The entire blog post is here.