[ExI] Morality research

[Anders Sandberg]

Apropos moral enhancement, these papers might be relevant:
http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/uehiro/moralenhancement2

BillK wrote:
> "Once we have figured out how morality works as an emotional and
> mental system there might be ways of improving it," he told me.
> -------------
>
> Wrong way round.   If you find ways of destroying morality then you
> will be swamped by people who want to become millionaires in the
> finance industry.
>   

Sounds like sheep to be skinned - even if lack of morality was necessary 
for becoming successful, it is not a sufficient condition.

Lack of morality is rarely a benefit: it impairs the ability to work 
well in long-term alliances. There is a reason many of the most ruthless 
regimes and groups in history have strongly emphasized the importance of 
morality (but *their* morality of course, which tends to treat outsiders 
badly). Groups filled with sociopaths and backstabbers disintegrate long 
before they can do anything large-scale. An interesting variation is 
organisations where well-defined formal rules and contracts can take the 
place of morality: here an amoral stance can function without 
necessarily messing up the organisation, at least short term.

The big questionmark about moral enhancement is whether there exist any 
low-hanging fruits that are useful. Just boosting prosociality through 
oxytocin is likely a bad idea, given some evidence that it leads to 
group parochiality. A sociopathy detector on the other hand might really 
clean up some social structures... or lead to problematic witchhunts 
(just because you don't care for other people doesn't mean you have done 
or will do anything wrong). IMHO cognitive enhancement is the best 
approach to moral enhancement, since it has multiple benefits.



-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute 
Oxford Martin School 
Faculty of Philosophy 
Oxford University