[ExI] morals

Tue Jan 22 16:42:58 UTC 2019

The field of medicine is filled with ethical dilemmas.  That’s why I chose to not go to med school: those things make me crazy (ethical dilemmas I mean, not med schools.)

I chose a field in which I worked 26 years and never once faced an ethical dilemma, never had undue pressure.  Aerospace engineering is perhaps the most stress-free job ever invented: one solves equations, writes algorithms, does interesting stuff, learns lotsa cool interesting physics and technologies, never needs to ponder the imponderable.

spike

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2019 8:20 AM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: [ExI] morals

What unethical experiment would have the most positive impact on the society as a whole?   (This is the question I was asked on Quora.  Here is my answer:

Easy - genetic manipulation of ova and sperm to create designer babies. 

If we do this, we can find ways to eliminate most if not all genetic diseases and conditions, meaning that we will save billions of lives in the long run, and make many more billions have better lives. On the positive side, we can find out what makes for a better immune system, better intelligence, better personality, and all the rest.

Collateral damage - babies born defective in some way because the experiment did not work as designed. So we tell them that they were an experiment designed to help all of humanity.

If you were that person, how would you feel? You were, in effect, a sacrifice on the altar of science. 

A parallel - in 1940 you were given penicillin to treat an infection. It had just been discovered. You die of an allergy that no one knew of - to the drug. Do you resent being a test case, which in effect you were?

bill w

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