[ExI] morals

William Flynn Wallace foozler83 at gmail.com
Tue Jan 22 16:58:04 UTC 2019


Well, shoot, Spike - I was hoping to get a ponder out of you.  bill w

On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 10:47 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

> 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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