A copy of download Guthrie reprogrammed by the current ideologues says:
"'...you've given me new information!...I was wrong. I didn't understand the situation, nor what Xuan was getting at, not really. I'll have to think more about that, but- ...Well, Sayre, my mind is changed. We're allies. Thanks. I guess.'" (p. 52)
This is an abomination. I would value Guthrie disagreeing with me, not reprogrammed. But the incident raises deeper questions about the morality of changing other people's consciousnesses. If, by merely pressing a button, we were able to bring about the kind of "Change" described in HG Wells' In The Days Of The Comet or in Poul Anderson's Brain Wave, would it be right to do it? In Anderson, intelligence increases, then reason gains control of emotion. In Wells, reason gains control over emotion. See Changing Motivations.
Responses to the Question
It is impossible to bring about such a Change by pressing a button so the question is pointless.
Even if it were possible, is it not also probable that such a large alteration would have unpredictable and undesirable side-effects?
However, since we are merely performing a thought experiment, we are free to imagine a scenario in which it is known in advance and for certain that there will be no such side-effects.
I am finding it difficult to think of a reason not to make the Change. It would not negate anyone's freedom but enhance it. They would thank us for it afterwards. Of course they would also thank us if we addicted them to a new drug, then supplied them with the drug, but surely that is not comparable? A way to avoid the moral dilemma would be to offer the Change only to those who want it if this were possible, which it is not in either the Wells or the Anderson novel. Moral questions depend on what is possible. If we were able to assassinate a tyrant at a distance, then we would have the moral question of whether to do it but not the moral question of whether to bomb his capital city. (In the case of SM Stirling's Draka, I think that some of their "serfs" (slaves) would want us to nuke the capital city even if they themselves were in it at the time.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree it was abominable of the Avantists to turn a copy of the download of Anson Guthrie into something he would never willingly have chosen to be!
And I remain skeptical of the notion that merely augmenting human intelligence would somehow lead to a permanent controlling of human passions.
I agree that it is very likely that some of the serfs/slaves of the Draka would be willing to die in the destruction of the Domination's capital, if that was what it took to bring it down. With one caveat, the Draka used genetic manipulation to turn their serfs into slaves WILLING to be Draka slaves: a new subspecies of men called homo Servus. Appalling!
Sean
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