Virtue Engineering

James Hughes argues that neurotechnology will encourage people to be more responsible and help them suppress the desires they consider immoral, at the TransVision06 conference in Helsink in August 2006. The presentation slides can be found here .

“In the near future we will have many technologies that will allow us to modify and assist our emotions and reasoning. One of the purposes we will put these technologies to is to assist our adherence to self-chosen moral codes and citizenship obligations. For instance we will be able to suppress unwelcome desires, enhance compassion and empathy, and expand our understanding our social world and the consequences of actions. So, contrary to the bioconservative accusation that neurological self-determination and human enhancement will encourage more selfishness in society, it will probably permit people to be even more moral and responsible than they currently are.”