Happy healthy citizen brain implants

[tik 🪀✨]

Just for fun, say we discovered a way to alter the brains of people so that they no longer had any inclination to do obviously harmful things. No desire to hurt others physically, sexually, or even verbally. There are no side effects in any other way, although it is irreversible. Basically, it's a brain implant that promotes only beneficial behaviour.

If given to children, it could lead to a crime free utopian society. Should we, or does it take away something, although negative, necessary for defining humanity/freedom? Or should we give them only to a certain subsection of criminals?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Either option 4 or option 5.  Option 4 is something I'd support only as an alternative to capital punishment.  The idea that there are behaviors that are intrinsically good or bad regardless of the situation is itself a utopian fallacy.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm really torn on issue of this kind. Maybe I can support letting people above 18 choose if they want it implanted, as well as offer it as an alternative to jail for people convicted of violent crimes, but I'd still be very uneasy about it.

[muon2]

Read "With Folded Hands ...", by Jack Williamson (1947). That sort of surgery is used there on anyone who is unhappy. It's not a desirable outcome IMO.

[TNF]

No one.

[Murica!]

No one.

[ElectionsGuy]

This is an insane idea. It would take away some individualism and uniqueness in society, making us all boring, conform to society, and destined to the same ideals. Making us all 'healthy' sounds great, but people need to realize individually that faults and ill desire are part of what makes our psychology. Taking that away in my opinion is a very dangerous idea.

[tik 🪀✨]

It is indeed! It is for fun, so if you think it is terrible, please explain why. Otherwise, you're making the thread very boring.

For the record, I think it is a bad idea, except for the most violent repeat offenders. I feel they are already usually suffering from some unfixable brain abnormality, so this would provide a solution to rehabilitate them / make them less of a problem in prison.

[© tweed]

only by consent and at the age of majority.

[Sopranos Republican]

No one.

[ingemann]

In theory yes, in reality no, because there don't exist anything, which hasn't unforseen consequences.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Kudos for interesting question (rather than endless bickering about age limits and whatnot), but I feel that this would be a good (optional) alternative for the irredeemably violent.

[tik 🪀✨]

This is an insane idea. It would take away some individualism and uniqueness in society, making us all boring, conform to society, and destined to the same ideals. Making us all 'healthy' sounds great, but people need to realize individually that faults and ill desire are part of what makes our psychology. Taking that away in my opinion is a very dangerous idea.

Thank you for elaborating. I think I left things a bit ill-defined, though. By "no longer had any inclination" and "no desire to hurt others" I didn't mean that they were incapable of realising that these were possibilities. They would just never do them. So the bad thoughts are still there, but they will never be realised.

If you extrapolate some of the implications of this, you might be more open to it. Or less, of course. Could it, for instance, make physical self-defense impossible?

Read "With Folded Hands ...", by Jack Williamson (1947). That sort of surgery is used there on anyone who is unhappy. It's not a desirable outcome IMO.

Thank you for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

No one.

Thank you for contributing.

[Sopranos Republican]

No one.

Thank you for contributing.

I tend to think that a society composed of happy obedient slaves to whatever powers make themselves exempt from receiving these "happy healthy citizen implants" is a bad idea.

[Oakvale]

This is utterly horrifying (normal, apparently).

I'm really torn on issue of this kind. Maybe I can support letting people above 18 choose if they want it implanted, as well as offer it as an alternative to jail for people convicted of violent crimes, but I'd still be very uneasy about it.

The problem here is the misconception that the response to crime (violent or otherwise) is solely about "rehabilitation". What about justice?

[RFayette 🇻🇦]

I think this should be voluntary for all citizens + possibly subsidized by the state and mandatory for the most violent criminals.  Of course, the "no side effects" thing would be BS in reality and I would almost certainly not support such surgeries in real life, as they would have huge consequences.

[Cory]

The correct answer is no one.

[tik 🪀✨]

This is utterly horrifying (normal, apparently).

I'm really torn on issue of this kind. Maybe I can support letting people above 18 choose if they want it implanted, as well as offer it as an alternative to jail for people convicted of violent crimes, but I'd still be very uneasy about it.

The problem here is the misconception that the response to crime (violent or otherwise) is solely about "rehabilitation". What about justice?

Yeah, I don't think it would make any sense as an alternative to prison. Only in conjunction with prison for violent criminals who cannot or refuse to change.

I wonder what people saying that this should be applied to no one think of chemical castration for pedophiles.

No one.

Thank you for contributing.

I tend to think that a society composed of happy obedient slaves to whatever powers make themselves exempt from receiving these "happy healthy citizen implants" is a bad idea.

Thanks for elaborating, that is a curious thing to assume given the question. I don't understand why you assume why that would make everyone "slaves" or that there would inevitably be "powers" that were exempt. Very paranoid. So, then, if we made sure 100% of people got it, would you feel differently?

To the vast majority who think no one should get it, for fun: if you think giving someone this implant is harmful, would surgeons who received the implant themselves be incapable of giving it to others?

[anvi]

I just finished watching an old Star Trek TNG episode where one of Data's creators remembered writing a "modesty subroutine" for him.  At that moment, the whole idea of implant brains, or at least programmable ones, suddenly became very appealing to me. 

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Utterly frightening beyond words, friend.  No one. 

[Replicator]

New doesn't mean good. Very stupid.

[Deus Naturae]

People should be able to do whatever they want to their own brains, but this shouldn't be promoted or subsidized by the government in any way and anyone who had an implant of this sort would have to be disenfranchised.