"Tell me please would you one time
Let me be myself
So I can shine with my own light"
I've been thinking a lot about our sense of self lately. Perhaps because mine feels so... different right now. No, I'm not on any medications that would account for this change, but that didn't stop me from being intrigued by a recent paper in the journal Neuroethics called Authenticity Anyone? The Enhancement of Emotions via Neuro-Psychopharmacology, by Felicitas Kraemer.
Kraemer begins by extensively discussing Peter Kramer's 1993 book Listening to Prozac (which I own, but have not yet read). Kramer describes a woman who, by all accounts, was never particularly happy and outgoing, as experiencing such a positive change in personality on Prozac that she didn't want to stop taking it because "she is not herself anymore without it." She now identified with a 'true self' that hadn't emerged until she'd been medicated. "...Kramer described the process as one of a redefinition of the self" where "the socially competent and cheerful self that is prevalent under Prozac is declared as the 'real self,' whereas the less welcome, shy and depressed one, is not experienced as real anymore." The implication, of course, is that since the 'new' self conforms to a (socially-approved of) "better or even 'ideal' self", then that self must be a more authentic representation of the real person. The paradox, of course, is that since we typically define authenticity as a combination of naturalness of origin and consistency with the past, how can a sense of self arising from an "artificial enhancement device" like Prozac lead to a more authentic self?
Or, to reframe Kraemer's reframing of the question, is Prozac creating something that was never there and is thereby inauthentic, or is Prozac enabling us to access something that was always there, always possible, and which can thereby be deemed to be authentic? Is Prozac simply peeling back a slightly rotten top layer of the emotional onion, revealing something 'better' that has been there all along? What is the genuine article with respect to our emotions and the behaviors arising from them?
Is an emotion genuine because I feel it, or is it genuine because it is consistent with how I have previously felt and how I think that I should feel? Or is the difference between the two only worth debating if I'm unwilling to accept and integrate the new emotions into my sense of self? With respect to consenting adults who have unrestricted access to these technologies, you might leave it strictly up to the individual to decide what is or is not 'authentic'. But because many self-altering medications are prescribed to minors who may have barely had a chance to develop a sense of self on par with that of consenting adults, and because social pressure is the source of most of our ideas about what an acceptable sense of self is, the issue of authenticity is of broader concern.
To what degree do we owe it to a person to allow them to develop as naturally as possible? I have a friend whose child has been diagnosed with ADHD. The child's 'wild' behavior creates difficulties for the parents and teachers, but the child is boisterous, gregarious, and happy, and does not appear to be suffering. So far the parents have not medicated this child, but their doctor has put it out there as an option for the future. I wonder about whose needs/desires will ultimately take precedence in this situation. Will 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one', or will the child be allowed to continue as his 'wild' happy self because that is who he is?
And when will the child be self-aware enough to realize that something may have been taken away from him if he were medicated? Kraemer claims to "support the more general, conceptual thesis that people do not experience artificial emotions when taking drugs of whatever kind," a thesis that I reject. I believe that it is possible to be self-aware enough to realize (simultaneously with the occurring emotion) when an emotional response is inconsistent with one's previous history of responses to similar circumstances, and that that inconsistency is enough to cause one to deem the emotion 'artificial' or 'inauthentic'. And forcing an inconsistent emotional response upon a person is a deep violation of the very essence of our experiencing, sentient selves.
Kraemer concludes (wrongly, IMHO) that the distinction between 'natural' and 'artificial' is only relevant with respect to the source or means by which the emotion is produced, and not with respect to how the emotion is experienced. (p. 55) Yet, ironically, Kraemer goes on to argue that an emotion can be claimed to be authentic "if the individuals experiencing it recognize their own feelings really as their own and identify with them." (p. 58) We seem to be disagreeing about the degree of equivalency between 'natural' and 'authentic', and between 'inauthentic' and 'artificial'...
It may very well be possible that a person can be unaware enough of the differences in felt emotions to appreciate which ones arise from the use of an artificial technology. Further, it's entirely possible that they just don't care about the inconsistency between the way they responded emotionally in the past and the way they are currently responding. But this should not be considered to be a reasonable assumption with respect to all people, and the law should be designed to protect those who notice a difference and are bothered by it.
It's entirely possible that one's sense of self will 'evolve' over time to accommodate the new set of emotional responses. It's even possible that this new sense of self will be appreciated and deemed qualitatively better than the flawed, old self that experienced emotions or had responses that were 'not desirable'. But it's my belief that such changes should never be forced upon anyone, either by the law or by social pressure. (Kraemer's article includes illustrations from Kramer's book of people who were very bothered by discrepancy between how they felt and how they knew they should feel.)
Our social norms do include a historical appreciation and respect for authenticity, but how will this respect sustain itself (or not) in the face of increasingly easier (and more radical) ways to modify oneself? Kraemer critically cites transhumanist Nick Bostrom's work as an overly simplistic view of how easy making 'emotional improvements' would be. She points out that "[c]hanging our emotional life means changing our cultural and epistemic norms." Perhaps more importantly though, judgments about the authenticity of emotions reside first and foremost with the subjective experiencer, determined by the degree to which they are or are not able to integrate the emotional changes into their existing sense of self. And it is inconsistency that erodes our sense of self. As Kraemer puts it, "[o]ur emotions depend on each other in a fragile nexus that can easily be destroyed by uncontrolled manipulation." And without a strong, consistent sense of self, who are we?
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Hero/Monster
"Who's gonna fight for the weak?
Who's gonna make 'em believe?
I've got a hero, I've got a hero Living in me"
- Hero, Awake by Skillet (track 1)
"The secret side of me, I never let you see
I keep it caged but I can't control it
So stay away from me, the beast is ugly
I feel the rage and I just can't hold it"
- Monster, Awake by Skillet (track 2)
I've got a lawyer living in me. And a lawyer that has been cross-pollinated by a psychologist is a dangerous thing indeed: a dangerous thing with an interest in neuroethics...
It amazes me what people will attempt to use as a defense for committing a crime (or for just behaving badly). It amazes me, perhaps, because every attempted defense is a statement of sorts about what we believe it is that makes us who we are. At a very basic level, it's a statement about what it means to be human. Are we our nature, or are we our nurture? From whence cometh the hero, or the monster?
[ASIDE: As a huge fan of multi-dimensional modeling (huge!), I once commented that, as we all agree that the truth is some combination of nature and nurture, the prudent course would be for science present the nature/nurture debate from an 'overlapping windows' perspective. Not all aspects of the phenotypical expression of our genetic nature are equally susceptible to the nurturing (or lack thereof) of environmental influence. Furthermore, a single aspect of our genetic nature may not be equally susceptible to environmental influence at different points within our lifespan. There are critical windows in development where the influence of nurture can have a much more dramatic impact on the way our nature develops. This really isn't news to anybody, when you stop to think about it, yet the idea that a single gene is somehow 'responsible' for our behavior persists, and convinces juries.]
The dangerous idea in both cases is that we are somehow not responsible for who we are, and by extension, for what we do. As the social and biological sciences advance, we believe that we are acquiring increasing power to explain why we do what we do. But having a partial understanding of why we might behave in a particular way is itself not enough to absolve any individual of responsibility for a particular action.
There is now a pathological characterization for people who are obsessed with brain pathologies as acceptable legal excuses - Brain Overclaim Syndrome, "the essential feature of which is to make claims about the implications of neuroscience for criminal responsibility that cannot be conceptually or empirically sustained." Morse's allegation that "[b]rains do not commit crimes; people commit crimes" brings up (yet does not answer) an interesting question: what is a person, if not his/her brain?
"For a materialist, the brain always plays a causal role in behavior. Despite all the astonishing recent advances in neuroscience, however, we still know woefully little about how the brain enables the mind, and especially about how consciousness and intentionality can arise from the complicated hunk of matter that is the brain." (Quoting a slightly different version of this paper which appeared in Neuroethics: An Introduction with Readings (2010).) But the legal arguments need only demonstrate that "an agent’s capacity for rationality might be diminished by faulty neurotransmitters, psychological stress, trauma, or a host of other causes" (q, my emphasis) in order to argue that criminal responsibility for a particular action (which is based on certain presumptions of rationality) need not apply.
Morse's argument hinges around the idea of responsibility: an idea that was developed from and predicated on what we subjectively understand about our mental experiences. He argues that the correct perspective (and therefore also the correct use of neuroscience) is one which accepts the idea of responsibility (the internalist perspective). In contrast, an externalist perspective is based on the idea "determinism... is true or that our mental states play no role in explaining our behavior", and is therefore outside the current framework of our understanding of responsibility. In other words, the externalist perspective states that everything that we experience as human beings is essentially irrelevant in explaining our behavior. Morse argues (correctly, IMHO) that this perspective is inconsistent with the entire notion of responsibility.
Morse has written a fascinating and beautifully-nuanced argument in either source, and the real world-oriented humanist would do well to give some consideration to the question raised above: What is a person, if not simply his/her brain? I suspect that Morse never intended to answer that question, but rather only to illustrate that since our understanding of the brain is partial (one might even say minimal), a person should be judged by behavioral criteria of responsibility, rather than by what we think we may know about their brain. The use of neuroscientific 'evidence' should be used to support, rather than override, behavioral observations.
In the larger picture, the same can be said for other attempts to 'blame' behavior on various (usually oversimplified) aspects of genetics or environment. "Partial knowledge about causation does not mean that there is partial causation." Likewise, "[c]ausation cannot be an excuse per se for an internalist, who accepts responsibility, because all behavior is caused and thus all behavior would have to be excused." Morse, a determinist himself, believes that responsibility is compatible with determinism, however he defers the explanation of such compatibility to a realm other than science. "Science cannot resolve the dispute because the issue is metaphysical and normative and it is unlikely ever to be resolved by logic."
"As the biological and behavioral sciences offer ever more sophisticated understandings of normal and abnormal behavior alike, there will be constant pressure to use their findings to affect assessment of criminal responsibility and other legal doctrines. A lot will be at stake morally, politically and legally, and much will be debatable." I concur.
Who's gonna make 'em believe?
I've got a hero, I've got a hero Living in me"
- Hero, Awake by Skillet (track 1)
"The secret side of me, I never let you see
I keep it caged but I can't control it
So stay away from me, the beast is ugly
I feel the rage and I just can't hold it"
- Monster, Awake by Skillet (track 2)
I've got a lawyer living in me. And a lawyer that has been cross-pollinated by a psychologist is a dangerous thing indeed: a dangerous thing with an interest in neuroethics...
It amazes me what people will attempt to use as a defense for committing a crime (or for just behaving badly). It amazes me, perhaps, because every attempted defense is a statement of sorts about what we believe it is that makes us who we are. At a very basic level, it's a statement about what it means to be human. Are we our nature, or are we our nurture? From whence cometh the hero, or the monster?
[ASIDE: As a huge fan of multi-dimensional modeling (huge!), I once commented that, as we all agree that the truth is some combination of nature and nurture, the prudent course would be for science present the nature/nurture debate from an 'overlapping windows' perspective. Not all aspects of the phenotypical expression of our genetic nature are equally susceptible to the nurturing (or lack thereof) of environmental influence. Furthermore, a single aspect of our genetic nature may not be equally susceptible to environmental influence at different points within our lifespan. There are critical windows in development where the influence of nurture can have a much more dramatic impact on the way our nature develops. This really isn't news to anybody, when you stop to think about it, yet the idea that a single gene is somehow 'responsible' for our behavior persists, and convinces juries.]
The dangerous idea in both cases is that we are somehow not responsible for who we are, and by extension, for what we do. As the social and biological sciences advance, we believe that we are acquiring increasing power to explain why we do what we do. But having a partial understanding of why we might behave in a particular way is itself not enough to absolve any individual of responsibility for a particular action.
There is now a pathological characterization for people who are obsessed with brain pathologies as acceptable legal excuses - Brain Overclaim Syndrome, "the essential feature of which is to make claims about the implications of neuroscience for criminal responsibility that cannot be conceptually or empirically sustained." Morse's allegation that "[b]rains do not commit crimes; people commit crimes" brings up (yet does not answer) an interesting question: what is a person, if not his/her brain?
"For a materialist, the brain always plays a causal role in behavior. Despite all the astonishing recent advances in neuroscience, however, we still know woefully little about how the brain enables the mind, and especially about how consciousness and intentionality can arise from the complicated hunk of matter that is the brain." (Quoting a slightly different version of this paper which appeared in Neuroethics: An Introduction with Readings (2010).) But the legal arguments need only demonstrate that "an agent’s capacity for rationality might be diminished by faulty neurotransmitters, psychological stress, trauma, or a host of other causes" (q, my emphasis) in order to argue that criminal responsibility for a particular action (which is based on certain presumptions of rationality) need not apply.
Morse's argument hinges around the idea of responsibility: an idea that was developed from and predicated on what we subjectively understand about our mental experiences. He argues that the correct perspective (and therefore also the correct use of neuroscience) is one which accepts the idea of responsibility (the internalist perspective). In contrast, an externalist perspective is based on the idea "determinism... is true or that our mental states play no role in explaining our behavior", and is therefore outside the current framework of our understanding of responsibility. In other words, the externalist perspective states that everything that we experience as human beings is essentially irrelevant in explaining our behavior. Morse argues (correctly, IMHO) that this perspective is inconsistent with the entire notion of responsibility.
Morse has written a fascinating and beautifully-nuanced argument in either source, and the real world-oriented humanist would do well to give some consideration to the question raised above: What is a person, if not simply his/her brain? I suspect that Morse never intended to answer that question, but rather only to illustrate that since our understanding of the brain is partial (one might even say minimal), a person should be judged by behavioral criteria of responsibility, rather than by what we think we may know about their brain. The use of neuroscientific 'evidence' should be used to support, rather than override, behavioral observations.
In the larger picture, the same can be said for other attempts to 'blame' behavior on various (usually oversimplified) aspects of genetics or environment. "Partial knowledge about causation does not mean that there is partial causation." Likewise, "[c]ausation cannot be an excuse per se for an internalist, who accepts responsibility, because all behavior is caused and thus all behavior would have to be excused." Morse, a determinist himself, believes that responsibility is compatible with determinism, however he defers the explanation of such compatibility to a realm other than science. "Science cannot resolve the dispute because the issue is metaphysical and normative and it is unlikely ever to be resolved by logic."
"As the biological and behavioral sciences offer ever more sophisticated understandings of normal and abnormal behavior alike, there will be constant pressure to use their findings to affect assessment of criminal responsibility and other legal doctrines. A lot will be at stake morally, politically and legally, and much will be debatable." I concur.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Good Shepherd (Pt II)
"And there is great power to be had by being the one to initiate a new order."
Our Fair State is currently awaiting the official results of yesterday's elections. And the results of the most high-profile race on the ballot - Supreme Court Judge - are close. Very close. (As of 11:40 AM, only 200 votes separate the candidates, with just one precinct not yet reporting. (via)) This race is viewed by many as a referendum on the recent right-wing power grab that involved a legislative attempt to take collective bargaining away from public employees.
In addition to shock and anger at the consequences of this "non-fiscal" budget repair bill, a sense of solidarity among workers of all kinds has emerged. What has not yet emerged in this situation is a single individual as the face/voice of the movement. There has been no 'Joe the plumber', no Joe Hill... and no Anton Drexler. Perhaps it is simply too early. Perhaps the outrage is still too fresh.
And perhaps it is naive to hope that this movement, this sense of solidarity and community, will continue uncorrupted. Eventually there will be an organized response, above and beyond attempts to recall current legislators or endorse candidates in races where the candidacy was already determined when the collective shit hit the fan. (Pardon the pun.)
Another episode in the ongoing series of weird coincidences that permeate my life began when I was in the library recently, looking for research material on workers' rights. While I didn't find what I was looking for in the area of workers' rights, as I perused the early-300s I did come across a book called Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos, by journalist Robert D. Kaplan (2002). (If you know me, you know that that book was bound to go home with me.) It was a bit unsettling, given the current situation, to see sentence two of Chapter One - "The Nazi party began as a crusade for workers' rights organized by a Munich locksmith, Anton Drexler, in 1919, before Hitler took it over the following year." This sense of creepy coincidence developed further when I saw a published letter to the editor of a local news outlet this morning. The letter was a single line - "Ich bin ein pro-labor Wisconsinite." I have to wonder how many readers understood the significance of that letter. And I have to say, it probably would have gone right over my head had I not just been reading Kaplan's book.
As personal as the current situation in Our Fair State feels to me, and as much as it has pissed me into political activism, I also don't want our collective response to lose its sense of purity. Right now we are angry and in shock. Right now public employees are trying to figure out what to do if/when their take-home incomes are suddenly cut by $350 a month. Right now My City of 25,000 is poised to lose over 1000 years - years - of teaching experience as many public school teachers make the difficult decision to retire. (It shocked me too, but 30 teachers averaging 35 years each adds up.)
But it won't be long before the political interests involved find a face for the outraged masses to rally behind. And so we are forced to consider the first sentence of Kaplan's treatise - "The evils of the twentieth century arose from populist movements that were monstrously exploited in the name of utopian ideals, and had their power amplified by new technologies." Can there be a reasonable response to what has happened in Our Fair State and is happening in states across the country? Absolutely. Can it be an effective response without large-scale organization, financial resources, and leadership? I would love to believe that it's possible, but I have doubts...
One thing I have noticed in recent weeks is that people desperately want to be told who to vote for, and more generally, how to funnel their outrage. No one has time to do all the research themselves, they doubt their ability to 'get it right', and they are looking for a reliable source of information and direction. Here's just one example of a directive to the public that has gathered momentum, even though it may be only tangentially related to the average voter's actual source of ire. (I've also heard more than one person say that they'd like Russ Feingold to become the governor of Our Fair State.)
While emotions continue to run high, we the average voters also need to consider how to shape an effective political response to the actual issues, without getting lost in sentiment and rhetoric. We've seen what democracy looks like, but what will organized leadership look like? You turned out at the polls yesterday, far in excess of the 20% normally seen for this election. Don't lose your momentum; continue to demand the best from yourselves and any leaders you choose to follow!
Our Fair State is currently awaiting the official results of yesterday's elections. And the results of the most high-profile race on the ballot - Supreme Court Judge - are close. Very close. (As of 11:40 AM, only 200 votes separate the candidates, with just one precinct not yet reporting. (via)) This race is viewed by many as a referendum on the recent right-wing power grab that involved a legislative attempt to take collective bargaining away from public employees.
In addition to shock and anger at the consequences of this "non-fiscal" budget repair bill, a sense of solidarity among workers of all kinds has emerged. What has not yet emerged in this situation is a single individual as the face/voice of the movement. There has been no 'Joe the plumber', no Joe Hill... and no Anton Drexler. Perhaps it is simply too early. Perhaps the outrage is still too fresh.
And perhaps it is naive to hope that this movement, this sense of solidarity and community, will continue uncorrupted. Eventually there will be an organized response, above and beyond attempts to recall current legislators or endorse candidates in races where the candidacy was already determined when the collective shit hit the fan. (Pardon the pun.)
Another episode in the ongoing series of weird coincidences that permeate my life began when I was in the library recently, looking for research material on workers' rights. While I didn't find what I was looking for in the area of workers' rights, as I perused the early-300s I did come across a book called Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos, by journalist Robert D. Kaplan (2002). (If you know me, you know that that book was bound to go home with me.) It was a bit unsettling, given the current situation, to see sentence two of Chapter One - "The Nazi party began as a crusade for workers' rights organized by a Munich locksmith, Anton Drexler, in 1919, before Hitler took it over the following year." This sense of creepy coincidence developed further when I saw a published letter to the editor of a local news outlet this morning. The letter was a single line - "Ich bin ein pro-labor Wisconsinite." I have to wonder how many readers understood the significance of that letter. And I have to say, it probably would have gone right over my head had I not just been reading Kaplan's book.
As personal as the current situation in Our Fair State feels to me, and as much as it has pissed me into political activism, I also don't want our collective response to lose its sense of purity. Right now we are angry and in shock. Right now public employees are trying to figure out what to do if/when their take-home incomes are suddenly cut by $350 a month. Right now My City of 25,000 is poised to lose over 1000 years - years - of teaching experience as many public school teachers make the difficult decision to retire. (It shocked me too, but 30 teachers averaging 35 years each adds up.)
But it won't be long before the political interests involved find a face for the outraged masses to rally behind. And so we are forced to consider the first sentence of Kaplan's treatise - "The evils of the twentieth century arose from populist movements that were monstrously exploited in the name of utopian ideals, and had their power amplified by new technologies." Can there be a reasonable response to what has happened in Our Fair State and is happening in states across the country? Absolutely. Can it be an effective response without large-scale organization, financial resources, and leadership? I would love to believe that it's possible, but I have doubts...
One thing I have noticed in recent weeks is that people desperately want to be told who to vote for, and more generally, how to funnel their outrage. No one has time to do all the research themselves, they doubt their ability to 'get it right', and they are looking for a reliable source of information and direction. Here's just one example of a directive to the public that has gathered momentum, even though it may be only tangentially related to the average voter's actual source of ire. (I've also heard more than one person say that they'd like Russ Feingold to become the governor of Our Fair State.)
While emotions continue to run high, we the average voters also need to consider how to shape an effective political response to the actual issues, without getting lost in sentiment and rhetoric. We've seen what democracy looks like, but what will organized leadership look like? You turned out at the polls yesterday, far in excess of the 20% normally seen for this election. Don't lose your momentum; continue to demand the best from yourselves and any leaders you choose to follow!
Monday, April 4, 2011
We Are One
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
"On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME." (q)
(h/t)
"On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME." (q)
(h/t)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Free To Be... Limitless
"I don't have delusions of grandeur. I have an actual recipe for grandeur."
The question that never comes up in the movie Limitless? Is it okay to take NZT?
Limitless follows one man's experience with an illicitly-obtained drug called NZT. Though the term is never used in the film, NZT is described (via the portrayal of its effects) as a cognitive enhancer. The actual mechanism(s) of NZT are never explained, and its ability to enhance memory and processing capability are largely portrayed as wonderful. Withdrawal from the drug is a bitch, of course. And then there was that 18-hour memory gap, during which the protagonist may or may not have committed a murder... But you leave the movie with a generally-positive view of cognitive enhancers. No one in the movie ever wonders if it's fair to take NZT. (And they only briefly wonder if it's safe to take NZT.)
Cognitive enhancers - a.k.a. smart pills, neuroenhancers, or study drugs - are getting attention again. Recently the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism released a report that found, among other things, that "[o]verall use of Adderall is increasing on campuses, and the drug is regularly abused by those with or without a prescription." (q) It's not entirely clear what motivated the WCIJ study, though the findings focused on the illegality involved in obtaining the drug, and on the medical dangers of abusing the drug.
Others have raised the issue of fairness though, likening the use of cognitive enhancers to "the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport" saying that "[t]heir use could lead to problems of coercion, where there is pressure on individuals to take the drugs even if they do not wish to. Similarly, if such drugs were available to only a proportion of competitors, they could be seen as giving an unfair advantage, or to be a form of cheating." (q) (I said something similar awhile back.)
At least one university has now labeled the "misuse" of these types of drugs as 'cheating', raising the question of whether or not a ban on "brain boosting drugs" is a good idea. Lamkin attempts to deflect attention away from the drugs, and onto the method and purpose of higher education. "If our goal is to promote students' engagement in education, we should realign student incentives with the appreciation of education's internal benefits, so that students are not rewarded for taking shortcuts." That's great, in theory. However, even if universities and colleges are able to "realign" themselves so as to render the use of smart drugs undesirable, it simply pushes the problem of smart drugs into the arena of the workplace.
It's in the workplace where the protagonist (Eddie Morra) of Limitless meets with success as a result of his use of NZT. He finishes his book in 4 days, makes obscene amounts of money as a day trader, and catches the eye of a wealthy mogul who offers him the opportunity to use his talents in exchange for even more-obscene amounts of money. **SPOILER ALERT** By the end of the movie, Eddie has achieved a level of material success that cannot be taken away from him. His ability also allowed him to make the money that 'bought' him his continued freedom, via the efforts of a top defense attorney, after the missing 18 hours come back to haunt him. He even used his money to engineer a way to wean himself off the drug, avoiding insanity and death while retaining the cognitive enhancements permanently. In short, he won. (Sorry, Kyle. If anything, this movie is effectively an advertisement for cognitive enhancers.)
In arguing for societal acceptance of cognitive enhancement, two assumptions have been made. One, that such drugs will eventually be risk-free, and two, that they will eventually be available to everyone. (Neither assumption is true today.) But, to my mind, the bigger ethical issue is still the one that I addressed over a year ago... How do you argue for the cognitive liberty of the individual when the exercise of that liberty may result in a decrease in liberty for those who follow? This presupposes that cosmetic neurology would restrict rather than broaden the range of what we accept as 'normal'. (Think about a neurological version of The Stepford Wives...)
If there is an argument to be made against enhancement technology, it might very well be that redefining what is possible will also redefine what is acceptable, even tolerable. And consequently, individual liberty may be lost rather than gained.
The question that never comes up in the movie Limitless? Is it okay to take NZT?
Limitless follows one man's experience with an illicitly-obtained drug called NZT. Though the term is never used in the film, NZT is described (via the portrayal of its effects) as a cognitive enhancer. The actual mechanism(s) of NZT are never explained, and its ability to enhance memory and processing capability are largely portrayed as wonderful. Withdrawal from the drug is a bitch, of course. And then there was that 18-hour memory gap, during which the protagonist may or may not have committed a murder... But you leave the movie with a generally-positive view of cognitive enhancers. No one in the movie ever wonders if it's fair to take NZT. (And they only briefly wonder if it's safe to take NZT.)
Cognitive enhancers - a.k.a. smart pills, neuroenhancers, or study drugs - are getting attention again. Recently the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism released a report that found, among other things, that "[o]verall use of Adderall is increasing on campuses, and the drug is regularly abused by those with or without a prescription." (q) It's not entirely clear what motivated the WCIJ study, though the findings focused on the illegality involved in obtaining the drug, and on the medical dangers of abusing the drug.
Others have raised the issue of fairness though, likening the use of cognitive enhancers to "the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport" saying that "[t]heir use could lead to problems of coercion, where there is pressure on individuals to take the drugs even if they do not wish to. Similarly, if such drugs were available to only a proportion of competitors, they could be seen as giving an unfair advantage, or to be a form of cheating." (q) (I said something similar awhile back.)
At least one university has now labeled the "misuse" of these types of drugs as 'cheating', raising the question of whether or not a ban on "brain boosting drugs" is a good idea. Lamkin attempts to deflect attention away from the drugs, and onto the method and purpose of higher education. "If our goal is to promote students' engagement in education, we should realign student incentives with the appreciation of education's internal benefits, so that students are not rewarded for taking shortcuts." That's great, in theory. However, even if universities and colleges are able to "realign" themselves so as to render the use of smart drugs undesirable, it simply pushes the problem of smart drugs into the arena of the workplace.
It's in the workplace where the protagonist (Eddie Morra) of Limitless meets with success as a result of his use of NZT. He finishes his book in 4 days, makes obscene amounts of money as a day trader, and catches the eye of a wealthy mogul who offers him the opportunity to use his talents in exchange for even more-obscene amounts of money. **SPOILER ALERT** By the end of the movie, Eddie has achieved a level of material success that cannot be taken away from him. His ability also allowed him to make the money that 'bought' him his continued freedom, via the efforts of a top defense attorney, after the missing 18 hours come back to haunt him. He even used his money to engineer a way to wean himself off the drug, avoiding insanity and death while retaining the cognitive enhancements permanently. In short, he won. (Sorry, Kyle. If anything, this movie is effectively an advertisement for cognitive enhancers.)
In arguing for societal acceptance of cognitive enhancement, two assumptions have been made. One, that such drugs will eventually be risk-free, and two, that they will eventually be available to everyone. (Neither assumption is true today.) But, to my mind, the bigger ethical issue is still the one that I addressed over a year ago... How do you argue for the cognitive liberty of the individual when the exercise of that liberty may result in a decrease in liberty for those who follow? This presupposes that cosmetic neurology would restrict rather than broaden the range of what we accept as 'normal'. (Think about a neurological version of The Stepford Wives...)
If there is an argument to be made against enhancement technology, it might very well be that redefining what is possible will also redefine what is acceptable, even tolerable. And consequently, individual liberty may be lost rather than gained.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Free To Be... Smarter Than You
"To clothe the fiery thought
in simple words succeeds,
For still the craft of genius is
To mask a king in weeds."
In honor of Einstein's birthday, I've decided to devote some more blog space to the issue of neurodiversity.
True story: Two employees were internal applicants for the same position. Neither employee was given the position, but for different reasons. Employee 1 was told that she wasn't always 'nice enough' about being smarter than some of the other employees who had been with the company much longer than she had. Employee 2 was told that he wasn't being hired for the position because, despite working in the department for several years, he hadn't already been trained to do the things that the position required. The company was not willing to increase their investment in either candidate, and one might argue that the issue in play in both cases was an unwillingness to tolerate/foster an increased neurodiversity among coworkers. (Of course such a statement was never made openly, but it was agreed that she 'was too abrasive' and he 'was a little slow'.) The end result was that both employees were forced to do essentially the same job for which they had applied, but with significantly less compensation than new hires to the same position.
Now, one employee had a medical diagnosis that falls squarely under the purview of 'neurodiversity' and for which coworkers expressed a certain sympathy. The other had to endure rude taunts and comments. One was given full leeway of expression; the other was expected to stifle whatever made others uncomfortable. One employee was much less likely to object to receiving significantly less compensation, and so was tolerated; the other was simply 'encouraged' to leave.
Discrimination: "The process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently."
Discrimination: "unequal treatment of persons, for a reason which has nothing to do with legal rights or ability. Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination in employment, availability of housing, rates of pay, right to promotion, educational opportunity, civil rights, and use of facilities based on race, nationality, creed, color, age, sex, or sexual orientation." (q) (my emphasis)
So here's your thought question for the day... Were either of these employees discriminated against, and if so, in what way? Or, to rephrase the question, which actions toward/against the employees were acceptable, and why?
in simple words succeeds,
For still the craft of genius is
To mask a king in weeds."
In honor of Einstein's birthday, I've decided to devote some more blog space to the issue of neurodiversity.
True story: Two employees were internal applicants for the same position. Neither employee was given the position, but for different reasons. Employee 1 was told that she wasn't always 'nice enough' about being smarter than some of the other employees who had been with the company much longer than she had. Employee 2 was told that he wasn't being hired for the position because, despite working in the department for several years, he hadn't already been trained to do the things that the position required. The company was not willing to increase their investment in either candidate, and one might argue that the issue in play in both cases was an unwillingness to tolerate/foster an increased neurodiversity among coworkers. (Of course such a statement was never made openly, but it was agreed that she 'was too abrasive' and he 'was a little slow'.) The end result was that both employees were forced to do essentially the same job for which they had applied, but with significantly less compensation than new hires to the same position.
Now, one employee had a medical diagnosis that falls squarely under the purview of 'neurodiversity' and for which coworkers expressed a certain sympathy. The other had to endure rude taunts and comments. One was given full leeway of expression; the other was expected to stifle whatever made others uncomfortable. One employee was much less likely to object to receiving significantly less compensation, and so was tolerated; the other was simply 'encouraged' to leave.
Discrimination: "The process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently."
Discrimination: "unequal treatment of persons, for a reason which has nothing to do with legal rights or ability. Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination in employment, availability of housing, rates of pay, right to promotion, educational opportunity, civil rights, and use of facilities based on race, nationality, creed, color, age, sex, or sexual orientation." (q) (my emphasis)
So here's your thought question for the day... Were either of these employees discriminated against, and if so, in what way? Or, to rephrase the question, which actions toward/against the employees were acceptable, and why?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
It Can't Happen Here
"Without labor nothing prospers."
As most of the country (and quite a bit of the world) knows by now, there is currently a situation in Our Fair State. In an attempt to balance the state's budget (which everyone agrees is a good and necessary goal), the Republican governor and the Republican majority in the legislative houses have decided that it is necessary to ask public employees to contribute more to the cost of their healthcare and pension. Except that they quit asking and moved to attempting to pass legislation that simply strips public employees of their rights to collectively bargain for healthcare and pension benefits. (Wages are already prohibited from increasing above inflation without a public referendum.)
Faced with the prospect that the legislation would be railroaded through both houses with a minimum of debate, discussion, or public engagement, the 14 Democratic Senators fled the state - in theory, to keep the Senate from having the quorum necessary to pass the bill. In the past few weeks there have been massive demonstrations outside the capitol to preserve the ability to collectively bargain, and public employee union spokespeople have said that the unions will agree to the additional healthcare and pension costs that they are being asked to bear.
Oddly, this situation has mirrored aspects my own employment situation, which involved a struggle over employment status and the right (or lack thereof) to benefits (insurance and PTO). As is often the case with those not operating from a position of power, I lost. And not just benefits, but, as of yesterday, my job as well. This morning I learned that the Senate in Our Fair State managed to passed a bill (whose exact wording is a mystery at this point) that strips public employees of their collective bargaining rights. They claim to have managed this (legally) without the necessary quorum by 'removing fiscal effects' from the bill. (q)
While on the surface this situation may appear to be about balancing the state's budget, some of the lesser known provisions of the proposed bill have much broader ramifications. Including making union dues purely voluntary and prohibiting their collection by payroll deduction. (q) Labor unions make significant contributions to political candidates, and 93 cents of every dollar spent by labor unions in the last six election cycles in Our Fair State have gone to a Democrat. (q) And while no one wants to be forced to join a union anymore than they want to be forced to accept untenable employment terms, it's worth noting that the agenda behind this 'union busting' proposal may go far beyond a simple attempt to balance the state budget.
"...[T]here are two parties, the Corporate and those who don’t belong to any party at all, and so, to use a common phrase, are just out of luck!"
Reflecting back, I see a pattern of Labor fighting The Company that spans my entire life. It started with the job I had in high school, where the boss didn't want to pay me overtime, until I proved to him that I knew it was the law. I watched my father being forced to take early retirement after 27 years of service and then being hired back through a consulting firm for an additional 10 years. And I've watched the rapid growth of 'independent contractor', part-time and temporary positions being used as a way to scale back costs by not having to pay benefits.
It is a difficult job to organize people into an effective fighting force. Many years ago I worked at a company where the workers wanted to unionize to improve their working conditions. Rather than organize themselves, they tossed around the idea of joining an already-established union. While I was for organizing to improve working conditions, I was opposed to simply letting a big union in the door to tell us what to do. The fact that I attended a meeting where these issues were discussed was enough to cost me that job. And the gripes we had then seem simple when compared to some of the issues and situations I've encountered since then.
One of the best outcomes recently in Our Fair State is the return of former 'maverick' senator Russ Feingold to the political arena, with the launch of his grassroots campaign (Progressives United) to combat corporate influence in politics. But the daily battles of workers who may not know their rights, or who may be too afraid to act on those rights, continue. And if there is a cause ripe for humanists, it might very well be engaging the ideas and participating in the struggles that will define how labor will be treated in this country in the years to come...
As most of the country (and quite a bit of the world) knows by now, there is currently a situation in Our Fair State. In an attempt to balance the state's budget (which everyone agrees is a good and necessary goal), the Republican governor and the Republican majority in the legislative houses have decided that it is necessary to ask public employees to contribute more to the cost of their healthcare and pension. Except that they quit asking and moved to attempting to pass legislation that simply strips public employees of their rights to collectively bargain for healthcare and pension benefits. (Wages are already prohibited from increasing above inflation without a public referendum.)
Faced with the prospect that the legislation would be railroaded through both houses with a minimum of debate, discussion, or public engagement, the 14 Democratic Senators fled the state - in theory, to keep the Senate from having the quorum necessary to pass the bill. In the past few weeks there have been massive demonstrations outside the capitol to preserve the ability to collectively bargain, and public employee union spokespeople have said that the unions will agree to the additional healthcare and pension costs that they are being asked to bear.
Oddly, this situation has mirrored aspects my own employment situation, which involved a struggle over employment status and the right (or lack thereof) to benefits (insurance and PTO). As is often the case with those not operating from a position of power, I lost. And not just benefits, but, as of yesterday, my job as well. This morning I learned that the Senate in Our Fair State managed to passed a bill (whose exact wording is a mystery at this point) that strips public employees of their collective bargaining rights. They claim to have managed this (legally) without the necessary quorum by 'removing fiscal effects' from the bill. (q)
While on the surface this situation may appear to be about balancing the state's budget, some of the lesser known provisions of the proposed bill have much broader ramifications. Including making union dues purely voluntary and prohibiting their collection by payroll deduction. (q) Labor unions make significant contributions to political candidates, and 93 cents of every dollar spent by labor unions in the last six election cycles in Our Fair State have gone to a Democrat. (q) And while no one wants to be forced to join a union anymore than they want to be forced to accept untenable employment terms, it's worth noting that the agenda behind this 'union busting' proposal may go far beyond a simple attempt to balance the state budget.
"...[T]here are two parties, the Corporate and those who don’t belong to any party at all, and so, to use a common phrase, are just out of luck!"
Reflecting back, I see a pattern of Labor fighting The Company that spans my entire life. It started with the job I had in high school, where the boss didn't want to pay me overtime, until I proved to him that I knew it was the law. I watched my father being forced to take early retirement after 27 years of service and then being hired back through a consulting firm for an additional 10 years. And I've watched the rapid growth of 'independent contractor', part-time and temporary positions being used as a way to scale back costs by not having to pay benefits.
It is a difficult job to organize people into an effective fighting force. Many years ago I worked at a company where the workers wanted to unionize to improve their working conditions. Rather than organize themselves, they tossed around the idea of joining an already-established union. While I was for organizing to improve working conditions, I was opposed to simply letting a big union in the door to tell us what to do. The fact that I attended a meeting where these issues were discussed was enough to cost me that job. And the gripes we had then seem simple when compared to some of the issues and situations I've encountered since then.
One of the best outcomes recently in Our Fair State is the return of former 'maverick' senator Russ Feingold to the political arena, with the launch of his grassroots campaign (Progressives United) to combat corporate influence in politics. But the daily battles of workers who may not know their rights, or who may be too afraid to act on those rights, continue. And if there is a cause ripe for humanists, it might very well be engaging the ideas and participating in the struggles that will define how labor will be treated in this country in the years to come...
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