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I suspect that the more we learn about self control, the more it will come to resemble what we know about intelligence. It's heritable environmentally, genetica

I suspect that the more we learn about self control, the more it will come to resemble what we know about intelligence. It's heritable environmentally, genetically, and it's a learned habit. It's not evenly distributed among the population. So with that said, we already use technology to enhance our intelligence -- reading and writing, for example, or more recently things like wikipedia and google maps. Why not use intelligence to enhance our self control as well, if it leads to more fulfilling lives?

Yetanfou 8y ago
Because it won't be self-control anymore if someone else - be it a sentient algorithm or a person - is at the controls. Mankind also used intelligence to create self-propelled carriages which most certainly enhance our mobility. That does not mean we need to give up on walking or cycling under our own power as that is proven to be disastrous for our well-being. I think - no, I am convinced - that the same goes for giving up control over (ab)use of technology to that same technology. It might work for that part of the population which lacks sufficient self control just like insulin pumps work for that part of the population which lacks functional thyroid glands.
- civilitty 8y ago
  We haven't given up on walking or cycling but what about horseback riding? A tiny fraction of the population even interact with horses on an annual basis, let alone use them for anything but entertainment. In this case, walking and cycling are like the basic functions of self discipline that almost everyone does like eating and going to the restroom. However, there are a significant number of people who need technological and human assistance with both of those things - whether it be because of age or genetics or poor life choices. All of those people are massively helped by technology. Just because most people can walk on their own doesn't mean that we should force paraplegic to do so.

Yetanfou 8y ago

Because it won't be self-control anymore if someone else - be it a sentient algorithm or a person - is at the controls. Mankind also used intelligence to create self-propelled carriages which most certainly enhance our mobility. That does not mean we need to give up on walking or cycling under our own power as that is proven to be disastrous for our well-being. I think - no, I am convinced - that the same goes for giving up control over (ab)use of technology to that same technology. It might work for that part of the population which lacks sufficient self control just like insulin pumps work for that part of the population which lacks functional thyroid glands.

civilitty 8y ago
We haven't given up on walking or cycling but what about horseback riding? A tiny fraction of the population even interact with horses on an annual basis, let alone use them for anything but entertainment. In this case, walking and cycling are like the basic functions of self discipline that almost everyone does like eating and going to the restroom. However, there are a significant number of people who need technological and human assistance with both of those things - whether it be because of age or genetics or poor life choices. All of those people are massively helped by technology. Just because most people can walk on their own doesn't mean that we should force paraplegic to do so.