4 ms·

If it means those of us who compete daily with our brains have an opportunity for an advantage—or at least parity—I’m all for it. I don’t expect it will happen

by Mtinie 4y ago

If it means those of us who compete daily with our brains have an opportunity for an advantage—or at least parity—I’m all for it. I don’t expect it will happen within my lifetime but it would be nice for those who follow.

Jochim 4y ago
I'm interested in whether you feel the same way about drug use in competitive sports? My assumption from your position on cognitive enhancement is that you'd support a separate category where your allowed to dope as much as you'd like? Do we have any duty as a society to dis-incentivise people from pushing that too far?
- bee_rider 4y ago
  I do think there’s a fundamental difference between sport (where we explicitly want to create a level playing field for fun) and the economy (where we’re competing with each other, but also against the universe). We might find that there are some tasks where having people take on risky enhancements really helps “team humanity.” But certainly wouldn’t want “takes on risky enhancements” to become a trait required to get by. I’d look at it as like minimum wage or OSHA. You could provide yourself a competitive advantage by working for less than minimum wage, or by being willing to work in an unsafe environment. But as a society, we’ve decided that engaging in that race to the bottom is not something we want to do.
  - Jochim 4y ago
    > We might find that there are some tasks where having people take on risky enhancements really helps “team humanity.” But certainly wouldn’t want “takes on risky enhancements” to become a trait required to get by. You may already have heard of it but there's a movie called "Gattaca"[0] that questions a world where genetic enhancements have become effectively mandatory. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca
    - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
      Is that really the theme though? Last time I watched it, the theme was "Man with debilitating genetic defect (high risk of sudden heart failure) was denied a chance at piloting a billion-dollar spacecraft. So not an underdog; a selfish person wanting to risk public money and lives, for personal glory. I never saw the theme the movies is purported to present. I think Gattaca is conflated with other genetic-modification memes because it came out around the time those were current. If the director wanted the movie to be about a hero, they fumbled it.
puchatek 4y ago
In Homo Deus, Harari mentions research by DARPA (?) on a focus-enhancing helmet. This was reported some years ago already and the journalist who wrote the piece had experienced the effects first have in a sniping simulation. So to some degree the tech is already here.

by Mtinie 4y ago

Jochim 4y ago

I'm interested in whether you feel the same way about drug use in competitive sports? My assumption from your position on cognitive enhancement is that you'd support a separate category where your allowed to dope as much as you'd like? Do we have any duty as a society to dis-incentivise people from pushing that too far?

bee_rider 4y ago
I do think there’s a fundamental difference between sport (where we explicitly want to create a level playing field for fun) and the economy (where we’re competing with each other, but also against the universe). We might find that there are some tasks where having people take on risky enhancements really helps “team humanity.” But certainly wouldn’t want “takes on risky enhancements” to become a trait required to get by. I’d look at it as like minimum wage or OSHA. You could provide yourself a competitive advantage by working for less than minimum wage, or by being willing to work in an unsafe environment. But as a society, we’ve decided that engaging in that race to the bottom is not something we want to do.
- Jochim 4y ago
  > We might find that there are some tasks where having people take on risky enhancements really helps “team humanity.” But certainly wouldn’t want “takes on risky enhancements” to become a trait required to get by. You may already have heard of it but there's a movie called "Gattaca"[0] that questions a world where genetic enhancements have become effectively mandatory. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca
  - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
    Is that really the theme though? Last time I watched it, the theme was "Man with debilitating genetic defect (high risk of sudden heart failure) was denied a chance at piloting a billion-dollar spacecraft. So not an underdog; a selfish person wanting to risk public money and lives, for personal glory. I never saw the theme the movies is purported to present. I think Gattaca is conflated with other genetic-modification memes because it came out around the time those were current. If the director wanted the movie to be about a hero, they fumbled it.

puchatek 4y ago

In Homo Deus, Harari mentions research by DARPA (?) on a focus-enhancing helmet. This was reported some years ago already and the journalist who wrote the piece had experienced the effects first have in a sniping simulation. So to some degree the tech is already here.