Comments on: Manipulating morals: scientists target drugs that improve behaviour

By: Berber Anna

Berber Anna — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:22:37 +0000

Floribunda: That was the main plot of a LARP series I used to play in. Love personified had locked up all other emotions to protect mortals from pain and suffering. At the last event, we (the player characters) had the choice of accepting this, or setting them free again. We set them free because people can’t be whole without all the parts of them — they may be happy, but they won’t be real. I still kind of doubt our decision, though. Although my character was fairly sure of it, haha.

By: Floribunda

Floribunda — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 22:12:27 +0000

Interestingly, Anthony Burgess plays about with this moral question in ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Can someone who is forced to be good really be good? Discuss!

By: lorna

lorna — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:33:09 +0000

This is quite worrying and scary. I don’t want to take a pill that technically would change who I am as a person. Yh I’m an angry person. Eugh, sometimes things have just got to be left alone and why do they just keep taking like the smallest things or things people don’t think about wanting to change things. Leave it alone! Exploring and finding out how things work yh sure and curing things thats ok but silly pills to change peoples morals, blah!
End of rant, lol.

By: alan

alan — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:05:13 +0000

“a therapy to increase your empathy for people”
Do you think politicians would take it? With or without water?

“Drugs that affect our moral thinking and behaviour already exist”
Though they are usually dispensed in pints, as opposed to pills.

“a nasal spray”
Have they been secretly testing this on TV presenters? That could explain the recent spate of live lapses into gibberish, affecting media commentators.

By: MooseCracker

MooseCracker — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:06:03 +0000

That’s disturbing actually, I’ve heard rumors of that before. I can see the wars of the future, sure it’s all remote controlled but the gas released from the bombs make you happy to bow to the new emperor and turn your mother in to the authorities for being too emotional.

By: Jean-Pierre

Jean-Pierre — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:30:45 +0000

Nothing new here. Science has been hijacked by Government to control us (just like the media are). Please get in line for your RFID chip.

Get awake people.

By: HermesTM

HermesTM — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:30:33 +0000

The question boils down to- is it morally permissable to take substances for purposes of introspection? We can’t possibly agree that it would be desirable for this to become universal but there is an issue of cognitive freedom down here at an individual level.

By: Berber Anna

Berber Anna — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:08:06 +0000

Deac: That’s only true to some extent. People tell me that my autism is part of ‘who I am’ (not really sure it is, it’s certainly shaped me but I wouldn’t call it part of my personality). If oxytocin could make socialising easier for me and reduce my anxiety, I’d take it in a heartbeat (provided it was approved and had no horrid side effects).
Similarly, if someone is suffering from a disorder that makes them more aggressive, I’d say they’d be more than happy to get that fixed chemically.

I don’t see a problem with medically induced behavioural changes, provided it’s not mandatory (except perhaps in violent criminals, to give them another chance at life).

Babs: How do drug companies ruin health? Antibiotics saved my life last year, those are drugs. And you can still choose what to take.

By: Babs

Babs — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:35:57 +0000

This kind of stuff scares the shot out of me. Who’s going to monitor the production and distribution of these morality drugs? What’s to keep whoever is in charge from altering the minds of the masses for his own evil machinations? Drug companies are the insidious money-making, health-ruining scourge of the earth already! Let’s not give them our informed consent to chemically lobotomize us!

By: Deac

Deac — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:01:35 +0000

I think this is good for science but changing who people ‘are’ is a horrible idea… Who we are and what we say is what makes us fit into society one way or another….