From: the bricoleur (blacksun@btinternet.com)
Date: Tue May 28 2002 - 13:04:47 MDT
This email is from personal communication - I have included it here for the
pleasure of all Virians.
Dear *
The latest Economist carries a real scare article warning people about the
dangers of neuroscience. Forget about genetics and cloning, it says, the
real threat to human nature comes from neuroscience which will once and for
all dispel our myths of the soul, will release criminals from the notion of
free will by showing biological forces beyond their control, and will
increase the degrees of freedom of consumers enabling them to enhance their
brains using chemistry and technology, creating a new technologically
enhanced class of human beings who will oppress everyone else. It was
disturbing for me to read how one of the world's leading informers of
business opinion, framed "understanding the brain" and "choosing to make
changes to the brain" so negatively. They of course do not appreciate that
we have been tinkering with our brains for millennia. The rationalism of the
17th century has wiped out our society's memories of the socially endorsed
use of hallucinogens to deliberately alter our states of consciousness. But
post-17th century attempts to frame the use of mind altering substances as
criminal, ill and mentally dysfunctional are beginning to erode. The tides
are turning. Europe is decriminalizing substances in spite of American
objections, and is already seeing the social and health benefits. America's
own Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is acting contrary to their Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) and is challenging what is increasingly being
understood as the DEA's propaganda in the disguise of science. The FDA has
given the go ahead for a study into the possible uses of Ecstasy in treating
post traumatic stress disorders. Popular legal mood-altering and
performance-enhancing drugs like Prozac, Ritalin, Viagra, "smart drugs" and
all their cousins have changed the way ordinary people view their own
conscious states. You can now make real consumer choices with regards to how
you feel. You can also attend expensive courses on creative thinking and how
to animate yourself in a meaningless universe through things like Neuro
Linguistic Planning - which incidentally was inspired by computer technology
metaphors. Preparing us for the dawn of the cyborg? It is unlikely that
brain augmentation will be censored when the pharmaceutical industry has so
much to gain, and consumers can claim what is increasingly being seen as
their democratic right to feel good and choose the treatment of their
choice. It is interesting that the Economist article framed intelligence
enhancing technologies as "cosmetic surgery" and implied that feeling even
better is not the same as recovering from an illness. Only in western
orthodox medicine is the work of doctors seen as treating illness. This is
another product of western reductionism, which began in the 17th century. In
most other cultural traditions the work of a "physician" is maintaining and
improving wellness. Illness is seen as the physician's failure, not an
opportunity to extort patients. The New Age has popularized many non-western
techniques for engineering brain states. The growing interest in Shamanism
and the use of hallucinogens has grown so rapidly over the last few years
that it has spawned a lucrative shamanic tourist industry in South America.
Many South American countries are now rediscovering and legalizing their
ancient heritage of hallucinogenic plant brews. Western science's own
chemistry and microbiology has spawned the science of Psychoneuroimmunology,
which maps the ways in which the mind can be manipulated to trick the body
into health. "Psychosomatic" is used less and less as a derogatory term and
is being studied as a valid and powerful phenomenon in the healing process.
On the basis of all this evidence I would like to think that brain implants
and more sophisticated brain enhancing chemistry will happen in spite of the
fears of conservatives. I would like to think that we are on a runaway
system of evolving our bodies epigenetically. I think their fears of a
technologically enhanced class of human beings who will oppress everyone
else is a little hypocritical since their audience is a small percentage of
the planet who is already oppressing everyone else. I think they fear
something else - the true empowerment of the individual. Consumerism has
unleashed a demon and that demon is: the right to shop. There is no stopping
us now. Or is there? The one thing we can be sure of is that if there is a
new technology for enhancing the brain it is unlikely that most people will
use it to become more intelligent. People are more likely to use it to
improve their sex lives and add novelty to escapist entertainment. I think
the number of people capable of initiating political revolution will always
be the same regardless of the tech. 80% of the information that flows
through Internet connections is porn, 10% is gossip, less than 10% is
advertising and the small percentage that is left over is research and other
information. Can we assume that these ratios represent the interests of
consumers no matter what the tech. In my experience of psychedelics this is
definitely true. I know very few people who actually generate useful
information while tripping. The article did scare me though.
Love
*
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