Great article, it lays out the things that keep me awake at night thinking about. I think how we (or if we should) go about fixing/improving upon our intuition will become a fairly heated topic in the coming decades.
That's a fascinating idea. There are several members who are interested in transhumanism and what you are suggesting would certainly be that. The question that now reveals itself to me is: what if transhumanism becomes possible in a DIY format? What unforeseen issues could arise from tweaking or altering intuition? Sure, jumping to different conclusions seems likely, but when altering people's assumptions or ability to create assumptions, that opens up a host of interesting scenarios.
At this point I don't think anyone really knows. Once you make changes to a person's underlying nature how could you predict their behaviour? Another way of making the changes would be through genetic manipulation, or even mixing both genetic and technological aspects.
That's true. What an interesting idea to play with. I would assume that the most straightforward way of doing this would be a combination of genetic and technological changes, if the change were to happen quickly.Once you make changes to a person's underlying nature how could you predict their behaviour?
To me, this debate on changing intuition is already underway. Without going into too much detail, how we read our own feelings is by interpreting our physiological arousal in our current environment. For example, rapid heart beats and flushing of skin can be interpreted as anxiety (if you are struggling on a tough task), fear (if you turn around and there is a 6-foot grizzly bear about to maul you), or embarrassment (if you just tripped in front of the girl you like). We already change the physiological side of things through drugs (think ADHD or anxiety medication). This is obvious, but the trickier part is understanding how modern society is rapidly changing the interpretation part as well. The internet has begun this process and desensitized people, myself included, to scenarios which may seem frightening to earlier generations. With advancing technologies in virtual reality, this process can continue to shift the next generations heuristics and schemas. How much people should allow intuition and interpretation to be altered is certainly a topic worthy of discussion.
When I think of this, I think of all the people who live in distant, disconnected countries. The globalization and civilization of most of our planet has greatly altered our interpretation of life. I mean, as an example, I think people depend far less on spirituality. It is less something we turn to in order to explain life. The things we base our decisions are far different from what they even were a couple hundred years ago now.
The effect of drugs, upbringing and other already existing ways of altering us is a whole area I haven't really put much consideration into. Would I would love to see is how the different alterations stack up against each other, for how different a person's upbringing would need to have been to be equivalent to 1 or 2 glasses or alcohol, or the genetic variations needed to result in the same. Also, what limits are there on what can be done with changes in upbringing, drugs, the sort of technology we have now, and the genetic difference between two people.