Posted: Aug 14, 2017 9:33 am
zoon wrote:
We don’t yet know how brains work in anything like the kind of detail needed to fix them in the way that we fix cars. So saying that we ought to have the same emotional response to people as to cars is not necessarily the best way to go.
And blaming people and punishing them will alter their brains and can modify behaviour. It may be crude and indirect but it's socially and ethically acceptable to most people and it sort of works in many cases. Taking away the licence of the reckless driver of a car with faulty brakes, confiscating his car and threatening him with worse if he does it again will leave a mark on most people. If we had the knowledge and the means it might even be possible to find the mark in the brain. Maybe marking such a mark in the brain with surgery could be an alternative although it seems horrific to me. I wouldn't trust anyone to wield that sort of power.