The Case Against Cognitive Enhancement: Responding to the Reversal Test

<p>In this thesis I argue against the use of genetic technologies to enhance human cognitive capacities. More specifically, I respond to Nick Bostrom and Toby Ord's "Reversal Test", which they use to argue in favour of genetic cognitive enhancement. The Reversal Test is a burden of proof challenge designed to diagnose status quo bias in arguments against enhancement. By noting that most of those who oppose raisingintelligence would also oppose lowering intelligence, the Reversal Test puts the onuson opponents of enhancement to explain why both increases and decreases in our cognitive capacity would be worse than the status quo (our current level of intelligence). Bostrom and Ord claim that if no good reasons can be provided, this indicates that the opposition to enhancement is influenced by status quo bias. Since cognitive biases cannot provide a moral reason against enhancement, opposition to genetic cognitive enhancement shown to be affected by status quo bias canaccordingly be discounted. The aim of my thesis, then, is to overcome the Reversal Test' s burden of proof challenge by showing that my reasons for opposing cognitive enhancement are notinfluenced by status quo bias. However, I do not argue that enhanced intelligence could not be beneficial to the individual. Instead, I claim that the probable unequal distribution of enhancements between the best- and worst-off would be likely to cause serious injustices to those who are unable to afford them.</p>

The Case Against Cognitive Enhancement: Responding to the Reversal Test

<p>In this thesis I argue against the use of genetic technologies to enhance human cognitive capacities. More specifically, I respond to Nick Bostrom and Toby Ord's "Reversal Test", which they use to argue in favour of genetic cognitive enhancement. The Reversal Test is a burden of proof challenge designed to diagnose status quo bias in arguments against enhancement. By noting that most of those who oppose raisingintelligence would also oppose lowering intelligence, the Reversal Test puts the onuson opponents of enhancement to explain why both increases and decreases in our cognitive capacity would be worse than the status quo (our current level of intelligence). Bostrom and Ord claim that if no good reasons can be provided, this indicates that the opposition to enhancement is influenced by status quo bias. Since cognitive biases cannot provide a moral reason against enhancement, opposition to genetic cognitive enhancement shown to be affected by status quo bias canaccordingly be discounted. The aim of my thesis, then, is to overcome the Reversal Test' s burden of proof challenge by showing that my reasons for opposing cognitive enhancement are notinfluenced by status quo bias. However, I do not argue that enhanced intelligence could not be beneficial to the individual. Instead, I claim that the probable unequal distribution of enhancements between the best- and worst-off would be likely to cause serious injustices to those who are unable to afford them.</p>

Palaeomagnetism of the uppermost carbonate units of the Purana basins in southern India: new demagnetization results from the Kaladgi and Bhima basins, Karnataka

Four unconformity-bound sequences can be identified in the Purana successions in southern India, of which the third sequence (Sequence III) has the widest distribution. Sequence III contains deep-water carbonate units with consistent sedimentological characteristics across the subcontinent. The current extent of field relationships and existing ages has not allowed the correlation and chronology of these carbonates to be established conclusively. Palaeomagnetism may help resolve this essential question for the Purana sedimentation. Here, we report new palaeomagnetic results (HIG+/– pole: 21.7° N, 81.1° E, radius of cone of 95% confidence A95 = 15.9°) from Sequence III carbonates in the Kaladgi (Badami Group) and Bhima (Bhima Group) basins. The HIG+/– magnetization, revealed after the removal of secondary magnetizations that include a present-day field and an Ediacaran–Cambrian overprint, is interpreted to be primary based on its dissimilarity to known younger magnetizations, the presence of distinctly different magnetic components in sites and a positive reversal test. Our HIG+/– pole differs from the c. 1.4 Ga pole and various c. 1.1 Ga and younger poles. Instead, it overlaps with the Harohalli dyke pole that was long considered to be c. 823 Ma in age, but has recently been suggested to be much older with an age of c. 1192 Ma. We therefore consider the uppermost carbonate beds of Badami and Bhima groups to have been deposited during late Mesoproterozoic times. A critical evaluation of parameters from which an earlier Neoproterozoic age for these carbonates was established indicates that the available 40Ar/39Ar, Rb–Sr and U–Pb ages in the Kaladgi and Bhima basins could reflect the timing of post-depositional alteration events.

Demonstrating and disrupting well-learned habits

Researchers have exerted tremendous efforts to empirically study how habits form and dominate at the expense of deliberation, yet we know very little about breaking these rigid habits to restore goal-directed control. In a three-experiment study, we first illustrate a novel approach of studying well-learned habits, in order to effectively demonstrate habit disruption. In Experiment 1, we use a Go/NoGo task with familiar color-response associations to demonstrate outcome-insensitivity when compared to novel, more flexible associations. Specifically, subjects perform more accurately when the required mapping is the familiar association of green–Go/red–NoGo than when it is red–Go/green–NoGo, confirming outcome-insensitive, habitual control. As a control condition, subjects show equivalent performance with unfamiliar color-response mappings (using the colors blue and purple mapped to Go and NoGo responses). Next, in Experiments 2 and 3, we test a motivation-based feedback manipulation in varying magnitudes (i.e., performance feedback with and without monetary incentives) to break the well-established habits elicited by our familiar stimuli. We find that although performance feedback prior to the contingency reversal test is insufficient to disrupt outcome-insensitivity in Experiment 2, a combination of performance feedback and monetary incentive is able to restore goal-directed control in Experiment 3, effectively breaking the habits. As the first successful demonstration of well-learned habit disruption in the laboratory, these findings provide new insights into how we execute and modify habits, while fostering new and translational research avenues that may be applicable to treating habit-based pathologies.

The reversal test, status quo bias, and opposition to human cognitive enhancement

Bostrom and Ord’s reversal test has been appealed to by many philosophers to substantiate the charge that preferences for status quo options are motivated by status quo bias. I argue that their characterization of the reversal test needs to be modified, and that their description of the burden of proof it imposes needs to be clarified. I then argue that there is a way to meet that burden of proof which Bostrom and Ord fail to recognize. I also argue that the range of circumstances in which the reversal test can be usefully applied is narrower than they recognize.

Magnetostratigraphy and Tectonic Rotation of the Eocene-Oligocene Makah and Hoko River Formations, Northwest Washington, USA

The Eocene-Oligocene Makah Formation and subjacent middle Eocene Hoko River Formation of the northwestern Olympic Peninsula, Washington, yield mollusks, crustaceans, foraminifera, and early neocete whales; their age has never been precisely established. We sampled several sections; most samples showed a stable single-component remanence held largely in magnetite and passed a Class I reversal test. The upper Refugian (late Eocene) and lower Zemorrian (early Oligocene) rocks at Baada Point correlate with Chron C13r (33.7–34.7 Ma) and Chron C12r (30–33 Ma). The Ozette Highway section of the Makah Formation spanned the early Refugian to late Refugian, with a sequence that correlates with Chrons C15r-C13r (33.7–35.3 Ma), and a long reversed early Zemorrian section that correlates with Chron C12r (30–33 Ma). The type section of the Hoko River Formation correlates with Chron C18r (40.0–41.2 Ma). The area sampled shows about45∘of post-Oligocene counterclockwise tectonic rotation, consistent with results obtained from the Eocene-Oligocene rocks in the region.