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01-03-2019 | Critical Perspectives

The Looping Effects of Enhancement Technologies

Author: Carl Elliott

Published in: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry | Issue 1/2019

Abstract

Libertarians often portray the decision to use enhancement technologies purely as a matter of individual choice, affecting the person who uses them but no one else. Yet individual choices often add up to large social changes that profoundly affect the lives of other people, effectively pushing individual choices in a particular direction. It seems plausible that self-reinforcing loops such as those that have driven the adoption of technologies like cars and air-conditioners might also play a role in the adoption of enhancement technologies, effectively exerting pressure on people to use a technology that they might otherwise resist.

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Title: The Looping Effects of Enhancement Technologies
Author: Carl Elliott
Publication date: 01-03-2019
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Published in: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry / Issue 1/2019
Print ISSN: 1176-7529
Electronic ISSN: 1872-4353
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-018-9893-2

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