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gwern comments on When Willpower Attacks - Less Wrong
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If they actually developed a will-power drug, can you imagine how fast the legislatures would move to ban it? Within the first months you'd have dieters and athletes dying, college kids cramming for eighteen hours, and working class 'victims' who chose to slave away at their crummy jobs (which they're already doing with meth amphetamine addiction).
Still, it might wake people up to realize what a brain is exactly.
That'd make an interesting scenario, actually: if people had to live up to their stated ideals, how many would take the drug and do so (possibly destroying themselves), and how many would realize that their stated ideals were social fictions and come up with more honest ones?
It reminds me of Robin Hanson's little paper about social signals in the future, with computers revealing whether the person is being honest or not. The transition period might be rough, but humanity might be better off.