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Thought experiment: The transhuman pedophile

6 PhilGoetz 17 September 2013 10:38PM

There's a recent science fiction story that I can't recall the name of, in which the narrator is traveling somewhere via plane, and the security check includes a brain scan for deviance. The narrator is a pedophile. Everyone who sees the results of the scan is horrified--not that he's a pedophile, but that his particular brain abnormality is easily fixed, so that means he's chosen to remain a pedophile. He's closely monitored, so he'll never be able to act on those desires, but he keeps them anyway, because that's part of who he is.

What would you do in his place?

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SMBC: dystopian objective function

8 Jonathan_Graehl 24 June 2011 04:03AM

Cartoon: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2286 evokes the horror you should feel imagining your values being modified arbitrarily, although in the comic there's slippery-slope consent at each step.

This reminds me of a sci-fi novel where the participants are playing a game where points are awarded for "traditional" early 20th century behavior (the original records are lost, and some virus has infected the teleportation gates). Unfortunately I can't remember the author or name; it was pretty decent. Anyone recall it?