I haven’t thought too deeply about it, and it would be a convenient outcome which makes me skeptical, but it seems plausible to me that as technology improves (e.g. gene editing, brain emulation), humans would try to apply it to become more like Welfarians. At least personally, if there was some relatively safe way to change my neurochemistry to derive x% more pleasure from pleasurable experiences, all else equal, I’m confident I’d seriously consider the option.
I would assume the default case is that the tech would improve total hedonistic or preference satisfaction value for any given individual. Therefore my statement only holds in the cases where credence is given to these value types. Even if moral realism is true, and hedonism/PF were the only contributing values, I’d still guess some deliberate steering would be necessary to reach Welfarian status and not fall short and only be considered a… Hufarian maybe?
I haven’t thought too deeply about it, and it would be a convenient outcome which makes me skeptical, but it seems plausible to me that as technology improves (e.g. gene editing, brain emulation), humans would try to apply it to become more like Welfarians. At least personally, if there was some relatively safe way to change my neurochemistry to derive x% more pleasure from pleasurable experiences, all else equal, I’m confident I’d seriously consider the option.
I would assume the default case is that the tech would improve total hedonistic or preference satisfaction value for any given individual. Therefore my statement only holds in the cases where credence is given to these value types. Even if moral realism is true, and hedonism/PF were the only contributing values, I’d still guess some deliberate steering would be necessary to reach Welfarian status and not fall short and only be considered a… Hufarian maybe?