Special Note for Spring 2017: I will only grade for credit submissions that are actually in the prescribed structured outline format: title, intro, labled sections, TOPIC SENTENCES ONLY within the sections representing paragraphs (separated by spaces), conclusion, and summary.

Assignment

1. Prepare a Structured Outline on a proposed action regarding the creation of cyborg humans. You have many different actions that you can choose from, including the partial or complete prohibition of creating cyborg humans. You can chose an action that you believe in, or one that you don't believe in, and you can find either of these either ethical or not. We are after clear exposition of your ideas, and a strong ethical analysis.

   Chose one of the four ethical theories we have studied, or cultural relativism as the framework for your analysis. In this assignment you MUST STRESS THE ETHICAL ANALYSIS.

2. Follow the assigment rules and deadlines for what you bring to class, editing cycles, feedback forms, submission to D2L and etc.

3. Give a clear statement of the action that you propose.

4. You MUST consider, and discuss the actual technological concerns of your proposed action. No magic technology please!

5. As always, your structured outline should be suitable for inserting directly into a 3,000-5,000 word full paper without making changes to even a single punctuation mark. The only change would be to complete the paragraphs that follow your topic sentences.

Some background ideas:

Pros:

1. Convenience of access to knowledge in real time, similar to what we have with cell phones, but on steroids.
2. Enhanced cooperation with computers so that menial computational exercises like match calculations and database searches can be done instantly on our behalf.
3. Might allow a whole new form of employment through leasing out brain power.
4. American children can become more competitive in the future, or at least not fall behind those cyborg children of other nations.
5. Myriad commercial applications for, e.g., mind control of machinery.
6. May be linked to self-driving cars.
7. Myriad military applications for, e.g., control of weaponry and enhanced sensory capabilities.
8. New technology might have benefits and provide opportunities we have not yet dreamed of.
9. Allows for new forms of cooperative ventures.
10. Brings subtle and sporadic psi abilities of humans online and into the computing network, possibly allowing us to harness them in a useful way, including collaboratively.
11. Direct brain-computer interface may have medical diagnosis benefits
12. Might be able to hire your brain out for effective work during sleep or periods of relaxation.
13. Allow the early release of prisoners through control of aggression and violence tendencies, or reporting of such episodes.
14. Highly effective lie-detector capability means we can now rely on the truth being told.
15. Possible dating improvements through algorithms not yet known.
16. YOUR ideas!

Cons:

1. The specter of forced cyborging and brain slavery.
2. The specter of widespread abduction for brain resources.
3. The intentional use of subtle psi capabilities for bad purposes.
4. The inappropriate forced use of subtle psi capabilities for bad purposes.
5. Unknown long-term consequences for the individual.
6. Unnatural for children and might be done without their consent.
7. The specter of work that causes cognitive distress—indentured servitude.
8. Military extremes for soldiers now treated as machines.
9. Societies pushed to extremes of cyborging to be competitive in the future.
10. Innappropriate control of those that have cyborg implants.
11. Widens class distinctions with the wealthy getting access to high-quality cyborg inserts and materials for enhancement, and the poor only to those that allow them to have their brains used for commercial purposes.
12. YOUR ideas!