title: ". . . How narrow the strait!". The God machine and the spirit of liberty.
abstract: This article explores the consequences of interventions to secure moral enhancement that are at once compulsory and inescapable and of which the subject will be totally unaware. These are encapsulated in an arresting example used by Ingmar Perrson and Julian Savulescu concerning a "God machine" capable of achieving at least three of these four objectives. This article demonstrates that the first objective--namely, moral enhancement--is impossible to achieve by these means and that the remaining three are neither moral nor enhancements nor remotely desirable. Along the way the nature of morality properly so called is further explored.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D003709:Democracy; D004739:England; D005610:Freedom; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012941:Social Responsibility