title: How does enhancing cognition affect human values? How does this translate into social responsibility?
abstract: The past decade has seen a rise in the use of different technologies aimed at enhancing cognition of normal healthy individuals. While values have been acknowledged to be an important aspect of cognitive enhancement practices, the discussion has predominantly focused on just a few values, such as safety, peer pressure, and authenticity. How are values, in a broader sense, affected by enhancing cognitive abilities? Is this dependent on the type of technology or intervention used to attain the enhancement, or does the cognitive domain targeted play a bigger role in how values are affected? Values are not only likely to be affected by cognitive enhancement practices; they also play a crucial role in defining the type of interventions that are likely to be undertaken. This paper explores the way values affect and are affected by enhancing cognitive abilities. Furthermore, it argues that knowledge of the interplay between values and cognitive enhancement makes a strong case for social responsibility around cognitive enhancement practices.
authors.affiliation: National Core for Neuroethics, The University of British Columbia, 2211 Wesbrook Mall, Koerner S124, Vancouver, BC, V6T2B5, Canada, cabreral@mail.ubc.ca.
authors.forename: Laura Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Cabrera
mesh_terms: D024803:Biomedical Enhancement / Q000941:ethics*; D003071:Cognition / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D012941:Social Responsibility; D012945:Social Values