Evolution heuristic

BibliographyFurther reading

Bostrom, Nick & Anders Sandberg (2009) The wisdom of nature: an evolutionary heuristic for human enhancement, in Julian Savulescu & Nick Bostrom (eds.) Human Enhancement, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 375–416.

1. ^{^}

   Bostrom, Nick & Anders Sandberg (2009) The wisdom of nature: an evolutionary heuristic for human enhancement, in Julian Savulescu & Nick Bostrom (eds.) Human Enhancement, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 375–416.

2. ^{^}

   Bostrom & Sandberg (2009)Sandberg, The wisdom of nature, p. 378.

3. ^{^}

   Bostrom & Sandberg (2009)Sandberg, The wisdom of nature, pp. 378-380.

The evolution heuristic (sometimes referred to as the wisdom of nature) is a method, proposed by Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009),^[1] for evaluating possible forms of human enhancement.

Human beings are evolved organisms, whose traits have been optimized by a long process of random mutation and natural selection. Attempts to enhance such systems undertaken without due consideration of how they originated are likely to backfire. This insight may be expressed as an evolutionary optimality challenge (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009: 378):^[2]

The evolution heuristic holds that a failure to provide an answer to that question creates a presumption against the proposed intervention. But the heuristic also identifies three types of considerations that could answer the question, and hence defeat the presumption (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009: 378-380):presumption:^[3]

Heuer, Kelly (2013) The “wisdom of nature” argument in contemporary bioethics, unpublished.

1. ^{^}

   Bostrom, Nick & Anders Sandberg (2009) The wisdom of nature: an evolutionary heuristic for human enhancement, in Julian Savulescu & Nick Bostrom (eds.) Human Enhancement, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 375–416.

2. ^{^}

   Heuer, Kelly (2013)Bostrom & Sandberg (2009) The “wisdomwisdom of nature” argument in contemporary bioethicsnature, unpublished.p. 378.

3. ^{^}

   Bostrom & Sandberg (2009) The wisdom of nature, pp. 378-380.

Heuer, Kelly (2013) The “wisdom of nature” argument in contemporary bioethics, unpublished.

The evolution heuristic (sometimes referred to as the wisdom of nature) is a heuristic for evaluating possible forms of cognitive enhancement. The heuristic wasmethod, proposed by Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg in a 2009 paper (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009), for evaluating possible forms of human enhancement.

Human beings are evolved organisms, whose traits have been optimized by a long process lasting millions of years.random mutation and natural selection. Attempts to enhance such systems undertaken with imperfect understandingwithout due consideration of their inner workingshow they originated are likely to backfire. This insight may be expressed as an evolutionary optimality challenge (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009: 378):

The evolution heuristic holds that a failure to provide an answer to that question creates a presumption against the proposed intervention. But the heuristic also identifies three types of considerations that could answer the question, and hence defeat the presumption (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009: 378–378-380):

1. Changed tradeoffs. The environment may have changed in significant ways relative to that which prevailed during most of our evolutionary history.
2. Value discordance. Evolution selects for inclusive genetic fitness, whereas interventions to improve the human condition are assessed according to some moral standard, such as the welfare of the individuals affected.
3. Evolutionary restrictions. Current technology enables various modifications to the human organism that natural selection could not attain with the resources at its disposal.

Human beings are evolved organisms, whose traits have been optimized by a process lasting millions of years. Attempts to enhance such systems undertaken with imperfect understanding of their inner workings are likely to backfire. This insight may be expressed as an evolutionary optimality challenge (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009: 378):

If the proposed intervention would result in an enhancement, why have we not already evolved to be that way?

The evolution heuristic holds that a failure to provide an answer to that question creates a presumption against the proposed intervention. But the heuristic also identifies three types of considerations that could answer the question, and hence defeat the presumption (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009: 378–380):

1. Changed tradeoffs
2. Value discordance
3. Evolutionary restrictions

Bibliography

Bostrom, Nick & Anders Sandberg (2009) The wisdom of nature: an evolutionary heuristic for human enhancement, in Julian Savulescu & Nick Bostrom (eds.) Human Enhancement, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 375–416.

The evolution heuristic (sometimes referred to as the wisdom of nature) is a heuristic for evaluating possible forms of cognitive enhancement. The heuristic was proposed by Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg in a 2009 paper (Bostrom & Sandberg 2009).