Steroidi in libertà SAGGIO

Steroidi in libertà

Da genitore apprensivo quale sono preferirei che mio figlio assumesse anabolizzanti, steroidi e ormoni della crescita piuttosto che giocasse a rugby; gli steroidi e gli anabolizzanti sono più sicuri del rugby. O almeno, non conosco nessun caso di quadriplegia causata dagli steroidi.

Julian Savulescu

Tutti sembrano concordare che sia sbagliato per un atleta assumere steroidi, anche se non è ben chiaro il perché.

Gli steroidi migliorano la prestazione, non c’è dubbio, ma si noti che gli atleti utilizzano da sempre espedienti vari per migliorare la loro perfomance: diete, esercizi, allenamenti, sostanze lecite e altro ancora. Come mai questa inveterata tolleranza subisce poi un repentino stop quando si passa a steroidi, anabolizzanti e ormoni della crescita?

Una prima risposta è quella di chi sostiene che gli steroidi, essendo proibiti, assicurano all’atleta che ne fa uso un vantaggio ingiusto, che viola le norme di correttezza sportiva. Ma ciò non spiega perché altri modi di procurarsi un vantaggio non siano proibiti.

Un’altra risposta è quella di chi sostiene che noi temiamo per la salute dei giovani atleti, i quali, non pensano in modo adeguato al loro futuro, lo pregiudicano nel tentativo di vincere ora le gare che contano. Ma così come gli steroidi riducono la speranza di vita, anche guidare una macchina da corsa in pista a 200 km all’ora produce lo stesso identico effetto. Perché mai il nostro paternalismo dovrebbe essere così selettivo?

Per fortuna c’è una risposta ben più cogente delle precedenti: probabilmente ciò che a noi interessa quando assistiamo ad uno spettacolo sportivo è la prestazione “relativa” degli atleti, non quella “assoluta”. Questo fatto ha importanti conseguenze.

Noi desideriamo che la nostra squadra di calcio giochi un po’ meglio di quella avversaria e vinca così la partita. Ci interessa poco il livello assoluto del gioco prodotto poiché se siamo interessati alla vittoria,  siamo cioè interessati solo ed unicamente al livello relativo della nostra peformance.

In un caso del genere, se ci pensate bene, consentire l’uso di steroidi sarebbe un errore: se tutte le squadre avessero accesso agli steroidi, tutti giocherebbero un po’ meglio e il risultato finale non cambierebbe. In altri termini, la condizione dei tifosi non migliorerebbe affatto anche se gli atleti morirebbero tutti un po’ più giovani.

Pensiamo alle prestazioni scolastiche, il Ritalin è una medicina che migliora la nostra concentrazione e quindi la nostra performance scolastica. Ma se tutti lo assumessero il mio miglioramento relativo sarebbe pari a zero mentre le conseguenze negative della sua assunzione rimarrebbero inalterate.

Sì noti che quel che accade nello sport non vale nella vita. Se un avvocato si droga per produrre uno sforzo maggiore nel seguire una causa particolarmente impegnativa, c’è sempre qualcuno che godrà di questo suo sacrificio: i suoi clienti. Senza droga lo sforzo prodotto sarebbe stato inferiore. I clienti dell’avvocato cocainomane non sono come i tifosi, a loro non interessa la performance relativa del loro avvocato bensì quella assoluta.

Per liberalizzare gli steroidi occorrerebbe che gli atleti assomigliassero un po’ di più agli avvocati e i tifosi ai clienti.

Concludiamo allora dicendo che una liberalizzazione degli steroidi e degli anabolizzanti richiede un cambio di cultura sportiva. Quando il pubblico sarà più interessato al gesto sportivo fine a se stesso, al bel gioco, all’eleganza atletica, all’inventiva, alla creatività, al fascino della potenza, al lato estetico della gara, allora avrà senso liberalizzare le droghe. Finché invece il pubblico rimarrà “tifoso”, finché l’unica cosa a contare sarà la vittoria, allora il proibizionismo rimarrà una politica sensata.

La società trasparente FIVE HL

Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World

David D. Friedman FIVE

trend began in Britain a decade ago, in the city of King's Lynn, where sixty remote controlled video cameras were installed to scan known "trouble spots," reporting directly to police headquarters. The resulting reduction in street crime exceeded all predictions;
Note:x SUCCESSO INATTESO

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savings in patrol… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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David Brin, The Transparent… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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In the early nineteenth century, Jeremy Bentham, one of the oddest and most original of English thinkers, designed a prison where every prisoner could be watched… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x PANOPTICON

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In the United States, cameras have long been used in department stores to discourage shoplifting. More recently they have begun to be used to… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x USI TRAD DELLE TELECAMERE

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Consider the problem of controlling auto… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x USI POSSIBILI. EMISSIONI

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One could build a much better system using modern technology. Set up unmanned detectors that measure emissions by shining a beam of light through the exhaust plume of a passing automobile; identify… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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Another application of large-scale surveillance already being experimented with takes advantage of the fact that cell phones… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x ALTRO ES CELL. TRAFFICO INCIDENTI PERCORSI

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By monitoring the signals from drivers' phones, it is possible to observe traffic flows. That is very useful information if you want to advise drivers to route around a traffic jam, or locate an accident by the resulting cluster of phones. Currently it is anonymous information, locating a… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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c

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Few would consider it objectionable to have a police officer wandering around a park or standing on a street corner, keeping an eye out for purse snatchers and the like. Video… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x ALL APPARENZA NESSUN PROBLEMA

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What's the… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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A cop on the street corner may see you, he may even remember you, but he has no way of combining everything he sees with everything that every other cop… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x LA TUA VITA CONOSCIUTA

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large fractions of your doings are an open book to anyone with access to the… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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legal… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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A related issue is the use of surveillance technology, legally or illegally,… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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Lots of people own video cameras and those cameras are getting… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x PRIVATI

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The owner of a few dozen of them could collect a lot of information… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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Of course technological development, in this area as in others, is likely to improve… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x TECNO DI DIFESA

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We have already had court cases over whether it is or is not a search to deduce marijuana growing inside a house by using an infrared detector to… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x ES MARIU

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We already have technologies that make it possible to listen to a conversation by bouncing a… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x ES CONVERSAZIONE

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Assume, for the moment, that the offense wins out over the defense - that preventing other people from spying on you becomes impractical. What options remain?Brin argues… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x TESI DI BRIN: LA PRIVACY È DESTINATA A SPARIRE

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He proposes as an alternative to privacy universal lack of privacy: the transparent society. The police can watch you - but someone is watching them. The entire system of video cameras, including… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x UNICA DIFESA: TOTALIZZARE LA PERDITA

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Parents can keep an eye on their children, children on their parents, spouses on each other, employers on employees and vice versa,… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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The Upside of… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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Qui custodes ipsos custodiet? "Who shall guard… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x UN PROB CHE LA TS PUÓ RISOLVERE

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The transparent society offers a possible solution. Consider the Rodney King case. A group of policemen… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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x CASO R.K

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Unfortunately for the police, a witness got the beating on videotape, with the result that several of the officers ended up in prison.
Note:c

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In Brin's world, every law enforcement agent knows that he is on candid camera
Note:c

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But there are… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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Selective… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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Brin's version does not seem likely. All of the information will be flowing through machinery controlled… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x QUALCUNO RESTA IN POSIZIONE DI CTRL

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If police are setting up cameras in police stations, they can arrange for a few areas to be… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x ES POLIZIA

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The situation gets more interesting in a world where technological progress enables private surveillance on a wide scale, so that every location where interesting things might happen, including every police station, has flies on the… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x TECNOLOGIA PIENAMENTE INVASIVA

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information is valuable to others, it can be shared. Governments might try to restrict such sharing. But in a world of strong privacy that will be hard to do, since in such a world information… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x COMMERCIO DEI DATI E CRIPTAGGIO

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one can imagine a futurewhere Brin's transparent society is produced not by government but… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x SORVEGLIANZA PDIVATA

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The information will be produced privately only if the producer can both use it himself and sell it to others. So a key requirement for a privately generated transparent society… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x PRE REQUISITO. MERCATO DELL INFO

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The Downside of… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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the transparent… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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One might instead view it as a step into the past. The privacy that most of us take for granted is to a considerable degree a novelty, a product of rising incomes in recent centuries. In a world where many people shared a single residence, where a… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x ZERO PRIVACY. RITORNO AL PASSATO

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consider a primitive society such as Samoa. Multiple families share a single… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x SAMOA

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the community is small enough to… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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Infants are trained early on not to make noise. Adults rarely… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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to communicate in code, to use words or expressions that your intimates will correctly interpret and others will not. For a milder version of the same approach, consider parents who talk to each other in a foreign… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x CODICI

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In Brin's future transparent society, many of us will become less willing to express our opinions of our boss, employees, ex-wife, or present husband in any public place. People will become less expressive… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x IPOCRISIA

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WHAT IS PRIVACY AND WHY DO WE… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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Think of "privacy" as shorthand for an individual's ability to control other people's access… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x DEF PRIVACY. CODICE

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I have almost complete privacy with regard to my… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x INTROSPEZ

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If someone invented an easy and accurate way of reading minds, privacy would be radically reduced even if there were no change in my legal rights.'
Note:x SCANNER. DIRITTI E FATTI

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The Case Against Privacy
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On net, is an increase in privacy… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x DOMANDA

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The reason I value my privacy is straightforward: Information about me in the hands of other people sometimes permits them to gain at my expense. They may do so by stealing my property - if… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x VANTAGGI PRIVACY: GLI ALTRI NON GUADAGNANO A MIE SPESE

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Information about me in other people's hands may also benefit me - for example, the information that I am honest and competent. But privacy does not prevent that… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x VANTAGGI CHE MI ARRECA IL FACILE ACCESSO ALLE MIE INFO

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my privacy protects me from burglary - in which privacy produced a net benefit, since the gain to a burglar is normally… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:CASO IN CUI LA PRIVACY CONVIENE SOCIALMENTE

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One of the risks of bargaining is bargaining breakdown when a seller overestimates the price a buyer is willing to pay or a buyer makes the corresponding mistake the other way and the deal falls through, making both parties worse off than if they had each more accurately… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:LA PRIVACY RENDE PIÙ DIFFICILE CHIUDERE I CONTRATTI

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In situations involving involuntary transactions, privacy produces a net gain if it is being used to protect other rights (assuming that those rights have been defined in a way that makes their protection desirable) and a net loss if it is… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note: BENEFICI NEI CASI DI COERCIZIONE E COSTI NEGLI SCAMBI

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Privacy and… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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Governments engage in involuntary transactions on an… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x GOVERNO E COERCIZIONE

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While I can protect myself from my fellow citizens with locks and burglar alarms, I can protect myself from government actors only by keeping… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x PROTEGGERSI DAL GOV CON LA PRIVACY

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If government is the modern equivalent of Plato's philosopher-king, individual privacy simply makes it… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:LA PRIVACY È UN MALE SE IL GOVERNO È BUONO

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Most Americans appear, judging by expressed views on privacy, to be close enough… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x CHI AMA LA PRIVACY GIUDICA IMPLICIT IL GOV

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tax… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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technology could enable a tyranny that Hitler or Stalin might envy. Even if we accept Brin's optimistic assumption that the citizens are as well informed about the police as the police are about… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x CON HITLER LA SOLUZIONE BRIN NN REGGE

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It does not follow that Brin's prescription is wrong. His argument, after all, is that privacy will simply not be an option, either because the visible benefits of surveillance are so large or because the technology will make it impossible to prevent it. If he is right… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:MA IN BRIN LA PRIVACY NON È UN'OPZIONE

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SAY IT AIN'T… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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My wife is suing me for divorce on grounds of adultery. In support of her claim, she presents videotapes, taken by hidden cameras, that show me making love to… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:I VIDEO COME PROVA IN TRIBUNALE

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With modern technology I do not, or at least soon will not, need your cooperation to make a film of you doing things; a reasonable… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:FABBRICARE VIDEI FALSI... E PROVE FALSE

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There are possible technological fixes - ways of using encryption technology to build a camera that digitally signs its output, demonstrating that that sequence was… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x SOLUZIONE TECNOLOGOCA PER AUTENTICARE

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SHOULD WE ABOLISH THE… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t DEPENALIZZAZIONE TOTALE

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criminal law and… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

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In the criminal system prosecution is controlled and… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x RUOLO DELLO STATO NELLA GIUSTIZIA

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Criminal law provides a somewhat different range… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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is there any good reason to have both? Would we, for example, be better off… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x IL DUBBIO

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One argument against such a pure tort system is that some offenses… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:ARGOMENTO PER LA LEGGE CRIMINALE

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In Brin's world that problem vanishes. Every mugging is on tape.
Note:x LA SOC TRASP CAMBIA TUTTO

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The normal crime becomes very much like the normal tort - an auto accident, say, where (except in the case of hit and run, which is a crime) the identity of the party and many of the relevant facts are public information.
Note:c

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If someone steals your car you check the video record to identify the thief,… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:c

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Even as late as the eighteenth century, while the English legal system distinguished between torts and crimes, both were in practice… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:UN PO' DI STORIA: GB 700

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WHERE WORLDS… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:t

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It does no good to use strong encryption for my email if a video mosquito is sitting on… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x COMBINAZIONE ENCRIPT E TS

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privacy in a transparent society requires some way of guarding the interface between my… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:CORPI REALI E CORPI VIRTUALI

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A low-tech solution is to type under a hood. A high-tech solution is some link between mind and machine that… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:x SOLUZIONI A BASSA E ALTA TECH

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If we are sufficiently worried about other people hearing what we say, one solution is to encrypt… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:CRIPTARE ANCHE LE CONVERSAZIONI REALI

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We could end up in a world where physical actions are entirely public, information… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:CORPI FISICI INTERAMENTE PUBBLICI CORPI VIRTUALI TRASPARENTI

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Private citizens will still be able to take advantage of strong privacy to locate a hit man, but hiring him may cost more than they are willing to pay, since in a… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
x CASO DEL KILLER

Contante nemico della burocrazia - 6 ecash HL

ecash Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World

David D. Friedman

One is that a seller does not have to know anything about me in order to accept cash. That makes money a better medium…
Note:VANTAGGI DEL CONTANTE. FIDUCIA

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better medium for small transactions, since using cash avoids… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:EVITA COMMISSIONI

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money leaves no paper trail, which is useful not only for criminals but for anyone who… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:PROTEGGE LA PRIVACY

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The advantage of money is greater in cyberspace, since… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:NELLO CYBERSPAZIO

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The disadvantage is less, since my ecash would be stored… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:NIENTE CASSEFORTI

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Despite its potential usefulness, there is as yet no equivalent of… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:XCHÈ MANCA L ECASH?

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The reason is in part the hostility of governments to competition in the money business, and in part the… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:RILUTTANZA DEI GOVERNI

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giving at least one example of why it would be useful - for something more important than allowing men to look at pornography online without… Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Note:OLTRE IL PORNO

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SLICING SPAM
Note:IL PROBLEMA DELLE SPAM

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There is a simple solution to this problem - so simple that I am surprised it is not yet in common use. The solution is to put a price on your mailbox.
Note:MAIL A PAGAMENTO

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Give your email program a list of the people you wish to receive mail from. Mail from anyone not on the list is returned with a note explaining that you charge five cents to read mail from strangers - and the URL of the stamp machine. Five cents is a trivial cost to anyone with something to say
Note:SOLUZIONE 5 CENT

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The stamp machine is located on a web page. The stamps are digital cash. Pay $10 from your credit card and you get in exchange 200 five-cent stamps - each a morsel of encrypted information that you can transfer to someone else who can in turn transfer it.
Note:FRANCOBOLLO

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If lots of strangers choose to send me messages, I can accumulate a surplus
Note:SOLUZIONE MAIL

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What is in it for the stamp machine - why would someone maintain such a system? Part of the answer is seigniorage
Note:SIGNORAGGIO

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If your stamps are popular, many of them may stay in circulation for a long time - leaving the money that bought them in your bank account accumulating interest.
Note:INTERESSI DEL SIGNORAGGIO

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Note:PUBBLICITÀ

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Note:QUANDO L ECASH

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Note:PRIVACY

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Note:CONTRAFFAZIONE

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Note:FIRMA DIGITALE

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Note:CHIAVE PRIVATA

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Note:QUANDO LA BANCA PAGA

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Note:COPIARE LA MONETA

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Note:NUMERO IDENTIFICATIVO

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Note:NIENTE PRIVACY CON L ID

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Note:FIRMA CIECA

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Chimica dell'anima SAGGIO

Mind drugs - Future Imperfect by David Friedman

***

UNA VITA MIGLIORE GRAZIE ALLA CHIMICA

At least since the discovery of alcohol, humans have used drugs to affect the mind.

Note: L' UOMO SI DROGA DA SEMPRE. È UNA TRADIZIONE VENERANDA Edit

In many ways this will be a good thing; already drugs provide substantial benefits to some sufferers from mental disorders.

Note: L"ASPETTO POSITIVO: MENO SOFFERENZA. MICA PAGLIA.

***

COSA DESIDERA? PIACERE O FELICITÀ ? QUI SI VENDE DI TUTTO.

In most contexts we consider happiness and pleasure good things. Jeremy Bentham, one of the most influential philosophers of the nineteenth century, offered a simple standard for judging everything - its effect on utility, happiness, the excess of pleasure over pain in human life.

Note: DI SOLITO IL PIACERE È BUONA COSA. PERCHÈ CONDANNARLO? EPPURE LO SI FA CONTINUAMENTE  Edit

Supporters of laws against recreational drugs base their support on a variety of factual claims, some true, some false. It is not true that smoking marijuana makes people go crazy and commit violent crimes, as claimed in "Reefer Madness," a movie that played an important role in inspiring the original anti-marijuana legislation. It is true that people on LSD are frequently incapable of performing ordinary tasks such as driving a car safely or conducting a coherent conversation.

Note: ARGOMENTI CONTRO LA DROGA. A VOLTE FONDATI ALTRE VOLTE  MENO Edit

Whether or not the negative claims are true of some or all current recreational drugs, they are unlikely to be true of all future recreational drugs. The more we know about how the human mind functions, the better we will become at creating drugs that give pleasure without serious negative side effects. Unless, of course, it is pleasure itself that is the problem.

Note: LA DROGA DEL FUTURO PROBABILMENTE ELUDERÀ QUESTE CRITICHE E POTREMO VENIRE AL PUNTO. LA DROGA DEL FUTURO ANNULLERÀ GLI EFFETTI COLLATERALI NEGATIVI.  BASTA PROBLEMI.... A MENO CHE IL PROBLEMA NON SIA IL PIACERE IN SÈ Edit

If we can create a chemical that gives us pleasure, and if pleasure is a good thing, why don't we come already equipped for pleasure on demand?

Note: UNA COSA CHE DÀ DA PENSARE: PERCHÈ L' EVOLUZIONE NON CI HA DOTATO DI UN PIACERE SENZA DANNI COLLATERALI? Edit

The obvious answer is that we are designed by evolution not for happiness but for reproductive success.

Note: UNA RISPOSTA OVVIA Edit

If pleasure drugs are too good, they might interfere not merely with reproductive success but with physical survival.

Note: IL PIACERE PUÒ INTERFERIRE Edit

one more minute of intense pleasure is worth more to them than food or drink. If we accept this argument, the implication is not that pleasure drugs are bad but only that they should be used in moderation.

Note: ESEMPIO Edit

Food, after all, is consumed largely to give us sensual pleasure. A minimum-cost, full-nutrition diet, based on flour, peanut butter, cabbage, and other high nutrition/low cost ingredients, comes to less than two dollars a day. j The rest of what we spend is for pleasure.

Note: FACCIAMO UN CASO DIVERSO DALLA DROGA: CIBO E PIACERE Edit

The current real-world problem of trading short-term pleasure for more important long-term goals is, arguably, not the starvation ofNiven's wirehead but its opposite: obesity.

Note: NELLA NOSTRA EPOCA IL PIACERE INTERFERISCE ATTRAVERSO L'OBESITÀ PIÙ CHE ATTRAVERSO LA MALNUTRIZIONE. DROGHE ALTERNATIVE AL CIBO FAREBBERO BENE A MOLTI OBESI CHE SI DISTRARREBBERO DA UN PIACERE PER LORO NOCIVO CON UN ALTRO PIACERE Edit

A more general argument against pleasure drugs is that simple pleasure is not all that matters, as suggested not merely by philosophers but by observed behavior. Few couples have sex as frequently as would be physically possible; few single individuals masturbate as often as would be physically possible. If we imagine someone spending most of his life in a drug-induced haze, we may suspect that, however intense his pleasure, he is not really happy. This suggests the least interesting response to the possibility of pleasure drugs - that they don't work,

Note: ALTRO ARGOMENTO CONTRO IL PIACERE: PER NOI NON CONTA SOLO IL PIACERE. LA CONTROPROVA È PRESTO FATTA Edit

***

SE IL PIACERE NON TI CONVINCE, CHE NE DICI DELLA FELICITÀ?

Since we are not limited to current technology, replace pleasure with happiness, the state of mind to which we think of pleasure as one input.

Note: RIMPIAZZATE IL PIACERE CON LA FELICITÀ QUANDO PENSATE ALLA DROGA DEL FUTURO Edit

Studies of happiness suggest that happy people stay happy even when circumstances change, at least once they have had time to adjust to the changes.

Note: LA FELICITÀ È SPESSO QUESTIONE DI CARATTERE. MA UN CARATTERE, DOMANI, POTRÀ ESSERE COSTRUITO IN LABORATORIO. COSA LO VIETA? Edit

So consider, not a pleasure drug, but a happiness drug,

Note: LA DROGA PERFETTA. OBIEZIONI? Edit

If you could, would you? Should you? One possible answer is that such happiness is unnatural. Again the argument is that we have been designed by evolution, and evolution is much better at neurochemistry than we are. If brain chemistry that made us happy was a good thing, we would all already have it.' The argument already offered for pleasure can be recycled for happiness.

Note: IL CONCETTO DI INNATURALE. QUANTO DETTO PER IL PIACERE IN FONDO VALE ANCHE PER LA FELICITÀ: SE LA COSA FA PER NOI PERCHÈ L'EVOLUZIONE NON CI HA PROCURATO NIENTE DELMGENERE?

While evolution may indeed be a very good biochemist, its objectives are not the same as ours. From the viewpoint of evolution, we are simply machinery by which genes make other genes. The design objective is reproductive success, the ability to increase the frequency of our genes in future generations. That is not my design objective for me;

Note: POSSIAMO DISSOCIARCI DALL'EVOLUZIONE NATURALE? Edit

Not only does evolution have the wrong objective, its designs are also out of date. Humans have long generations and so evolve slowly. Such evidence as we have suggests that we are adapted not to current circumstances but to the hunter-gatherer societies in which our species spent most of its existence.

Note: D'ALTRONDE, L'EVOLUZIONE FA PARECCHI ERRORI, QUESTO È ACCLARATO. BASTEREBBE UNA SCORSA AI BIAS COGNITIVI CHE CI AFFLIGGONO.

A second and more interesting objection is that utilitarianism is wrong, that happiness is not all that matters.

Note: ALTRA OBIEZIONE: NON CONTA SOLO LA FELICITÀ Edit

consider two alternative lives I might live. One is the life I have lived. It has been, on the whole, a happy one.... The other is the life I might have lived if provided with suitable drugs, sufficient to make me at every moment of that life at least as happy as in the life I led. It is true that in that life I would not have had the pleasures of children, books, and other accomplishments. But I would have been compensated for that lack by an artificial increase in whatever brain chemicals connect the cause of accomplishment to the effect of happiness. Which life is more worth living?

Note: ESPERIMENTO MENTALE DELLA DOPPIA VITA  Edit

Note: IL DILEMMA È REALE. DIFFICILE MINIMIZZARE.

happiness drugs do not prevent their beneficiaries from living active and productive lives.

Note: DROGA E VITA ATTIVA NON SONO POI COSÌ INCOMPATIBILI. LA SCELTA NON È OBBLIGATA, FORSE DOBBIAMO SMETTERE DI PENSARE IN QUESTI TERMINI Edit

***

DROGA E PRESTAZIONI

“I would prefer my child take anabolic steroids and growth hormone than play rugby. Growth hormone is safer than rugby. At least I don't know of any cases of quadriplegia caused by growth hormone”.

Note: SAVULESCU, IL DOPING E IL RUGBY Edit

Everyone seems to agree that it is a bad thing for athletes to use steroids, but it is not entirely bad a diet... Athletes have, after all, been using diet and exercise to improve their performance for thousands of years, as well as a variety of older drugs. Why does the process suddenly become sinful when they switch to steroids?

Note: PERCHÈ PER UN ATLETA È MALE PRENDERE UNO STEROIDE ED È BENE FARE DIETE O ALLENARSI? Edit

One answer is that since steroid use is currently prohibited, those who use steroids are getting an unfair advantage. But that does not explain why they are currently prohibited when other ways of getting an advantage are not.

Note: RISPOSTA ELUSIVA: LO STEROIDE È VIETATO E ASSUMERLO È SCORRETTO. MA CIÒ NON RISPONDE ALLA DOMANDA Edit

A second answer is that we are afraid young athletes, with inadequate concern for their own future, will do themselves serious damage in the process of trying to win. But while taking steroids may reduce life expectancy

Note: SECONDA RISPOSTA: FA MALE ALLA SALUTE Edit

so does driving a car around a racetrack at something over 200 miles an hour,

Note: E I PILOTI DI F1? IN QUESTO CASO IL SEMPLICE GAREGGIARE FA ANCORA PIÙ MALE ALLA SALUTE Edit

Why is our paternalism so selective?'

Note: UN CASO DI PATERNALISMO SELETTIVO? Edit

VENIAMO ALLORA ALLA RISPOSTA PIÙ INTERESSANTE

The most interesting answer… Arguably, most of what we care about is the relative, not absolute, ability of the athletes.

Note: PREMESSA: SIAMO INTERESSATI ALL' ABILITÀ RELATIVA DI UNO SPORTIVO, NON A QUELLA ASSOLUTA. VOGLIAMO INNANZITUTTO CHE LA NOSTRA SQUADRA VINCA, NON CHE GIOCHI BENE. Edit

We want our favorite baseball team to play a little better than its opponents but care little about the absolute level

Note: ESEMPIO Edit

competition via steroid use is a mistake.... Both teams, boxers, or runners get a little better, their relative ability is unaffected, the fans are no happier and the athletes die a little younger.

Note: GLI STEROIDI DIVENTANO ALLORA UNO SPRECO: NESSUN VANTAGGIO. DI LORO CI PRENDIAMO SOLO IL NEGATIVO.  È PARADOSSALE MA SE IL PUBBLICO FOSSE RALMENTE SPORTIVO E NON TIFOSO, I MOTIVI PER LIMITARE IL DOPING SI INDEBOLIREBBERO

Ritalin, for example, is usually thought of as medication for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). It turns out, however, that one cannot tell if someone has ADD by giving him Ritalin and seeing if his concentration improves, because Ritalin improves everyone's concentration.

Note: PER CAPIRE MEGLIO FACCIAMO UN PARALLELO FUORI DALLO SPORT: IL RITALIN… INDISTINGUIBILITÀ DELLE PRESTAZIONI Edit

Perhaps when the due date for a paper approaches, a student given to procrastination might want to obtain some modafinil,10 a drug that appears to eliminate the need for sleep

Note: ESAMI. DROGHE CHE ELIMINANO IL SONNO Edit

One argument for prohibiting the use of such drugs by those taking the bar exam, or SATs, or a final, is that they distort the information that the exam produces. A law firm deciding whether to hire you doesn't want to know how good a lawyer you are when you are under the influence of Ritalin

Note: ALTRO ARGOMENTO CONTRO LE DROGHE NELLA VITA REALE: LE DROGHE PRODUCONO INFO DISTORTE. Edit

That makes sense as long as we are only talking about temporary effects. The question becomes more interesting if we consider a drug that can be used on a regular basis

Note: E I DROGATI REGOLARI? L' INFO CHE GENERA LA LORO PRESTAZIONE NON È AFFATTO DISTORTA Edit

That argument reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of economic competition. If you and I are runners and both use steroids, both run a little faster and you still win the race. Nothing is gained and, if steroids have undesirable side effects, something is lost. But if you and I are house carpenters who use an improved version of modafinil to increase both labor and leisure, working ten hours out of twenty-two instead of eight out of sixteen, the result is that more houses get built.

Note: ORA CAPIAMO CHE L'OBIEZIONE CHE VALE PER LA DROGA NELLO SPORT NON VALE FUORI: FUORI C'È SEMPRE QUALCUNO CHE TRAE VANTAGGIO DALLE SUPERPRESTAZIONI. IN ALTRI TERMINI: FUORI LA PRESTAZIONE ASSOLUTA DOMINA SU QUELLA RELATIVA Edit

"Competition" is a misleading term because it suggests that, as in athletic contests, all that matters is who wins.

Note: COMPETIZIONE: TERMINE FUORVIANTE PER DESCRIVERE IL MERCATO Edit

An alternative explanation, and one that provides at least a partial explanation of hostility to many different technologies, is that people are simply conservative, skeptical of anything new, "unnatural," despite the unnatural nature of virtually everything we currently eat, drink, or wear.

Note: ULTIMA  SPIEGAZIONE RIMASTA PER OPPORSI ALLA DROGA PERFETTA: DIFFIDENZA PER IL NUOVO Edit

***

DROGHE E PERSONALITÀ: CHI SONO IO?

As we develop ways of easily obtaining much more intense pleasures, there is some risk that we may be tempted into giving up long-term benefits in exchange for short-term benefits even when we should not. This raises an obvious question: What does "should not" mean?

Note: DROGA. BENFICI A BREVE E A LUNGO. UN TRADE OFF Edit

An approach to that question that I find intuitively appealing is to think of myself as two people in one, a long-term planner and a short-term current utility maximizer.

Note: PENSIAMOCI COME DUE PERSONE IN LOTTA TRA LORO. METAFORA SCHIZOFRENICA Edit

This way of looking at it suggests an intriguing possibility. Perhaps the problem with pleasure drugs can be dealt with by personality drugs.

Note: VINCERE LA DROGA (DEL PIACERE) CON LA DROGA (DELLA VOLONTÀ) Edit

Perhaps, as we learn more about how the brain works, we will discover that the difference reflects some difference in brain chemistry.

Note: DROGHE E PERSONALITÀ: ALTERARE LA CHIMICA DEL CERVELLO Edit

Consider, for example, what we already know about the effects of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in brain chemistry. A shortage of dopamine in the brain results in an indecisive personality;

Note: DOPAMINA Edit

The formerly mild mannered, thoughtful, and cooperative foreman had been transformed into a cursing, belligerent tyrant.

Note: LA TRISTE STORIA DI PHINEA GAGE Edit

Bipolar disorder is one example, depression another. Both can be seen as personality disorders. Both are treated with drugs,

Note: DISORDINE BIPOLARE E DEPRESSIONE. ALTERAZIONI DI PERSONALITA’ CHE TUTTI NOI ACCETTIAMO Edit

***

DROGHE CHE CI DANNO IL CONTROLLO SU ALTRI

drugs to make the victim unconscious - chloral hydrate, the "Mickey Finn" of old detective stories, and its more modern equivalents - and the use of alcohol as an aid to seduction.

Note: DROGHE PER RENDERE LA VITTIMA INCOSCIENTE Edit

the difference between personality drugs and control drugs depends not so much on the nature of the drug as on how it is used

Note: NON CONTA IN QUESTI CASI LA DROGA MA COME LA SI USA Edit

There are drugs that induce temporary amnesia, such as Rohypnol, sometimes called the date rape drug. There are drugs such as alcohol and marijuana that relax people and make it harder to think clearly.

Note: LA DROGA DELLO STUPRO Edit

One odd set of experiments involving the reaction of some people to smelling other people's perspiration suggest that there may be human pheromones, compounds that make someone smell sexy to someone else; perhaps some perfume actually works.'4

Note: DROGA DELLA SEDUZIONE Edit

Still more disturbing is the possibility of drugs that make the consumer credulous, willing to believe whatever he is told, or obedient, or loyal. There is some evidence that oxytocin has such an effect.

Note: DROGHE CHE FANNO SPENDERE Edit

To get some feeling for how a loyalty drug might work, consider the Mule, a character in Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, an old and famous work of science fiction.

Note: ASIMOV E LA DROGA DELLA LEALTÀ Edit

the feeling of parents toward their children. Parents love their children and wish to serve and protect them, not because the parent has made an objective judgment about how deserving their children are but because the parent has been programmed by his genes to feel that way, by mechanisms some of which may well be chemical

Note: L'AMORE PER I NOSTRI FIGLI. VERO O CHIMICO? Edit

three different kinds. Drinking from the first eliminates your memory. Drinking from the second makes you hate whatever being you most loved. Drinking at the third makes you fall in love with the next living thing you see.

Note: DROGA E LETTERATURA: IL DILEMMA DELL' ORLANDO FURIOSO Edit

Suppose we develop much better control drugs; how might our laws and institutions adjust? One possibility is a legal regime under which a contract is binding only if both parties have been tested just before they signed... we should ban all sex not preceded by suitable drug tests. 

Note: CONTRATTI AL TEMPO DELLE DROGHE. CHE FARE? L' IPOTESI PROIBIZIONISTA Edit

One can imagine more sophisticated versions, as defensive technology improves to match improved offensive technology. Perhaps we will eventually use nanotechnology to equip ourselves with microscopic chemical labs that continually monitor our bloodstreams and let us know if there is anything there that shouldn't be.

Note: TECNOLOGIA DIFENSIVA Edit

***

DROGHE E LAVORO

So far in the discussion of control drugs I have been assuming that they are given to people without their consent.

Note: MA LA DROGA PER LA PERSONALITÀ PUÒ ESSERE ASSUNTA ANCHE VOLONTARIAMENTE Edit

There are quite a lot ofjobs for which loyalty is an important qualification.... After calculating the cost of watching everyone all the time, I decide to offer two different employment contracts, one paying $50,000 a year, one $100,000. There is only one difference between the two contracts: The second one requires the employee to consume a drug that makes him loyal to the firm.

Note:  L'OFFERTA DEL DATORE DI LAVORO: TI PAGO DI PIÙ SE PRENDI LA DROGA DELLA LEALTÀ

One might object that letting someone agree to such a contract is rather like letting him sell himself into slavery.

Note: OBIEZIONE: MA QUESTA È SCHIAVITÙ!!! Edit

Firms, armies, and nations have been using more primitive methods to try to make people feel loyal for a long time.

Note: LA DROGA DEL NAZIONALISMO È UNA ROZZA DROGA DELLA LEALTÀ  Edit

An important question here is whether the drug makes you permanently loyal, as parents are permanently loyal to their children,

Note: LEALTÀ PERMANENTE E PROVVISORIA?  Edit

***

DROGA E AMORE

Falling in love is for some people an intensely pleasurable, indeed addictive, experience, which may explain why some men fall intensely in love with one woman and then, after their efforts meet with success, lose interest and fall in love with another. A famous example is Giacomo Casanova,

Note: LO CHOC DELL'INNAMORAMENTO Edit

I love my wife very much but I am not in love with her in the sense in which I was when I first courted her some thirty years ago.

Note: INNAMORAMENTO E AMORE. CHIMICHE DIVERSE… MA SEMPRE DI CHIMICA SI TRATTA  Edit

Parental love features the same intense focus, the same feeling that one being is the most important thing in the world, as romantic love.

Note: LA COSA PIÙ IMPORTANTE DELLA NOSTRA VITA Edit

irrational belief that one person is the most important thing in the universe, the proper target for most of one's thoughts, hopes, and attention.

Note: IL SENTIMENTO DELL' INNAMORATO Edit

Humans rarely stay in love; typically, the feelings and associated behavior last for months, not years. Sometimes love is succeeded by attachment, a behavior pattern associated with less intense emotions and one that can, with luck, last a lifetime.

Note: ATTACCAMENTO Edit

Suppose, as seems likely enough, that further research makes it possible to control them, to fall in and out of love, to maintain or destroy the emotions of romantic attachment, to turn love and lust on or off, with a pill, a patch, an injection. What consequences would follow?

Note: IPOTESI: L'AMORE PUÒ ESSERE INDOTTO O REPRESSO ARTIFICIALMENTE Edit

The consequences of involuntary use are obvious and unattractive: a pill that makes a beautiful woman fall in love or, for shorter-term objectives, lust, with you. What about voluntary use?

Note: USO VOLONTARIO E INVOLONTARIO DELLA DROGA DELL'AMORE Edit

Many years ago I spent a long airplane flight - from Bombay to Sydney - next to a woman from southern India, flying out to join her husband. She came from a society where arranged marriages were taken for granted. Her husband had been selected for her by her parents, although she had then met him before consenting to the arrangement. I came from a society where it was taken for granted that individuals found and selected their own mates. She accepted her society's arrangements and was intrigued by the odd way we did things; I felt much the same in the other direction. And she was not a stick figure in a history or anthropology text but a living, breathing human being, obviously intelligent and thoughtful. Furthermore, on at least our small sample, the superiority of the Western system was far from clear; she was happily married, I recently divorced.

Note: L'AMORE A COMANDO ESISTE GIÀ: MATRIMONI COMBINATI Edit

Perhaps in the brave new world of modern chemistry one will be able to get the best of both worlds. First I select a spouse by some suitably calm and objective analysis, making use of the services of a professional matchmaker to find a woman ideally suited to be my wife - one requirement being, of course, that I am ideally suited to be her husband. After she and I have agreed on the match, either just before or just after the wedding, we take our pills, look into each other's eyes, and fall deeply and passionately in love. After six months or so of ecstatic but distracting bliss - both of our employers are beginning to worry about declining job performance - we switch the prescription from passion to attachment and so shift into a long and satisfying marriage. If on some suitable future occasion, say a tenth anniversary, we feel in need of a  second honeymoon

Note: FORSE IL FUTURO SELEZIONERÀ IL MEGLIO DAI VARI MONDI CHE CONOSCIAMO (MONDO DELL'AMORE LIBERO E MONDO DELL'AMORE A COMANDO). FORSE POTREMMO PERMETTERCI UNA SECONDA LUNA DI MIELE.

"At orgasm, levels of vasopressin dramatically increase in men and levels of oxytocin in women." 17 The connections between those hormones and the neurotransmitters that seem to be associated with romantic love - dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin - are complicated but clearly exist.'8

Note: SESSO E ORMONI Edit

Which brings us back to one of the central conflicts of our culture: the case for and against nature. We routinely use "natural" as a term of praise: natural food, unspoiled nature, natural childbirth. And yet we have constructed our world in large part to avoid the defects of nature.

Note: E SIAMO DI NUOVO AL DILEMMA MEGLIO NATURALI O INNATURALI?

Unnatural childbirth, up to and including caesarean section (currently more than one-quarter of all U.S. births), is the reason that death in childbirth is now a rare tragedy

Note: IL CESAREO COME SIMBOLO DELL'ARTIFICIOSO Edit

Very few residents of either Chicago or Houston prefer, given the choice, to maintain their houses year-round at their natural temperature.

Note: E CHE DIRE DELLE TEMPERATURE NATURALI. NON SONO POI IL MASSIMO  Edit

If not our houses, what about our hearts?

Note: CUORE E CASE Edit

Studying mind drugs by injecting chemicals into people's brains and seeing how they react raises serious practical and ethical difficulties. An attractive alternative is to observe people who, possibly for genetic reasons, behave in different ways and checking their blood to see what is in it.

Note: PROBLEMA: COME SPERIMENTARE IN QUESTO CAMPO?

Fine vita mai SAGGIO

The latest lethal disease – Future imperfect by David Friedman

Over the past 500 years, the average length of a human life in the developed world has more than doubled while the maximum has remained essentially unchanged.

Note:GRANDI PROGRESSI NELL'ETÀ MEDIA

We have eliminated or greatly reduced most of the traditional causes of mortality, including mass killers such as smallpox, measles, influenza, and complications of childbirth.

Note:DOVE LE MAGGIORI VITTORIE

Even if you are no longer fertile, staying alive and healthy allows you to help protect and feed your descendants.'

Note:VECCHIAIA ED EVOLUZIONISMO

The obvious answer is that if nobody got old and died there would be no place for our descendants to live

Note:PERCHÈ LA MORTE?

But that confuses individual interest with group interest; although group selection may have played some role in evolution, it is generally agreed that the major driving force was individual selection.

Note:MA NON CONFONDIAMO L'INTERESSE DI GRUPPO CON QUELLO INDIVIDUALE

second possible answer is that immortality would indeed be useful, but there is no way of producing it.

Note:FORSE L'IMMORTALITÀ È IMPOSSIBILE

there are organisms that are immortal. Amoebas reproduce by division

Note:EPPURE L'IMMORTALITÀ ESISTE GIA’ IN MOLTI ORGANISMI

while the cells in my body are massively redundant, the single fertilized cell from which I grew was not. Any error in that cell ended up in every cell of my adult body.

Note:ALTRA SPIEGAZIONE: L'ERRORE INIZIALE È PRATICAMENTE IMPOSSIBILE DA EVITARE

Aging may simply be the working out of a large collection of accumulated late-acting lethal genes.

Note:LA MORTE È IL RIFLESSO TARDIVO DI PICCOLI ERRORI INIZIALI

A slightly different version of this explanation starts with the observation that in designing an organism - or anything else - there are trade-offs. We can give cars better gas mileage by making them lighter, at the cost of making them more vulnerable to damage.

Note:VARIANTE: LA SALUTE PROLUNGATA È SOTTOPOSTA A TRADE OFF

Suppose there is some design feature, encoded in genes, which can provide benefits in survival probability or fertility early in life at the cost of causing increased breakdown after age sixty… My genes made the correct calculations in designing me for reproductive success in the environment of 50,000 years ago but I, living now and with objectives that go beyond reproductive success, would prefer they hadn't.

Note:ESEMPIO DI TRADE OFF

our knowledge of biology has increased at an enormous rate

Note:IL PROBLEMA DELLA MORTE VERRÀ RISOLTO. PERCHÈ?. PRIMO MOTIVO.

The second is that solving the problem is of enormous, indeed vital, importance to old people, and old people control very large resources, both economic and political.

Note:SECONDO MOTIVO: POTERE AI VECCHI

Most of the relevant information consists of the observation that doing particular things to particular strains of mice or fruit flies, experimental subjects with short generations and no legal rights, results in substantial increases in their life span.Thus, for example, it turns out that transgenic fruit flies provided with a particular human gene have a life expectancy up to 40% longer than those without the extra gene.

Note:SPERIMENTAZIONE PROMETTENTE

One of the most effective ways of extending the life span of mice turns out to be caloric deprivation, feeding them a diet at the low end of the number of calories needed to stay alive but otherwise adequate in nutrients. The result is to produce mice with very long life expectancies. Whether it will work on humans is not yet known

Note:DEPRIVAZIONE CALORICA

***

IL LATO NEGATIVO DELL’ IMMORTALITA’

People whoprefer mortality can still die. Those of us with unfinished business can get on with it.

Note:IL LATO POSITIVO DELLA FACCENDA DELL'IMMORTALITÀ

But while I am unambiguously in favor of stopping my aging, it does not follow that I must be in favor of stopping yours. One reason not to be is concern with population growth.

Note:E IL SOVRAFFOLLAMENTO DEL PIANETA?

I do not share that concern, having concluded long ago that, at anything close to current population levels, mere number of people is not a serious problem…. look at the works of the late Julian Simon…

Note:PERICOLO REMOTO. SIAMO SEMMAI TROPPO POCHI

***

GERONTOCRAZIA

One is the problem of gerontocracy, rule by the old. Under our political system incumbents have an enormous advantage; at the congressional level they almost always win reelection. If aging stops and nothing else changes, our representatives will grow steadily older.

Note:ALTRO PROBLEMA: IL GOVERNO DEI VECCHI

societies dominated by the attitudes of the old: bossy, cautious, conservative.

Note:SOCIETÀ VECCHIA SOCIETÀ POCO INNOVATIVA

world without aging it seems likely that Salazar would still rule Portugal and Franco Spain.

Note:NEL CASO DELLE DITTATURE ANDRÀ ANCHE PEGGIO

It has been argued that scientific progress consists of young scientists adopting new ideas and old scientists dying.

Note:PROGRESSO DELLA SCIENZA

One answer, popular with the old, is that it is because they know more. If so, perhaps gerontocracy is not such a bad thing.

Note:MA PERCHÈ I VECCHI PENSANO DIVERSAMENTE? PRIMA IPOTESI

Another is that the brain has limited capacity…. Humans, old and young, demonstrate a strong preference for the beliefs they already have; old people have more of them….

Note:SECONDA IPOTESI: EFFETTO DOTAZIONE

shift from fluid to crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is what you use to solve a new problem. Crystallized intelligence consists of remembering the solution you found last time and using that.

Note:COMPRENDERE LA VECCHIAIA: DAL FLUIDO AL CRISTALLIZZATO

***

CHE FARE CON TUTTO QUESTO TEMPO A DISPOSIZIONE?

When contemplating an extra few centuries, one obvious question is what to do with them. Having raised one family, grown old, and then had myyouth restored, would I decide to see if I could do even better a second time or conclude that that was something I had already done?

Note:PROBLEMA DELLA NOIA

Weak evidence for the former alternative is provided by the not uncommon pattern of grandparents raising their grandchildren when the children's parents prove unable or unwilling to do the job.

Note:RIFARE LE COSE: I NONNI CON I NIPOTI DIMOSTRANO CHE NON CI SI ANNOIA RIFACENDO LE COSE

in many fields, scholars do their best and most original work when young. My father once suggested the project of funding successful scholars past their prime to retrain in some entirely unrelated field,

E NEL LAVORO? FORSE È MEGLIO RICOMINCIARE ALTROVE

***

L’ALTERANTIVA: SPASSARSELA

you could spend the first fifty years of adulthood earning (say) $80,000 a year, spending $50,000, saving the rest, accumulate about $2.54 million and then spend the rest of a very long life living on the interest: $50,800 a year for food, housing, and a good Internet connection.

Note:PROGETTO DI VITA

While thinking about how to spend your second century, you might want to consider the social consequences of eliminating the markers of age. In a world where aging is entirely under our control, a young woman of 20 might be dating a young man 100 years older than she is - and he might or might not tell her.

Note:I SEGNI DELL'ETÀ. LA PEDOFILIA SDOGANATA

***

PROBLEMI LEGALI

Immortality also raises issues for our legal system.

Consider a criminal sentenced to a life sentence. Do we interpret that as "what a life sentence used to be" - say to age 100? Or do we take it literally?

Note:LA SORTE DEGLI ERGASTOLANI

two different theories of criminal punishment… One is that we lock a murderer up for the same reason we lock a tiger up: He is dangerous to others, so we want to keep him where he cannot do much damage. That is the theory of criminal punishment sometimes described as incapacitation….

Note:CHIEDIAMOCI: PERCHÈ LA GALERA? PRIMA RISPOSTA

impose a cost on him, a cost high enough so that other people contemplating murder will choose not to incur it. That is the theory described as deterrence.

Note:SCONDA TEORIA: DETERRENZA

If our objective is deterrence, centuries of incarceration maybe overkill, which is an argument for eventually letting the convict out. If our objective is incapacitation, on the other hand, we may want to keep him in.

Note:CONSEGUENZE DELLE DUE TEORIE

A third justification offered for imprisonment is rehabilitation,

Note:TEORIA RIABILITATIVA

If so one might reinterpret "life" as "to age 100 or until rehabilitated, whichever takes longer.""

Note:CONSEGUENZA TERZA TEORIA

***

Thus, the appropriate clinical trials would be to:1. Select N subjects.2. Preserve them.3. Wait 100 years.4. See if the technology of 2100 can indeed revive them.

Note:IBERNARE

-what is the status of a corpsicle? Is it a corpse, a living person temporarily unable to act, or something else?

If I am frozen, is my wife free to remarry? If I am then thawed, which of us is she married to? Do my heirs inherit, and if so can I reclaim my property when I rejoin the living?

Note:PROBLEMI LEGALI

If I am concerned about keeping my wealth to support me in the second half of my life, there are legal institutions, trusteeships and the like, that give dead people some degree of control over their assets.

Note:L'ISTITUTO DEL TRUST

Their chief limitation is one that applies to almost all solutions, the fact that over a period of a century or more, legal and social institutions might change in ways that defeat even prudent attempts at planning for revival.

Note:MA I PROBLEMI RESTANO

One alternative is to transfer wealth in ways that do not depend on stable institutions, perhaps by burying a collection of valuable objects somewhere and preserving their location only in memory.

Note:ALTERNATIVA: NON AFFIDARSI ALLE ISTITUZIONI

If I commit a crime and then get frozen, does the statute of limitations continue to run, providing me a get out of jail free card if I stay frozen long enough?… does my sentence continue to run?…

Note:IL CRIMINALE IBERNATO COME, QUANTO E QUANDO SCONTA?

somebody who wants to get frozen a little before he dies instead of a little after. Whether or not freezing makes it impossible to revive me, dying surely makes it harder. And some illnesses - cancer is an obvious example - do massive damage

Note:EUTANASIA E IBERNAZIONE

Under current law, freezing someone before death, even ten minutes before, is murder.

Note:IBERNAZIONE E OMICIDIO

The simplest way of changing that is to interpret freezing not as death but as a risky medical procedure whose outcome will not be known for some time. It is both legal and ethical for a surgeon to conduct an operation that might kill me if the odds without the procedure are even worse.

SCAPPATOIA LEGALE