I wonder. I grew up with experience in multiple systems of meditation, and found a way that works for me. Without electrodes or drugs or Nobel Prizes, I can choose to feel happy and relaxed and whatever. When I think about it, meditation can feel more pleasing and satisfying than every other experience in my life. Yet (luckily?) I do not feel any compulsion to do that in place of many other things, or try to advocate it. This is not because of willpower. While it lasts I like and want it, as if there’s fulfillment of purpose, and when it’s over I cannot recall that feeling faithfully enough to desire it more than I desire chocolate. Also, I cannot very reliably reproduce the feeling—it occurs only some of the time I try, cannot be had too frequently(no idea why) and cannot be consciously prolonged. So I consider it a positive addition to my life, especially helpful in yanking me out of episodes of gloom.
This of course raises multiple questions. There’s such thing as ambient mood as opposed to current momentary pleasure, and if a person is pissed off too often to concentrate productively, would improving the mood be the right choice, especially if it has an upper bound and doesn’t lead to the person madly pressing the button indefinitely? Hell, if there’s any way to make people happier with no other change, without causing crippling obsession—maybe there’s such a quirk in the brain (with want and pleasure detached from each other) to be exploited safely with meditation, maybe the button is in responsible hands, would it be acceptable? Though, the meditation sometimes make me wonder if the mind can directly change the world (I changed my emotional reality, and it felt real). Is impaired rationality an acceptable price then?
Concerning many comments already here that I am not sure which one I should reply to:
Never an argument to warrant violence? Or OK against superintelligences but NO against humans? Do not suppose there’s a sharp line between human and superintelligence situations. To me some of you may well be akin to superintelligences, that I cannot outwit. No absolute line between argument and verbal abuse either, when I think about it. Also, I think I have some examples of dangerous/disgusting arguments—nothing exists, you should die, your consciousness doesn’t exist …
As for whether the rightness of a violent arguments has to do with the physical power of the opponent -
I say yes, but my idea of moral value is more self-centered. My morals consider others, but I think it’s moral to prefer to survive—not the least because if your moral doesn’t prescribe survival, you will not be here. It’s not as if we help others out of morals and survive out of baser urges. That dichotomy is common in present morals ( think bioethics—if you don’t accept death, you refuse to “open up to higher goals”/live for others) but it’s nonetheless sick. It’s right and moral to want to survive! And thus I decide that while arguments should be free when you are only concerned with truth and rationality, in the case of lots of real situations, it’s more than truth at stake, and you worry for your well-being. Even if you want to keep it at the rational, intellectual level, your opponent may not oblige. And then it would be moral to use violence, but not moral to risk your own life for small arguments, but not because of the value of truth or laws of rationality at all.
Though even then I wish to be more intelligent beforehand in preparation for such a sad event, so that I may be strong and integral enough to know the offending argument without being hurt, and do not have to use violence, or at least ponder their point after the violence safely.