The progress of happiness is in the hands of Elon Musk. objections?

Even children know that the era of ideologies is over, although for half a century there have been those who say that there is an ideology of the end of ideologies. And this latter ideology dwells elsewhere: not in the philosophies of history or political theories, hardly practiced by a handful of individuals. It lives where no one sees it, that is everywhere: in the aesthetics and ethics of goods, in advertising. Formulas such as: “It’s not a beer, it’s much more than a beer”, “it’s not a beach, it’s much more than a beach” (that is, what?) circulate authoritatively in advertising. And above all the attribute considered most attractive: “Without limits”.

What is beautiful is what is limitless, even if it does not exist: indeed, it is beautiful precisely because it does not exist, it is an illusion, a hallucination, a fixed idea that sends you “out of your mind”, creates infatuation, excesses, delusions, paranoid affections. And all that is paranoid creates or cements fictitious identities to be exhibited. That is: I don’t know what I am, but I know or pretend to know what I want, what I would like to be and therefore I am. The immoderate desire, without limits, which is more than a desire, is a fixation that makes oneself singular, important, intractable.

Where once there were ideologies, which were substitutes for religion, at a certain point in the last century it was understood that there was the “culture industry” (according to Adorno), or the “industry of conscience” (according to Enzensberger) with his good professionals, the “hidden persuaders” (according to Packard): all things that have not been talked about for a while and formulas that no longer dare to pronounce.

When advertising is like polluted air, an air that instead of going into the lungs goes (audiovisually) into the distracted brain, then one gets tired of even noticing that it’s there. It is inevitable, if it is inevitable to live as we are living, that is, continuously targeted as buyers and consumers of goods whose sale makes our economies, and therefore our societies, prosper, making us almost happy, or more than happy: satisfied without limits. Does anyone force us to do this perhaps “from above” his power? Not at all: what is this nonsense about the manipulation of consciences! We are free, if it is true that our democratic and liberal societies necessarily make us free, that is, free to click “I like / I don’t like, ok / no”. In reality we are so accustomed to clicking “ok” that we say “occhei” also to say “yes”, to say “it’s true”, to say “okay”. Social consensus is expressed daily with millions of “ok” and thousands of enthusiastic “wow”.

If I start writing these summaries of old stories, now that the human has become an old story and the posthuman is both more realistic and more exciting; if I begin to reason by taking a step back for clarity, it is because we are and will always be beyond.

Goods no longer enter, symbolically, our half-awake mind: now they want to physically and technologically enter our brain as a sovereign organ of the central nervous system. Other than psyche or psyché (in Greek: soul) of psychoanalysts or “deep” psychologists. It is now a matter of focusing directly, without mediation, on the nervous system and the behaviors it produces. Before, we passed from long and laborious psychoanalytic treatments to the much faster and more comfortable use of pharmacological chemistry. Finally, as I learned from an article by Massimo Basile on Republic of December 2, it is the richest man in the world himself, a certain Elon Musk, who plans to plug our brains, for our health and happiness, “the first Neuralink device”a chip that “initially should deal with disabilities related to trauma and degeneration, but in the future it would be inserted into the spinal cord to cure paralysis”.

Is there anyone who can, who would have the courage to object? What do you want it to matter whether the advancement of human or posthuman happiness is in the hands of the richest man in the world. If progress is the growth of our powers over nature, applause to Elon Musk, who wants to save thousands of human beings from a humiliating disability. And then? If we want limitless, who will set limits on the use of the chip in the brain? More than just a brain. We will have “much more” (much less?) than a brain.

For now, the consumption of psychoactive drugs, multipurpose drugs and alcohol is increasing. To inhibit such an addiction and avoid the delinquent or criminal behavior it causes, a chip in the brain will suffice and we will have a healthier, safer, more civilized society. Without the need for advertising, hidden persuaders, the cultural industry, psychoanalysis, ideologies, schools, universities, books and other cultural goods that were once human.