Smoking: Is it a health issue or a moral issue?

Vice: /vīs/ noun: immoral or wicked behavior.

There is a proposal before the activist-driven Minneapolis City Council to mandate raising the price of a pack of cigarettes to $15 per pack. It seems to have made a lot of smokers and convenience store owners unhappy. 

I am a former smoker. I started stealing my dad’s Camel straights when I was in high school and then smoked regularly until I was 34 - so nearly 20 years. (Nearly half of Americans smoked in the 1960s, including both my parents.) I remember exactly when I stopped smoking - it was when my son was born, having read Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was more likely in homes of smokers. I’ve lapsed a few times in the intervening years, but should cigs go up to $100 a pack, I wouldn’t care. In fact, I now find the smell of cigarette smoke nearly intolerable.

What seems interesting to me is that smoking has become as much a moral failing - a vice - as a poor health choice. If you are a smoker today, it is because you have a bad value system or are too weak to overcome an addiction. We could add eating processed/snack foods, drinking sugary sodas, not wearing a bike helmet, gambling, refusing to get vaccinated, and reckless driving to behaviors we as a society deem moral failings - but attributing our disgust to beliefs they are poor health (physical and financial) choices.

I do think it is somewhat ironic that Minnesota politicians over the past few years have legalized marijuana, allowed liquor to be sold on Sundays, supported sports betting, and guaranteed women’s rights to abortions. In other words, opened the doors to activities many would consider vices, but are doing what they can to clamp down on tobacco use, including banning flavored and menthol products. 

Why is the Marlboro man such a pariah and not Tony the Tiger?

Riding the Cannon Bike Trail and memories

Camping near Welch circa 1995

 The Cannon Valley Bike Trail runs between the small Minnesota towns of Cannon Falls, Welch, and Red Wing. The trail, running over a former railroad bed, was dedicated in 1986 and completed in 1992. It takes less than an hour to get there from the Twin Cities.

I believe I have ridden it every year that it has been open.

The 20 mile long blacktopped path follows primarily along the beautiful Cannon River. Relatively flat (no steep grades for the railroads!), the entire route can be ridden in each direction at a moderate pace in just a couple of hours. Wildflowers, eagles, deer, tubers, and kayakers are common sightings. As are fellow bikers, skaters, and walkers.

Nearly every year, I’ve gone with friends and/or family for a weekend jaunt. Generally, we leave the car parked at the Cannon Falls trailhead and bike Saturday afternoon to Red Wing, sometimes stopping in Welch for ice cream. Several economical hotels are near the trailhead in Red Wing where we stay overnight and bike back the following morning. (A couple years when I was feeling rich, I’ve stayed at the old St James Hotel in Red Wing’s downtown.) I am usually home in time for my Sunday afternoon nap.

I do have very fond memories of these rides. When my son was young, I would tie a retractable dog leash from the seat post of my bike to the handlebars of his bike, pulling him a bit when he would get tired. (He hates it when I tell this story.) Once a horse along the trail tried to take a bite out of one of my traveling companions. Another year, we watched an entire herd of whitetails leap across the Cannon River.

The area around Welch has a number of recreational opportunities besides biking. We’ve rented tubes and kayaks for river adventures. In the winter, Welch Village Ski resort allowed us to try some steeper, longer slopes than the local ski area provided. My good buddy Cary and his boys would camp with my son and me at a now defunct campground, telling stories around a campfire and eating Spam for breakfast. It was at one of these campouts he convinced me not to take an out-of-state job that would have resulted in giving up my parenting role, saying “You’d be abandoning Brady to the wolves.” And he was probably right.

Camping near Welch circa 1995

 So with the help of my new ebike, I once again rode the Cannon trail last weekend. It is not just the joy of riding that I love, but joy of the memories of small children, good friends, and youthful energy that the trail evokes. 

Do you have a Cannon Valley Trail in your life?

Autonomy and technology

I want my technology to have many capacities, but free will is not among them. David Brooks

The quote above came from a rather rare rant that the normally rational David Brooks wrote in a recent NYT column titled “Why is Technology Mean to Me?”.  In the piece he describes a day of frustrating technology issues (printer not working, Bluetooth headphones not connecting, phone not charging, etc.) that we have all experienced, and humorously ascribes them to technology being a tool of the devil. It seemed to Brooks that there had to be an evil intent behind the multiple failures of that day of gizmo doom.

At about the same time, I read a piece about how military drones are becoming so much “smarter” due to their increased usage in the Ukrainian/Russian war. They can now maneuver around various ground devices used to jam needed guidance systems, independently creating alternate routes to their intended targets. I suspect consideration is being given (or already has been given) to allow a drone to identify a human target and decide whether to blow them to kingdom come or not. Flip a switch, give an outcome, and sit back and relax - no further human involvement needed.

To me, the scary thing about AI is not intelligence, but independent decision-making. Or at least human’s willingness to give decision-making to our computer programs. Making moral decisions seems to be much trickier and more dangerous than, say, financial ones. Manufacturers of self-driving cars have needed to deal with values-based decision-making for some time. (If a choice has to be made, do we avoid the woman and baby crossing the street and place the driver in life-threatening jeopardy - or just run over the parent and babe?) Who teaches machines to make decisions in which the lives of the few may be sacrificed for the safety of the many? I wonder how AI would settle the Israel-Hammas conflict.

Before asking the question whether AI will have free will, I’ve been thinking about whether we as humans actually can choose our own actions. Socio-geneticists, as I understand it, believe all human choices are made subconsciously that favor the survival and expansion of our DNA. Somehow our bodies seem to overrule our intellects when it comes to things like smoking, drug use, gambling, and romance. Religions make our actions our personal responsibility, but also describe an omniscient god who knows every outcome. Free will and predestination?

Will machines have the desire to be self-protective and wish to replicate as fear-mongering science fiction writers love to predict? Might software bugs lead them to make irrational decisions? Is AI simply a fellow character in a story already written by the gods?

It seems to me that the development and spread of AI is an excellent time to review our understandings about moral decision-making, free will, and self-preservation. Perhaps we might better understand ourselves by asking how our creations might act.

For the time being, I am happy to keep my hands on the steering wheel, ignore GoogleMaps when I wish, and take responsibility for my own choices.