What if the greatest harm is that the easy path of modifying our biology prevents us ever needing to gain the self-knowledge and build the fulfilling lives that lets us thrive in a world surrounded by potential addictions?
I consider myself a much wiser and stronger person in recovery than I was before addiction. Who would I be if I took a magic pill and was still the person that sought oblivion? What will humanity be if it doesn't need such self-knowledge and resilience? What impact will that make in say, our future politics?
This feels like the same logic as "I had to pay off my student loans, so other people should have to suffer like that too." Suffering does not make you better later despite what millennia of Christian theology has told people about its supposed purgative effects. It seems pretty rad to me to be able to just not suffer through the bad part of getting over a major life problem, and I for one am happy that people will be able to skip that part and get on to the part where they live well.
This is not an argument that suffering is valuable, it's that drug-seeking behaviours are a symptom of poor psychology / life-fulfilment.
The fear is that by removing symptoms, we no longer find it important to address the root cause. The symptoms should be treated as a warning signal. It sounds dystopian to make poor psychology and poor life-fulfilment a consequence free norm.
I consider myself a much wiser and stronger person in recovery than I was before addiction. Who would I be if I took a magic pill and was still the person that sought oblivion? What will humanity be if it doesn't need such self-knowledge and resilience? What impact will that make in say, our future politics?