Autonomy and Addictive Design

Neurological research shows enormous promise for improving educational systems, combatting mental disorders, and curing diseases. But some corporations use results from psychology and neurology research and lessons from machine learning and advertising to target influences that maximize impact on children. These "addictive designers" have intentionally used medical research on addiction to render their products more addictive in the service of greater profits to their companies. This is an example of the unethical misuse of medical research to pursue greater profits for a few at the expense of diminishing the personal autonomy of millions. In this work, I lay out a (hierarchical, continual, diachronic, and relational) conception of autonomy that I believe should be promoted by a liberal democratic state. I explain how addiction subverts autonomy and argue for doing more to combat the unethical use of addictive design technology.