The Future of Neurostimulation

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

There are already devices that exist that can provide neurostimulation in addition to neural sensors. Everything we do writes to our brains in some sense and that inputs change our brain activity, how the brain fires, and ultimately what brain signals look like. All of that is just a world of sensing where what's changing your brain activity is your environment. The more precise that stimulation becomes, you know, literally Pavlovian shock that you get in response that's not so far fetched.

We are on the cusp of an explosion of cheap, consumer-ready neurotechnology - from earbuds that gather our behavioral data, to sensors that can read our dreams. And it’s all going to be supercharged by AI. This technology is moving from niche to mainstream - and it has the same potential to become exponential.

Legal scholar Nita Farahany talks us through the current state of neurotechnology and its deep links to AI. She says that we urgently need to protect the last frontier of privacy: our internal thoughts. And she argues that without a new legal framework around “cognitive liberty,” we won’t be able to insulate our brains from corporate and government intrusion.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology by Nita Farahany

The Battle for Your Brain offers a path forward to navigate the complex dilemmas that will fundamentally impact our freedom to understand, shape, and define ourselves

Computer Program Reveals What Neurons in the Visual Cortex Prefer to Look At

A study of macaque monkeys at Harvard generated valuable clues based on an artificial intelligence system that can reliably determine what neurons in the brain’s visual cortex prefer to see

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan

An influential work by a fixture in media discourse

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

Talking With Animals… Using AI

How to Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Dr. Steven Hassan

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_