Is It Really Far-Fetched to Privilege Genetic Lottery Over Everything Else?

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There is a great philosophy question here because I think we wouldn't call eating healthy food cheating academically or exercising or even reading a book but taking a certain drug counts and that's probably just a relic of olden days right. We're maybe privileging the wrong things the idea that the genetic lottery is what we should you know rely on rather than the work that people put into actually enhancing their well-being and their cognitive states. So I can very easily see that employers maybe even universities seeking to let in students would want to take a quick brain scan so we can make sure that there's no dirty skeletons in your closet. It's happening. The idea that you know this isn't science

Every time our brain does some thinking, there are associated physical processes. In particular, electric currents and charged particles jump between neurons, creating associated electromagnetic fields. These fields can in principle be detected with proper technology, opening the possibility for reading your mind. That technology is currently primitive, but rapidly advancing, and it's not too early to start thinking about legal and ethical consequences when governments and corporations have access to your thoughts. Nita Farahany is a law professor and bioethicist who discusses these issues in her new book, The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology.

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Nita Farahany received a J.D. and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Duke University. She is currently the Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law & Philosophy at Duke, as well as Founding Director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society. She has served on a number of government commissions, including the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. She is a Fellow of the American Law Institute and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was awarded the Duke Law School Distinguished Teaching Award.

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