Brain Wearables Are Not Obsolete

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Neuromarketing is building its business based on that data. But this is more like a focus group. This is not like something they're able to do to every person who walks by a billboard or so forth. So, as those devices come to the market and we're all wearing these,. you know, you're surfing social media and your brainwave activity is being recorded by the headset that you're wearing? The question is, are neuro marketers really going to need to continue to have these focus groups or are companies going to have unfettered access to how your brain reacts?"

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.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

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.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.