Nita Farahany, a law professor and bioethicist at Duke University, dives into the ethics and legal ramifications of neurotechnology. She unveils how brain scanning poses risks to privacy and the urgent need to safeguard cognitive liberty. The conversation explores the implications of advanced tech on personal autonomy, relationships, and societal dynamics. With a mix of humor and seriousness, Farahany discusses the balance between convenience and ethical concerns, urging for protective measures in this rapidly evolving field.
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IKEA Love Rug Experiment
In a Brussels IKEA store, shoppers wore EEG headsets to assess their love for limited-edition rugs.
Only those whose brains registered love were permitted to purchase, demonstrating how easily people share brain data for novelty.
insights INSIGHT
Privacy Paradox
People readily trade privacy for convenience, exemplified by constant GPS location sharing.
However, the idea of sharing thoughts and feelings raises significant concerns, unlike other data.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Cognitive Liberty
Establish a "right to cognitive liberty" to protect individuals' thoughts from exploitation.
Limit data access to specific, consented purposes like detecting driver drowsiness, not broad surveillance.
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The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
Shoshana Zuboff
In this book, Shoshana Zuboff provides a comprehensive analysis of surveillance capitalism, a new economic order where corporations accumulate vast wealth and power by predicting and controlling human behavior. Zuboff details how this form of capitalism, originating in Silicon Valley, has spread into every economic sector, creating 'behavioral futures markets' where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold. She argues that this system, free from democratic oversight, poses significant threats to democracy, freedom, and human future, and urges readers to take action to protect their autonomy in the digital world.
The Battle for Your Brain
Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
Nita Farahany
This book explores the advancements in neuroscience and neurotechnology, highlighting how these developments can both benefit humanity and threaten fundamental human rights. Farahany discusses scenarios where brain data can be used to interrogate political beliefs, serve as evidence in crimes, and manipulate personal feelings. She argues for the need for safeguards to protect cognitive liberty and offers a path forward to address these complex ethical dilemmas.
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.
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.
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas 
