810: Nita Farahany | Thinking Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
Mar 14, 2023
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Nita Farahany, a law professor at Duke University and expert on tech ethics, dives into the age of neurotechnology. She discusses groundbreaking advancements like brain implants aiding ALS patients and the potential for brain-to-brain communication. The risks of monitoring thought processes raise ethical concerns, especially in authoritarian contexts. Farahany highlights the importance of protecting cognitive liberty and privacy as we embrace these innovations, calling for urgent regulations to keep our minds free.
Consumer technology that can track, decode, and even manipulate what goes on in the brain is no longer just a plot device in some far-flung sci-fi novel — it's already beginning to come to market.
An ALS patient recently set a record for communicating through a brain implant at 62 words per minute (in comparison, ALS-afflicted physicist Stephen Hawking was only able to communicate at about 15 words per minute by the time of his death in 2018).
Though still in its infancy, consciously transmitted brain-to-brain communication has proven successful in the laboratory.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans can accurately sense political bias from subjects' unconscious thoughts.
Brain scans reveal that a significant percentage of coma patients who can't speak or move are aware of the world around them and can communicate through electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors.