NEUROTECHNOLOGYThe Big Promises and Potentially Bigger Consequences of Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology is an umbrella term for a range of technologies which interact directly with the brain or nervous system. This can include systems which passively scan, map or interpret brain activity, or systems which actively influence the state of the brain or nervous system. There are growing excitement and growing concern about the potential applications of neurotechnology for everything from defense to health care to entertainment.
In September, Chile became the first state in the world to pass legislation regulating the use of neurotechnology. The ‘neuro-rights’ law aims to protect mental privacy, free will of thought and personal identity.
The move comes amid both growing excitement and growing concern about the potential applications of neurotechnology for everything from defense to health care to entertainment.
Neurotechnology is an umbrella term for a range of technologies which interact directly with the brain or nervous system. This can include systems which passively scan, map or interpret brain activity, or systems which actively influence the state of the brain or nervous system.
Governments and the private sector alike are pouring money into research on neurotechnology, in particular the viability and applications for brain–computer interfaces (BCI) which allow users to control computers with their thoughts. While the field is still in its infancy, it is advancing at a rapid pace, creating technologies which only a few years ago would have seemed like science fiction.
The implications of these technologies are profound. When fully realized, they have the potential to reshape the most fundamental and most personal element of human experience: our thoughts.
Technological development and design is never neutral. We encode values into every piece of technology we create. The immensely consequential nature of neurotechnology means it’s crucial for us to be thinking early and often about the way we’re constructing it, and the type of systems we do—and don’t—want to build.
A major driver behind research on neurotechnology by governments is its potential applications in defense and combat settings. Unsurprisingly, the United States and China are leading the pack in the race towards effective military neurotechnology.
The US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has poured many millions of dollars of funding into neurotechnology research over multiple decades. In 2018, DARPA announced a program called ‘next-generation nonsurgical neurotechnology’, or N3, to fund six separate, highly ambitious BCI research projects.
Individual branches of the US military are also developing their own neurotechnology projects. For example, the US Air Force is working on a BCI which will use neuromodulation to alter mood, reduce fatigue and enable more rapid learning.
