A first-generation commercial brain-computer interface (BCI) is being released by Emotiv Systems later this year. What does the future hold for BCI?
Smart Policy: Cognitive Enhancement in the Public Interest
by Nick BostromRecommendations
• Conceptualize pharmacological cognitive enhancers as part of a wider spectrum of ways of enhancing the cognitive performance of groups and individuals.
• Expand the disease-focused regulatory framework for drug approval into a health- or wellbeing-focused framework in order to facilitate the development and use of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement of healthy adult individuals.
• Provide public funding for academic research into the safety and efficacy of cognitive enhancers, for the development of improved enhancers, and for epidemiological studies of the broader effects of long-term use.
• Increase public funding for research aimed at determining optimal nutrition for pregnant women and newborns to promote brain development.
• Disseminate information to the public about optimal pre- and perinatal nutrition.
A Universally Valid Ethical Directive
by Sean HendersonIn a modern society, we live according to a social contract that is supported by a legal-rational authority. Underlying our legal-rational authority are cultural theories about the universal and over-riding desires of those within that society. These cultural theories can be supplanted by scientifically validated truths about fundamental human nature in order to design a better society.
Latest from JET
is a peer-reviewed electronic journal published by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and edited by IEET Fellow Dr. Russell Blackford. The first two articles of Volume 17 have been published.
No Singing Allowed: Assumptions and Other Nonsense
by Anne CorwinThis week, an autistic sixth-grader in San Jose was handcuffed and suspended for singing during a physical education class. No, I’m not making this up...you can read the news story yourself.
Future Problem Solver Presentations on Neurotechnology
On January 9th I helped the Connecticut Future Problem Solvers organize a morning seminar for more than 200 students, grades 5-12, and their teachers on neurotechnology.
Poll: When Reproductive Cloning is Safe?
The folks visiting the IEET appear to be a little more liberal on the topic of reproductive cloning than the average homo sapien, since nine out of ten of you voted to make it a legal reproductive choice once it is safe.
Pondering the Future of Death Over A Mojito
by J. HughesNext May, several hundred neurologists and philosophers will gather in the resort of Varadero, Cuba, for the fifth International Symposium on the Definition of Death. At first sight, defining death might not seem like something that requires much scientific or philosophical attention. Look more closely, though, and the line between life and death is rapidly becoming increasingly fuzzy.
Promoting BioFuturist Policy Brainstorming Among the Young
by J. HughesWhen I was twelve my Dad gave me a subscription to The Futurist. Mainstream futurology kind of paled for me next to the science fiction I was reading, but at least I knew early on that there were people trying to anticipate and prepare for a radically different future. Imagine my surprise thirty five years later, after a decade of bio-futurist work, to discover that in 1974, one year after I started reading The Futurist, a program for junior futurists was started which today includes more than 250,000 kids in grades 4-12 worldwide.
Virtue Engineering
by J. HughesJeriaska of the Accelerating Future People Database has transcribed another talk by an IEET person, the 2006 Transvision (Helsinki) talk by IEET Executive Director James Hughes “Virtue Engineering: Applications of Neurotechnology to Improve Moral Behavior.” See the video here.
Intelligence, Assumptions, and the g Conundrum
by Anne CorwinCosma Shalizi at Three-Toed Sloth has written a long (but well worth the read) article entitled g, A Statistical Myth.
This article really elucidates a lot of the issues I have with the usual attempts to quantify “intelligence” and explain what causes it.
Andy’s Prolixity
Andy has another book coming out, on the medical impact of the Net, with co-author Emma Rich, and a slew of essays.
Econo-brain, Chip Fabs and CyberWar
by Jamais CascioA 2004 research project on decision-making (PDF) is getting a fair bit of play lately (BoingBoing, Salon, Long Now, etc.) because of the correlation made by Science Blog “The Frontal Cortex” made to the accelerating mortgage crisis in the U.S.. But what jumped out at me was the identification of the section of the brain involved with long-term, rational thinking.
On free will and moral responsibility
by Russell BlackfordI’m currently reading Derk Pereboom’s Living Without Free Will, which defends what Pereboom calls “hard incompatibilism” and then explores its implications.
Anders Sandberg wants to emulate your brain
by George DvorskyTranshumanists have long speculated about the possibility of uploading a brain into a computer. In fact, a big part of the supposed posthuman future depends on it.
Soooo, how the hell do we do it?
CCLE Publishes Report on Life Sentences for Cannabis in the U.S.
IEET Fellow Wrye Sententia and her collaborators at the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics have published:
Life Sentences: Collateral Sanctions Associated with Marijuana Offenses
Musings on Memory Modification
by Anne CorwinThe common use of memory manipulation as a literary device taken in conjunction with emerging neurotechnologies makes the exploration of the meaning of memory (and its modification) extremely relevant to the present day.
Much Ado About Mirror Neurons - Empathy, Autism, and Bias
by Anne CorwinMirror neurons are theorized to be, according to some of the more heavily popularized literature these days, neurons which activate in the primate brain upon observation of another individual performing an action.
Poll: Should future violent criminals be offered brain-changing therapies?
One in five of you were willing to argue for mandatory neuro-rehabilitation for the violent criminal, which is undoubtedly going to be a popular idea in a decade or so. In a sense we already have this, when the criminally insane for involuntarily committed and subjected to treatment. Drug therapies for schizophrenia are not permanent brain modification, as the question here implies, for better or worse. But the legal framework of most countries I know of would certainly support involuntary treatment that permanently fixed psychopathic and violent tendencies.
However three quarters of you opted for giving the inmate a choice. Only five percent opted for the “no brain tweaking” slippery slope position.
New poll: Is searching for signs of intelligent life (SETI) with radio telescopes a waste of time? Seems like a popular topic with both the new extrasolar Earth-like planet and alien defense musings in the news this week. Also I just saw Lily Tomlin perform here in Connecticut. (Her performance also features a crazy bag lady waiting for aliens, in a connection with the previous topic).
Poll: Should (legal, safe) nootropics be banned from academic tests?
Looks like unequivocal support for universal access to smart drugs, as opposed to bans or the even more problematic attempt to handicap test results:
This week’s poll: Should future violent criminals be offered brain-changing therapies?
For some reading on this topic check out:
”Scientists look to disrupt the brain chemistry of violence,” Physorg.com April 22, 2007
”Law, Responsibility, and the Brain,” Dean Mobbs, Hakwan C. Lau, Owen D. Jones, Christopher D. Frith (2007) PLoS Biology 5(4): e103
”Violent, antisocial, beyond redemption?” NewScientist, 11 April 2007
”Managing Dangerous People with Severe Personality Disorder,” UK Justice Dept, 1999
”Should We Cure Bad Behavior? Tough questions about crime and neuro-rehabilitation,” Ronald Bailey, Reason, June 1, 2005
”On the Need for New Criteria of Diagnosis of Psychosis in the Light of Mind Invasive Technology,” Carole Smith
Alien abduction, reincarnation and memory errors
by Moheb CostandiWe rarely remember things as they actually happened. Rather, as memories are encoded, they are altered in order to be made compatible with our existing knowledge; upon retrieval, memories are reconstructed rather than reproduced. Because the extent to which this reconstruction occurs can vary, some memories are very accurate while others are a mixture of fact and fantasy. Yet others - claims of highly implausible events such as alien abduction and reincarnation, for example - are completely fabricated.
The Ethics of Imagination: The Space Between Your Ears
by Wrye SententiaThis article will look at the concept of imagination and how imagination is key not only to the furtherance of many of the technologies that we see on a visionary horizon but also to fostering human consciousness in ethically meaningful ways, in ways that are sustainable as we move forward into the bumpy ride of the future.
Poll: Should Ecstasy be legalized?
Yay. Warm empathy feelings all round. Crank up the techno, and hand me a flask of Gatorade.
New poll: What will K-12 education be like in the industrialized North in twenty years?
Augmented Fluid Intelligence
by Jamais CascioCan we survive the multitasking era?
A neural substrate for moral decisions
by Moheb CostandiAn advance online publication in Nature shows that damage to a specific region of the frontal lobe alters people’s ability to make moral judgments.
Your Brain, My Brain, and the Posthuman Rub
by Anne Corwin“Here’s the posthuman rub: We are expanding our control into a vast number of realms that we previously had no choice but to submit to, stoically or otherwise.” - Erik Davis, Take The Red Pill
No Ritalin, No Education!
by Wrye SententiaIn recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of American children diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder). Almost all of these kids are placed on psycho-stimulant medications like Ritalin. As this trend continues, our children are rapidly becoming the most medicated children in the world. With ADHD diagnosis rates ten times greater than those observed in Europe or Japan, the United States now consumes 90% of the annual global production of Methylphenidate.
From Virtual Sex to No Sex?
by J. HughesAn inquiry from a journalist about the phenomenon of sex in the virtual world Second Life (NSFW) got me waxing eloquent about a topic interwoven with my Cyborg Buddha book project: the future of sex. Here is my thesis: the two most important developments in the technological control of sex are both already occurring; first separating sex from physical contact, and then establishing our control over our sexual feelings altogether.
Power Differentials and Theory of Mind
by Anne CorwinAnders Sandberg’s take on How Power Corrupts brings to light a particular cognitive bias associated with power imbalances that I think has much relevance to issues of morphological/cognitive liberty, diversity, and self-transformation in a technologically enabling society.
A stethoscope of human morality?
by An RavelingienAn Ravelingien reports on the conference ‘Double standards. Towards an integration of evolutionary and neurological perspectives on human morality.’ (Ghent University, 21-22 Oct. 2006)
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