Overview

1. Cognitive Liberty in the Neurotechnology EraJames J. Hughes Ph.D.Executive Director, World Transhumanist Association & Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesPublic Policy, Trinity College, Hartford CTSeptember 21, 2006Neuroethics SeminarUniversity of Pennsylvania Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

2. Overview • Cognitive Liberty • Neurotechs • Risks to Cognitive Liberty • Limits of Cognitive Liberty Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

3. Cognitive Liberty • Bodily autonomy: right to control own brain • Freedom of conscience, thought, belief • Brain privacy • Liberal individualism’s idea of a discrete, autonomous decider (increasingly problematic) Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

4. Hardware Software Internal External Cog Liberty Enhanced & Challenged by All Tech Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

5. External Hardware • Pictures, written language and numbers outsourced the brain • Started with clay and paper • Today wearable computers • Cell phones • The wireless exo-cerebrum Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

6. External Software • Calendars • To do lists • Google • Info visualization • Biofeedback • Expert systems • Intelligent agents Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

7. Internal Software Better thinking • Education • Mnemonics • Cognitive therapy • Meditation and concentration Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

8. Internal Hardware Gene therapies Emoticeuticals, nootropics Brain-computer interfaces Transcranial magnetic stimulation Stem cell generation & tissue engineering Deep brain stimulation Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

9. Enhancement Goals Internal hardware methods • Memory (anti-Alzheimers drugs, stem cells) • Fear (Propanalol) • Mood (Prozac, brain stims) • Alertness (Ritalin, Provigil) • Creativity (TMS) • Empathy (Oxytocin, Ecstasy) • Sensory (cochlear implants) Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

10. Emerging Technologies Tech that will radically change human brain: • Psychopharmacology • Genetic engineering • Nanotechnology • Artificial intelligence • Cognitive science • The accelerating convergence of all these • “for improving human performance” Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

11. NanoNeural Network • 2040? • Self-replicating • Two-way communication with neurons • Networked Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

12. Laproscopic Implantation “Neuro-vascular central nervous recording/stimulating system: Using nanotechnology probes,” Rodolfo R. Llinás, Kerry D. Walton, Masayuki Nakao, et al., Journal of Nanoparticle Research 2005 Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

13. Risks to Cognitive Liberty • Lack of Privacy • Overt Control • Ownership • Social Norms • Neurotech doesn’t pose novel challenges Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

14. Lack of Privacy • Extension of privacy of written and electronic records, drug tests • Brain fingerprinting eventually functional • Need for laws requiring warrants for brain scans, protecting brain privacy at work Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

15. Overt Control • Extension of debates over indoctrination, involuntary commitment • Uses of neurotech to control desire, identity, ideation, knowledge • Defend liberal society, fight totalitarianism Ongoing need to parse legitimate cog liberty from insanity and criminality Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

16. Ownership and Openness • Extension of debates over IP, open source, voting machines, pharma trials • Right to cog lib supercede proprietary rights over cog tech? Google Desktop added 10 points to my IQ – do I need to know how it works? Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

17. Independence from Social Norms • Extension of concerns over conformity • Ability to suppress non-conformist impulses • Sex re-assignment or gender identity correction? • Divorce or self-agnegation? • Encourage individualism Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

18. Virus Protection for the Brain • Conscious control of susceptibility to pressure to conform, obey • Having an internal locus of control • Becoming aware of external influences • Turning off submission to authority • Steve Mann’s spam filters Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

19. Limits of Liberty Need to protect/enhance • Flourishing • Equality • Empathy & solidarity • Moral behavior Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

20. Self-Enslavement • Today’s Drug War is a crime • Cannabis users are political prisoners • Dependence is a public health issue • But… • Meth and opiates foreshadow future neurotechs that permanently change motivation, identity, thought • Should be heavily regulated • Auto-reset fail-safe? Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

21. Therapies for Drug Dependency Alcohol aversion drugs, e.g. naltrexone Buprenorphine for opiates Vaccines and gene therapies to prevent or cure: • Alcoholism • Cocaine addiction • Heroin addiction • Nicotine dependency Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

22. Protect/enhance equality Literacy is the first step to cyborgization • Parallel to education policy, access to mental health treatment, digital divide • Universal access, and even mandatory enhancement, may be necessary for individual opportunity and social equity Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

23. Ensure Universal Access “…enhancing intelligence or changing personality or modifying our memory, maybe that should be available to everyone as a guarantee of equal opportunity.” Some Guy Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

24. Protect/enhance solidarity • Extension of problems of dehumanizing of the Other, social studies & civics ed, sensitivity training • Tech control of empathy and group identity Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

25. Xenophobia Disorder • Attitudes toward immigrants has a genetic component • Debate over pathological racism & homophobia as a mental disorder Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

26. Empathy Therapies Screening for, and subsidized enhancement of, the genetic and neurophysiological bases of empathy and agreeableness Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

27. Oxytocin and Trust • Breastfeeding • Orgasm • Bonding and trust • “Neuroactive hormones and interpersonal trust: International evidence” Zak & Fakhar, Economics and Human Biology • Oxytocin deficits? Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

28. Autists’ Rights? • If empathy is a valued and encouraged, autism/AS is a disease right? • Pushing the limits of neurodiversity Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

29. Protect/enhance moral behavior “We may be able… to control our passions by some more direct method than fasting and flagellation…to deal with perverted instincts by physiology rather than prison.” JBS Haldane“Daedalus, or Science and the Future” Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

30. Engineering Virtue Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

31. Expert Moral Systems “Contemporary Man does not foresee the real Superman will snap his superfingers at all Man’s present trumpery ideals of right, duty, honor, justice, religion, even decency, and accept moral obligations beyond present human endurance.” George Bernard Shaw in Man and Superman Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

32. Cyber-Moral Reasoning Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

33. Morality PDAs • Remind us of relevant principles and similar cases • Behavior-triggered warnings: e.g. email flame filters Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

34. Better Citizens… • More happy & intelligent • More self-aware & independent • More socially minded • Better moral & political decision-making Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

35. …or Brave New World? Risk of neuro-totalitarianisms • Brain fingerprinting for thoughtcrimes • Remote-controlled minds • Blissed-out citizens • Corporate-owned brain operating systems: Microsoft Brain 9.0 • Self-enforced cognitive uniformity Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

36. Final Thoughts • Importance of cognitive libertyEvery person controlling their brain in self-determined ways • Importance of liberal and social democratic societies - Liberté, egalité, solidarité - celebration of diversity & individualism • Need for a positive model of human personality Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

37. Teaser • Neurotech will continue to erode the illusory continuous, autonomous self • What political model will replace one-brain/one-vote liberal individualism? Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies