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Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Cognitive Liberty in the Neurotechnology Era
James J. Hughes Ph.D.Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesPublic Policy, Trinity College, Hartford CT
September 21, 2006Neuroethics SeminarUniversity of Pennsylvania
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Overview
• Cognitive Liberty
• Neurotechs
• Risks to Cognitive Liberty
• Limits of Cognitive Liberty
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
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
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
NeuroEnhancement
• Memory (anti-Alzheimers drugs, stem cells)
• Fear, Anxiety (Propanalol)• Mood (Prozac, brain stims)• Alertness (Ritalin, Provigil)• Creativity (TMS)• Empathy, Trust (Oxytocin,
Ecstasy, gene therapy)• Sensory (cochlear implants)
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
NanoNeural Network
• Today: Cyberkinetics chip
• Future: Nano-Neural Network– Self-replicating– Two-way
communication– Networked
“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
2040?Now
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Risks to Cognitive Liberty
• Lack of Privacy
• Overt Control
• Ownership
• Social Norms
• Neurotech doesn’t pose novel challenges
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
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
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
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
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
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
Limits of Liberty
Need to protect/enhance
• Flourishing
• Equality
• Empathy & solidarity
• Moral behavior
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Stop the Drug WarDevelop Therapies for
Drug Dependency
Alcohol aversion drugs, e.g. naltrexone
Buprenorphine for opiatesVaccines and gene therapies
to prevent or cure:• Alcoholism • Cocaine addiction• Heroin addiction• Nicotine dependency
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Protect/enhance equality
• 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
Literacy is the first step to cyborgization
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
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.”
Arthur Caplan
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Empathy Therapies
Diagnosis for, and subsidized enhancement of, the genetic and neurophysiological bases of empathy and agreeableness
• Attitudes toward immigrants has a genetic component
• Debate over pathological racism & homophobia as a mental disorder
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
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
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