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Demand for 'Neuro-rights' Pick up Pace as Advances in Brain Tech Threaten Human Autonomy
News 18A turning point for Rafael Yuste, a neuroscientist at New York’s Columbia University, came when his lab discovered it could activate a few neurons in a mouse’s visual cortex and make it hallucinate. Following his team’s discovery, he launched the NeuroRights Initiative, which advocates five “neuro-rights” to protect how a person’s brain data is accessed and used, including a right to mental privacy and to free will. And major tech firms, from Facebook to Tesla, are working on “computer-brain” interfaces to allow consumers to control devices with their thoughts, while some smaller companies sell wearable devices to monitor brain activity. But warnings of “science-fiction scenarios” of for-profit mind control are overblown for a line of research that is still so young, said Karen Rommelfanger, director of the neuroethics program at Emory University in Atlanta. “But exactly how it develops is up in the air.” Ienca at ETH Zurich said major ethical issues could arise if the data commercial neurotech devices cllect is widely shared and analyzed without proper safeguards, he said.
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Where free will, mental privacy inform protection of 'neuro rights'
China Daily
This law and philosophy professor warns neurotechnology is also a danger to privacy
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