{"id":3680,"date":"2023-04-20T15:38:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T15:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/?p=3680"},"modified":"2023-04-20T15:38:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T15:38:12","slug":"the-mind-unlocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/?p=3680","title":{"rendered":"The mind unlocked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reading The Battle for Your Brain by Nita Farahany for New Scientist, 19 April 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

Iranian-American ethicist and lawyer Nita Farahany is no stranger to neurological intervention. She has sought relief from her chronic migraines in \u201ctriptans, anti-seizure drugs, antidepressants, brain enhancers, and brain diminishers. I\u2019ve had neurotoxins injected into my head, my temples, my neck, and my shoulders; undergone electrical stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, MRIs, EEGs, fMRIs, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few know better than Farahany what neurotechnology can do for people\u2019s betterment, and this lends weight to her sombre and troubling account of a field whose speed of expansion alone should give us pause.<\/p>\n

Companies like Myontec, Athos, Delsys and Noraxon already offer electromyography-generated insights to athletes and sports therapists. Control Bionics sells NeuroNode, a wearable EMG device for patients with degenerative neurological disorders, enabling them to control a computer, tablet, or motorised device. Neurable promises \u201cthe mind unlocked\u201d with its \u201csmart headphones for smarter focus.\u201d And that\u2019s before we even turn to the fast-growing interest in implantable devices; Synchron, Blackrock Neurotech and Elon Musk\u2019s Neuralink all have prototypes in advanced stages of development.<\/p>\n

Set aside the legitimate medical applications for a moment; Farahany is concerned that neurotech applications that used to let us play video games, meditate, or improve our focus have opened the way to a future of brain transparency \u201cin which scientists, doctors, governments, and companies may peer into our brains and minds at will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think it can\u2019t be done? Think again. In 2017 A research team led by UC Berkeley computer scientist Dawn Song reported an experiment in which videogamers used a neural interface to control a video game. As they played, the researchers inserted subliminal images into the game and watched for unconscious recognition signals. This game of neurological Battleships netted them one player\u2019s credit card PIN code — and their home address.<\/p>\n

Now Massachusetts-based Brainwave Science is selling a technology called iCognative, which can extract information from people\u2019s brains. At least, suspects are shown pictures related to crimes and cannot help but recognise whatever they happen to recognise. For example, a murder weapon. Emirati authorities have already successfully prosecuted two cases using this technology.<\/p>\n

This so-called \u201cbrain fingerprinting\u201d technique is as popular with governments (Bangladesh, India, Singapore, Australia) as it is derided by many scientists.<\/p>\n

More worrying are the efforts of companies, in the post-Covid era, to use neurotech in their continuing effort to control the home-working environment. So-called \u201cbossware\u201d programmes already take regular screenshots of employees\u2019 work, monitor their keystrokes and web usage, and photograph them at (or not at) their desks. San Francisco bioinformatics company Emotiv now offers to help manage your employees\u2019 attention with its MN8 earbuds. These can indeed be used to listen to music or participate in conference calls — and also, with just two electrodes, one in each ear, they claim to be able to record employees\u2019 emotional and cognitive functions in real time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll come as no surprise if neurotech becomes a requirement in modern workplaces: no earbuds, no job. This sort of thing has happened many times already.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as [factory] workers get used to the new system their pay is cut to the former level,\u201d complained Vladimir Lenin in 1912. \u201cThe capitalist attains an enormous profit for the workers toil four times as hard as before and wear down their nerves and muscles four times as fast as before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six years later, he approved funding for a Taylorist research institute. Say what you like about industrial capitalism, its logic is ungainsayable.<\/p>\n

Farahany has no quick fixes to offer for this latest technological assault on the mind — \u201cthe one place of solace to which we could safely and privately retreat\u201d. Her book left me wondering what to be more afraid of: the devices themselves, or the glee with which powerful institutions seize upon them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading The Battle for Your Brain by Nita Farahany for New Scientist, 19 April 2023 Iranian-American ethicist and lawyer Nita Farahany is no stranger to neurological intervention. She has sought relief from her chronic migraines in \u201ctriptans, anti-seizure drugs, antidepressants, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617,78],"tags":[1065,872,232,696,1064],"class_list":["post-3680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-reviews-and-opinion","category-reviews-and-opinion","tag-brain-interfaces","tag-digital-culture","tag-new-scientist","tag-surveillance","tag-wearables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3682,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions\/3682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.simonings.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}