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Brain chips: now the fight is for the power of your mind

2021-08-18T09:42:56.641Z


The development of techniques to intervene in people's brain capacity opens the discussion for neuro-rights.


Laura Celora

08/18/2021 6:00 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • Live

Updated 08/18/2021 6:00 AM

The

neurotechnological revolution

advances and transforms themes that previously only existed in science fiction films into reality.

The idea of ​​having a chip implanted in us that allows us to move objects with our minds is still a distant possibility but not far-fetched

.

Meanwhile, culture and politics try to catch up with the social challenges that are opened by these innovations.

A quick definition shows that neurotechnology includes

any device that can manipulate our brain

, something that a priori sounds scary, but that also includes tools (hardware and software) that are used for medical treatments.

An example?

The so-called "deep brain stimulation", a therapy that consists of implanting a device that sends electrical impulses to specific points in the brain to treat

diseases such as depression or Parkinson's disease

.

In April this year, Neuralink, the company of eccentric billionaire Elon Musk, posted a footage of

a monkey playing the video game Pong

with his mind

.

The animal had a chip implanted capable of monitoring its neuronal activity in the region of the motor cortex where the movements of the arms and hands are coordinated.

The project aims that, in the future, the device offers a solution to people with cerebral palsy.

Along the same lines, Facebook showed this year

a wristband that detects and decodes commands that the brain sends to the fingers of the hand

.

This contraption works through a technique called electromyography.

Along this path, it is expected, at some point, to develop a brain-computer interface that

makes it possible for a person with total or partial paralysis to carry out movements with their mind in a skillful and fluid way

.

But beyond the obvious usefulness of these new technologies, questions about their use, in such an incipient field, prevail.

There are few who warn of

potential risks if their application is not monitored and regulated

.

The question is: who would concentrate the data of our neural activity and what could they do with it?

The monkey who plays Pong with his mind.

XXI century debate

“It is important to think about not taking technology as something in linear and constant development, without the possibility of limits, pauses or revisions.

Regulation is about that: deciding when something can move forward and when it can't, and why.

And it must be resolved by all the members of a society, and not only by one part, that is, the company or group that benefits from this technological development ”, warns Natalia Zuazo, policy and technology consultant, director of Salto Agencia.

“Laws for the protection of personal data, especially sensitive data, are a fundamental resource of national, regional and international legislation to regulate how far progress can be made, but also to generate transparency.

To implement the famous due diligence in digital processes ”, he adds.

Thus, different groups (political parties, NGOs) are already activating

the defense of the "neuro-rights" of citizens

.

A race to understand the scope of these devices and their potential dangers, both in relation to the way in which they intervene in the human brain - and its will - and in the handling of individual data.

If decades ago international law asked about the development of genetics, which among other things made possible the cloning and decoding of the human genome,

today the new legal frontier is, metaphorically and literally, in our heads.

Or rather, in the legislation relating to so-called

neuro-rights

.

At least five are proposed:

1) Right to mental privacy: It

seeks to prevent any data obtained from the analysis and measurement of neural activity from being used without the consent of the individual.

2) Right to personal identity:

If your brain is hypothetically connected to an intelligent interface, you must continue to preserve what makes you who you are, that is, your identity.

3) Right to free will:

Guarantee freedom of decision even in the hypothetical case of being connected through brain activity readers to a computer.

4) Right to increase neurocognition:

That technologies that improve brain activity be considered a human right with equitable and fair access for all of society.

5) Right to protection from biases:

So that algorithms and “neuro-tools” do not establish discriminations and distinctions.

In Chile, there is already a bill that proposes the defense and protection of the neuro-rights of citizens.

The wristband developed by Facebook.

Battlefield

The new technologies are developed by large private corporations.

And here it is worth bearing in mind that we are no longer talking only about big data or profiling (profiling)

based on behaviors and online activity, but information about our brain states.

While some companies in Peru, Argentina and Brazil are already considering

the use of SmartCaps

(smart caps) that monitor the brain waves of their employees to measure fatigue and prevent accidents in work environments, showing a possible and very close use in daily life , there are alerts about invasive practices and

Chile could become the first country in the world to include neuro-rights in its Constitution

.

“The bill for constitutional reform recently approved in the Senate is joined by a bill currently under discussion. Both initiatives are the work of the Senate Commission on Challenges of the Future, Science, Technology and Innovation, under the sponsorship of the Spanish neurobiologist Rafael Yuste, and aim to protect us from the

potential dangers of neurotechnologies

, which –in the words of Senator Guido Girardi - They could 'read your brain and know what you think, what you feel, even read the unconscious that you don't see yourself,' "explains Vladimir Garay, Advocacy Director of the Chilean NGO Derechos Digitales.

By treating neurodata as an organ, the bill prohibits Chilean citizens from being forced to give their information (brain data), and most importantly, it requires that in its collection there is always an

explicit option

to accept or not that the data are stored.

Furthermore, this data could not be commercialized even with consent: it could only be donated for altruistic reasons.

Experts acknowledge that it is a theoretical threat and that if it materializes or not we will know in time.

Damage control

Although the regulation of mind-reading neurotechnologies seems necessary to protect, among other things, our mental privacy, there are different critical views on how to do it, and

if this could hamper scientific research along the way

.

After all, many of these developments are still in their infancy and face considerable obstacles and practical limitations.

“Even the most studied brain signals, those related to visual perception, are difficult for scientists to understand.

However, if we wait for neurotechnology to be ready before deciding to regulate technical applications and the social practices around them, then they could be too culturally ingrained to be able to modify them ”, they warn from the Rest of the World site in an editorial recent.

For Zuazo, it is about first elucidating what we are talking about when we talk about neurotechnologies, and being able to disaggregate the advertising of certain inventions:

“In these matters,

the promoted 'advances' of the industries always collide with the real needs of people and their rights

.

You have to think about which of these things are truly new.

It happens that the progress of different technologies, added to the storage and data processing capacity, have made a great leap forward in these research areas in recent years ”.

For his part, Juan Carlos Lara, co-executive director of Derechos Digitales Chile, opines: “This threat is still theoretical and, whether it materializes or not, it is something that we will discover over time.

The proactivity with which Chilean legislators are acting is certainly noteworthy

, as well as their interest in the intersection between technology and fundamental rights ”.

“Faced with the discussion about whether or not to regulate certain technological developments, there was no genuine opposition to what is proposed. And this is because today, strictly speaking,

regulations would hardly impede the task of investigation

. I think this is an interesting point: the importance of speculatively establishing limits to the scope of certain technologies before they even exist ”, adds Valentín Muro, philosopher and part of Philosophy of the Future, where these and other topics related to Artificial Intelligence are studied .

And he adds: "The alternative to that we already know and suffer (with the large platforms and their handling of big data for example): it

is damage control after it was not possible to anticipate

what would happen with technical developments that appeared to be harmless" .

There are also central questions regarding the transparency, access and equality of these neurodevelopments to think about the future: who produces them? For whom?

Will we all be able to access or will they generate more gaps?

"The pandemic was very clear on that.

Without political management of new technologies, the world produces new inequalities.

Whether they are vaccines or neuroloquesea ”, closes Zuazo.

When it comes to future developments in the technology applied to our minds, it seems better to be safe than sorry, and furthermore, in the process, set precedents that could serve other fields of future innovation.

After all,

what is at stake is nothing more and nothing less than our medical privacy and free will

Look also

What they know about you and what they do with your data Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Metaverses: the Internet beyond is here

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-08-18

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