Neuroethics: Altering Other People's Brains

h

Main Point: our brains need special protections.

Points:

restricting the flow of information is impossible and harmful

cognitive liberty

mental privacy: rights over info abour your mind

freexom of thousht:

pos: right to change mental state

neg: right not to have something happen or be protected (unwarranted search/seizure)

self determination

pos: rights to change your mental state as you wish

neg: right to not be denied determination?

neurotech could oppress or protect us we must choose

Concerns/Rebuttals:

"we should restrict" impossible

Summary:

current legal does not acknowledge mental crimes. the law should introduce inner sphere protections.

Not covered bodily rights

Not just harm to brain

Involves brain but in diff way concussion/disease

Not a new idea

Implicit in ideas about human dignity; always assumed/intuitive

direct: on brain physically dbs

indirect: mediated.

Concerns/Rebuttals:

we alter eachothers minds all the time/free speech: how ban intervention?

consent

some interventions informed consent and can eval legally

neg mental

impair cog, alter prefs, injure, undermine self deter

what makes change negative?how do we know emotion inappropriate?

Main Point: new neuro tech will create new ways to harm privacy. must first address the mundane ethics as things become more advanced

Points:

we already have exposes on celebrities in biographic depictions. forefit privacy in deatht

torture violate a victim's privacy

privacy vs liberty

invasions of privacy=intrusion, disclosure

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

detection of deception. not always high tech. can fmri discriminate lies from truth in individual subjects with sufficient accuracy?

lying is not homogenous behavior

low accuracy

criminals vs subjects and undergrads

first: different policies considered for different fmri lie detection. not banning despite shortcoming. different restrictions different scenarios

second: publically funded research.

removal of experimental ocnfounds.

more realistic experiment conditions

third: scientists vital neuroscience law. raise questions about accuracy and provide answers

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

Main Point:

Points:

Concerns/Rebuttals:

Summary:

j

h

retribution

deterrence

containment

rehabilitation

transcranial magnetic stimulation

(bbublitz and merkel propose stimulating areas of the brain during testimony to make deceit harder therefore easier to detect)

deep brain stimulation. the scientists change and monitor a patients brain activity

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) involves implanting electrodes within areas of the brain. The electrodes produce electrical impulses that affect brain activity to treat certain medical conditions. The electrical impulses also can affect cells and chemicals within the brain that cause medical conditions.

Parkinson's disease.

Epilepsy.

Tourette syndrome.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Investigating corruption through TMS to make lying harder

DBS for journal paper. patient altered to create mood swings

ghrelin (chemicals to cause hunger) to sell more restaurant food appetite

oxytocin to win at poker (manipulate intuation of situationa nd raise trust)

memory blockers to conceal crime (SA victims forcced to forget)

stimulants for financial trading (concstantly alert financial broker to always be ready to make quick bet

SOME WE DO NOT NEED TECH FOR:

interrogators leading witnesses to certain beliefs

stores designed for subtl purhasing

snack chemisty

subliminal web dessign cause purchase

brainwashsing: mk ultra, communism thought reform

ALL ARE: INTUITIVELY WRONG in the SAME WAY

different from bodily harm (mwntal harm not same concussion)

implicit. we take for granted. we assumed

Negative: defense from unwanted intrustions

posiitv: freedome to determine one's niner realm

consented?

negative mental effects?

● reduce or impair cognitive capacities (e.g. memory, concentration, will

● alter preferences, beliefs dispositions (e.g. implanting false memories, creating addictions),

● elicit inappropriate emotions (e.g. artificially induced appetite)

● orclinically identifiable mental injuries.”

directly or indirectly?

(I) stimuli that operate directly on the brain… bypassing mental control capacities of the addressee, causing serious negative mental consequences shall be punishable …unless consent

(II)through stimuli purposefully designed to bypass mental control capacities causing severe negative mental consequences punishable unless such stimuli are exercises of permissible conduct such as free speech….[unless consented to]

Tort for privacy violation: intrusion into soething pricate defined by METHOD reasonably expect privacy, disclosure public defined by CONTENT would offend reasonable person (truth is not defense but public interest is)

what if we consent? is internet data harvesting unethical?

Consumer EEG (devices (meditation aides, sleep trackers, migraine predictors, etc.) (electroencephalogram) (records the electrical activity of brain via electroedes fix to scalp. record conditions)

Neural Interfaces to connect to tech

brain the ONE PLACE of solace.

why is brain data uuniwue?

important? not really

control? not always

WHAT TO DO?

doesn't want to restrict flow of information; impossible and limits progress. doesn't want to stop use and records

put into place clear rules and regulations

WHAT REGULATIONS?

transparent corporations

limited processing

user-based controls

(power on and off without worrying what actiity)

local process

continuous overwrite

standards against discrim use

Focuses on individuals (not social structures or relationships)

Treats individuals as all having the same interests (not opposed interests)

Assumes that the value of privacy is shared (opposition is just from greed etc.

concentrate valye of privacy compatible and implicit in democratic government. current pricacy does not always mirror democratic values

eg:

secret ballot

open voting

reinforce the entitlement to vote: “while democratic legislators may be more vulnerable to intimidation than citizens [...] it is the former, not the latter, who must vote openly, not secretly"

(reinforcing different ppls rights!)

privacy can create domination (shielded domestic violence because "private")

parents controlling what children see online? is critixizing them an invasion of their privacy? is discussing parenting protecting the child's privact?

value judgement!

OLD:

dry mouth (rice in mouth. after questions if dry then called liar)

polygraph "lie detectors"

sodium pentothal (truth serum)

now untrustworthy. false confessions. anxiety, impairm compel

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a class of imaging methods developed in order to demonstrate regional, time-varying changes in brain metabolism. mri using magnets creates magnetic field

PLAN:

use fmri to scan when lying and telling trusth

identifying areas different active when lying (FIRST HURDLE)

CLEARED we know brain areas active in deception

write program to detect those areas

use fmri to detect activity during interrogation

confounds (picking up lying or something else?)

base rates (if lying rate, then even accurate etest may give false results) (false positives. 67% in studies)

individual variation (everyone different)

task variation (what different sorts lies have different neural signatures)

countermeasures (tech widely used, way to trick?)

how we codify privacy reflects what kind of society we want to make

“Truth” is a good goal when everyone’s interests line up; when people’s interests are in conflict, truth helps some people and hurts others.

E.g. In war, both sides want their information about the enemy to be true, and want their enemy’s information about them to be false.

COOPERATIVE vs ANTAGONISTIC when interests align

introduce lie detection to courts.

rules out epxplicit coercion. but doesnt guaruntee implicit coercian.

Brain Machine Interface (BMI)

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

neural interface

methods

Electrocorticography (ECoG), a type of intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), is a type of electrophysiological monitoring that uses electrodes placed

sending in

sensory prostheses (link camera to cortical stim. sub sense), motor prostheses (robo limb), Brain to Brain (silent talk, eeg user to user communication on battlefield)

as DBS becomes more widespread, as this paper has concluded is to be expected, costs and risks will plunge and in a longer perspective, productivity-enhancing DBS seems like a real prospect.

An Autonomy Comparison

A cashier could be made happier and more friendly, a police officer could have his aggressions blocked, a doctor could be made more caring and empathetic, and a soldier could be transformed into a callous and detached person.”

(addicted police officer?) (arm-matic 3000)

TYPES OF MEMMORY:

Short-term memory

Long-term memory

Implicit memory

■ Procedural memory

■ Associative memory

○ Explicit memory

■ Semantic memory

■ Episodic memor

LTP long term potentiation

Rehearsal (to solidify the memory) ● Mnemonics (to make something easier to remember) ● Revisiting with a different mood (to moderate emotional tone) ● Suggestive prompting (to implant false memories) ● ‘Externalizing’ memories in the form of notes, writing diaries, photographs, stories, etc. We also have familiar drugs that can interrupt long-term potentiation by disrupting brain activity generally (e.g. ‘getting blackout drunk’). This stops any memory being formed at all, and has severe side-effects.

long term potentiation, processing long term memory.

move from short to long term.

neuron connections strengthened (one fire will usually acivate others)

relies on hippocampus and strengthened by amygdala aka emotional arousal area

rehearsal (solidify)

mnemonics

revisitng

suggestive prompting

exterbalizineg (writing diaries, notes, photos, stories)

alcohol/intoxication

propanolol

heart nedication

interfere with emotion effects and LTP

doesnt affect recall but affects emotion response

emotive intensity can improve recall

USE:

PTSD

dampen flashbacks

cptsd (complex ptsd without single focal event long term)

(no proposals, just worries)

clinical use: make prospective judgement that event is sufficiently terrible to warrant in-the-moment blunting?

non-clinical: (could also apply to research)

prepare soldier to kill,

dull sting of shame,

criminal numb victims memory

societal: obligation to remember

obligation on those who experience directly

victims/witnesses numb themselves and protect perpetrators? testimony?

(value of emotional pain? psychic pain unnecessary.....become inhuman....remove difficult)

Judging when to administer propranolol clinically

● Making soldiers callous and unfeeling ●

Blocking guilt from wrongdoing ●

Numbing victims and witness’s memories of wrongdoing ●

Victims and witnesses numbing their own memories

human life should incorporate pain:

plausible: life without pain sounds weird

paradoxical: when we feel pain we try to reduce it

what sorts of pain?

failure: life without failure impoverished?

torture: good life without this?

loss/lovehurt:unclear??? love entails pain but we may never feel pain in love

value of emotional pain. contemplate answer

overblown

(but recent discoverries more radical ways. overblown concerns in 2001 could be reasonable in 31)

kolber: pcb overblown fears. unjustified aversion to pharmaceutical managing trauma

Self-knowledge is valuable

(maybe also: “personal growth”?)

Direct methods work independently of self-knowledge.

Indirect methods change our minds by means of giving us self-knowledge.

➔ Therefore We should prefer indirect methods when possible

“some bioethicists argue that instead of seeking a solution in a pill bottle, we should do the difficult but rewarding emotional work"

levy accepts first two and says third is true in SOME cases. some indirect methods work through self knowledge. but direct methods may still facilitate self knowledge. self knowledge is just one good among many not an obligation.

Zera-inhibitory Peptide

blocks PKC-Zeta, protein involved in LTP

(rat taught where to get cocaine, ZIP injected, rat lost behavior related to finding the cocaine, but no brain damage)

(BUT: rat memory diff from human, not clear how selective or how to make it selective,)

ERASE

1

find neurons with certain memory.

injext ZIP to block those neurons and erase that memory

hopefully does not erase all memories associated with those neurons

2

actibating memory to re-encode with LTP

ZIP blocks LTP

activating memory and injecting ZIP = erasure

CREATE

3

what does opposite of ZIP? (PKC-Zeta?)

patient imagines event

inject anti-Zip

imagined event feels real

would be COMPLEX

Lacuna-eternal sunshine. removes emotional charge AND factual knowledge (would anyone choose to remove instead of just "numbing". is it ethically diff?)

define

most of what we know we learn from others. removing info from your mind might make it less available to others

Honesty andDemocracy

do others have a right to know info

are you making democratic society worse

is removing a factual memory lying to yourself?

is lying to self as bad, or worse than to others

SELF DECEPTION:

exceptions for honesty:

deceive enemies in conflict

trivial matters

private matters when others have no right to know

where is my mind? why do we think it is there?

immediate experiene- eyes and ears in front brain (contingent

soul is? cannot detect?

biology? nothing special about brain-tissue

philosophers think key is function. mind is in brain because of what it does

: Mentality is a matter of performing certain information-processing functions.

The mind is software, the brain is hardware

You can run the same software on any sufficiently complex hardware ● Hence microchips, if they can perform the same function, are just as good as neurons. ● Hence aliens or robots might have minds just like ours, but implemented in a different sort of materia

If an internal process and an external process perform the exact same function, they’re on a par for being part of the mind. But obviously

There are some functional differences between a notebook and biological memory.

(E.g. A notebook requires light: it stops functioning in darkness, where biological memory continues to function.) So we have to spell out which aspects of what something does matter.

specifically thinking about STORAGE

can otto's notebook be part o his mind

“playing the same role.”

constant presence. rarely take action if re;evant

available without difficulty

autpmatically endorses

consciously endorse some point in the past

(but notebook not always, still interface, doubt or distrust (what if someone else write) perfectly track)

what biological brain functions which also fail to meet features

Whatever is part of your mind is also part of you)

..

should crimes against a person include intimate inorganic items? artificial limb stolen is theft or battery?

bodily wrongs like assault are simply wrongs that involve the body where what counts as the body is a question for science

Aas:

body is all things and only things which

PSYCHOLOGICAL ACCOUNT:

feel like part of my body when using skillfully

feel part of my body alll the time (ownership?)

are part of my extended mind

BIOLOGICAL ACCOUNT:

work like body part (organic/functional integration?)

grew from same zygore v(ontogenetic?)(biology of being)

evolved in tandem with other parts (evolutionary)

accepted by my immune system (immunology?)

critical to our functioning as equals

levy/aas

“to the extent that a kind of inorganic item meets the following conditions, it is hard to imagine how any institutions that treat disabled people as equals could resist affording items of this kind bodily protection [...]

(1) Functionally replace a ‘missing’ organic item (whether, in terms of relevant phenomenology or matching self-representation; or in terms of maintaining the integrated functioning of a system needed to support action and experience); and

(2) Are themselves not significantly easier to replace than the organic item they replace

If P kills someone. should they b punished? why

retribution: only fair for guilty people to suffer in proportion to their guilt (backward) (free will)

deterrence: seeing an act punished will deter people from further in the future (free will)

rehabilitation: make them better in future (because not in control)

restitution: some punishments rectify harm doneto victims (regardless free will)

containment: some punishments make an offender physically less able to offend again (because not in control)

right thiung to do is whatever will bring about the best overall consequencces (utilitarianism is form of consequentialism)

punishment should be given "As deserved"

guilty mind vs guilty act

(criminal punishment presupposes free will )

acting intentionally or negligently not autoamtic

understand what you are doing

understand moral status

being in control and able to do otherwise

Greene and Cohen argue as follows:

Premise 1: The planned external causes of Mr. Puppet’s actions mean that he doesn’t have free will. (Responsibility for Mr. Puppet’s actions lies with the scientists, not him: he’s just “a pawn”.)

Premise 2: If Mr. Puppet is unfree, then someone whose actions are equally determined by unplanned external influences also doesn’t have free will.

Premise 3: Our actions are determined by unplanned external influences, just as much as Mr. Puppet’s are determined by planned ones.

Conclusion: We don’t have free will. (“what is the difference between Mr Puppet and anyone else accused of a crime?”)

hard determinism: everything we do product of prior, no free will

soft determinism: even tho everything we do is a product of prior casual influences. free will

libertarianism: free will because actions NOT product casual actions

since the law presupposes free will can we never punish? greene and cohen say we can punish just it will not be based on deserts

Absolve of guilt altogether (NGRI)

not guilty reason of insanity

not know nature, not know what doing wrong, could not appreciate criminality, could not conform, act product of degect (dont deserve then shorter cant control then longer double edge)x

get someone lighter sentence (mitigation)

shift how we think about justifications

(diversion courts for ngri defenders?) neuroscience?)

does the affected conset

does it bring negative mental effects

is it direct or indirect?

electroencephalogram

less invasice-no surgery

extract signals from brain

a test that measures electrical activity in the brain using small, metal discs (electrodes) attached to the scalp. Brain cells communicate via electrical impulses and are active all the time, even during asleep. This activity shows up as wavy lines on an EEG recording.

electromyogram

less invasive- no surgery

extract signals from brain

measures muscle response or electrical activity in response to a nerve's stimulation of the muscle. The test is used to help detect neuromuscular abnormalities. During the test, one or more small needles (also called electrodes) are inserted through the skin into the muscle.

functional magnetic resonance imaging

signals from brain

less invasive-no surgery

measures the small changes in blood flow that occur with brain activity. It may be used to examine which parts of the brain are handling critical functions, evaluate the effects of stroke or other disease, or to guide brain treatment.

electrocorticogram

signals from brain

moderately invasive- skull surgery

An electrocorticogram (ECOG) is the tracing of the brain waves made by an apparatus used for detecting and recording brain waves made with the electrodes in direct contact with the brain.

adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation

more invasive

signals to the brain/from the brain

The procedure involves implanting electrodes in the brain to deliver electrical stimulation using an implanted battery source called an impulse generator. It uses feedback from the brain itself to fine-tune its signaling.

more invasive-brain surgery

extract signals from brain/send into brain

In neuroscience, single-unit recordings (also, single-neuron recordings) provide a method of measuring the electro-physiological responses of a single neuron using a microelectrode system. When a neuron generates an action potential, the signal propagates down the neuron as a current which flows in and out of the cell through excitable membrane regions in the soma and axon. A microelectrode is inserted into the brain, where it can record the rate of change in voltage with respect to time. These microelectrodes must be fine-tipped, impedance matching;^[1] they are primarily glass micro-pipettes, metal microelectrodes made of platinum, tungsten, iridium or even iridium oxide.^[2][3][4] Microelectrodes can be carefully placed close to the cell membrane, allowing the ability to record extracellularly.

more invasice-brain surgery

extract signals from brain/send to brain

Neuralink device contains a chip and electrode arrays of more than 1,000 superthin, flexible conductors that a surgical robot threads into the cerebral cortex. There the electrodes are designed to register thoughts related to moti

degensive wall against unwanted intrusions (faranahay calls them mental selfdetermination. zuk calls them mental integrity)

consent -how much understanding? when tacit consent asumed? what are default expectations? what if interventioin makes future consent more likely??

negative mental effects-where is

boundary between changing or impairing? what makes change negative? how do we determine when emotuon is innappropriate? what if intervenor thinks its appropriate?

direct or indirect/-why are direct impermissible (prima facie, against levy's idea that effects matter over form) direct violate demands of dignity.

(in)direct?

negative mental consequences?

consent?

designed to bypass control?

oritected by other rights?

reduce or impair cog capabilities

alter preferences, beliegs, behavioral dispositions, erasing memories, creating addictions

elicit inappropriate emotions

elicit clinicially identifiable mental injury

intrusion (form)

disclosure (content)

truth not defense but public interest is

(based on jurisprudence's evaluation of reasonable)

answer

INTRUSIVE: hack phone, computer, email

DISCLOSE: share location, purchase, personal data etc

why can we not sue? because we conseneted (if we consented why do we still feel uneasy?)

we dont understand agreements

would we choose diff?

we dont have control over details of data use?

what would we choose if we did?

internet use non optional

whose fualt?

answawer

consumer EEG

neural interfaces

control

important

NO! She wants regulations, not restrictive bans

"impossible and limits insights to end suffering"

transparency

limit further processing

user-based controls

data processed locally

data continuously overwritten

standards against discriminatory use

lever

s

?

individuals, not structures/relationships

treats individuals as having the same interests

assumes value of privacy is shared (opposition is just greed)

different forms of society

“we have to concentrate on the value of privacy that is implicit in, or compatible with, democratic rather than undemocratic forms of government, and cannot assume that current forms of privacy adequately reflect the former.”

secret ballot

open voting

-rape, assault,

MacKinnon thus argues that fighting sexism requires willingness to openly discuss or intrude into “private” matters like sex, domestic violence or who does the dishes.

private matter: parents authority. otherwise invading.

publis: in

value judgement