Neurotechnology: Premises, Potential, and Problems PDF

Series Preface Advances in Neurotechnology: Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues

Neuroscience and neurotechnology have progressed through a reciprocal relationship of tasks and tools: advances in technology have enabled discovery in the neurosciences, and neuroscientific questions and concepts have fueled development of new technologies with which to study and manipulate nervous systems and the brain. Neuroimaging, neurostimulatory and neuroprosthetic devices, neurogenetics, and unique pharmacological agents and approaches have shown considerable promise in improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurological injury and neuropsychiatric disorders and may expand the boundaries of human performance and humanmachine interaction. Despite apparent limitations, these technologies increasingly are used to define, predict, and control cognition, emotions, and behaviors, and they have been instrumental in challenging long-held beliefs about the nature of the mind and the self, morality, and human nature. Thus, neuroscience and neurotechnology are implicitly and explicitly shaping our worldview-and our world.

On the one hand, neuroscience and neurotechnology may be regarded as a set of resources and tools with which to answer perdurable questions about humanity and nature, whereas, on the other, we must consider the profound questions that neurotechnology will foster. Can neurotechnology resolve the problem of consciousness-and if so, what will be the implications of such findings for social thought and conduct? Will these technologies take us to the point of being beyond human? What values drive our use-and potential misuses-of neurotechnologies? How will neurotechnology affect the international balance of economic, social, and political power? Should neurotechnology be employed by the military, and if so, how? Are there limits to neurotechnological research and use, and if so, what are they, who shall decide what they are, and what ethical criteria might be required to guide the use of neurotechnologies and the outcomes they achieve?

Such questions are not merely hypothetical or futuristic; rather, they reflect the current realities and realistic projections of neurotechnological progress, and they reveal the moral, ethical, and legal issues and problems that must be confronted when considering the ways that neurotechnology can and should be employed and how such utilization will affect various individuals, communities, and society at large. Confronting these issues necessitates discussion of the benefits, burdens, and harms that particular neurotechnologies could incur and the resources that are needed to govern neurotechnological progress. The discourse must be interdisciplinary in its constitution, delivery, and appeal, and therefore, any authentic effort in this regard must conjoin the natural, physical, and social sciences as well as the humanities.

This series seeks to contribute to and sustain such discourse by bringing together scholars from the aforementioned fields to focus on the issues that arise in and from studies and applications of neurotechnology. Each book will provide multidisciplinary perspectives on the ethicolegal and social issues spawned by the use of specific neurotechnologies and how more general developments in neurotechnology affect important domains of the human condition or social sphere. The insights afforded by this series are relevant to scientists, engineers, clinicians, social scientists, philosophers, and ethicists who are engaged in the academic, government, military, and commercial biotechnology sectors. It is my intention that this series will keep pace with and reflect advancements in this rapidly changing field and serve as both a nexus for interdisciplinary ideas and viewpoints and a forum for their expression.