THE BATTLE FOR YOUR BRAIN

An unsettling warning that “personal neurotech devices,” now carried by 1 in 5 Americans, will soon expose our innermost thoughts to the world.

Studies show that most users are happy to allow access to findings from their smartwatches, fitness trackers, and electronic sensors in exchange for modest benefits: discounts, entertainment, personal statistics, etc. Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke, finds this unnerving. However, she is no prophet of doom, pointing out that startups are creating plenty of useful devices. Thousands of truck and train drivers wear SmartCaps that monitor brain waves, informing them (and their bosses) if they are sleepy or distracted. Future wearables will forewarn epileptics of a seizure, detect early signs of brain disease such as Alzheimer’s, and perhaps enhance mental powers. Unfortunately, nothing in the Constitution or any U.S. or international law gives individuals sovereignty over their minds. “With our DNA already up for grabs and our smartphones broadcasting our every move,” writes the author, “our brains are increasingly the final frontier for privacy.” Relying heavily on John Stuart Mill and admirable if unenforceable U.N. statements on human freedom, Farahany casts a gimlet eye on current neurotechology, an exuberant field led by China, whose government’s obsession with an obedient citizenry is producing Orwellian electronics that American startups ignore at their peril. Traditional biometrics (fingerprints, facial IDs) can be faked, but wearable brain biometrics can accurately identify and monitor individuals over time. Popular drugs such as Adderall enhance brain function, but external devices that feed back brain waves, as well as implantable electrodes, work better. Will it be cheating to use them? Farahany delivers the pros and cons. Less pertinent to her thesis is her investigation of transhumanism, a flourishing movement that aims to push humans into the “next stage” of evolution by overcoming aging and death and supercharging brains to compete with AI and uploading them to computers to achieve immortality.

An occasionally scattershot yet insightful report.