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      The Mind and the Machine. On the Conceptual and Moral Implications of Brain-Machine Interaction

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          Abstract

          Brain-machine interfaces are a growing field of research and application. The increasing possibilities to connect the human brain to electronic devices and computer software can be put to use in medicine, the military, and entertainment. Concrete technologies include cochlear implants, Deep Brain Stimulation, neurofeedback and neuroprosthesis. The expectations for the near and further future are high, though it is difficult to separate hope from hype. The focus in this paper is on the effects that these new technologies may have on our ‘symbolic order’—on the ways in which popular categories and concepts may change or be reinterpreted. First, the blurring distinction between man and machine and the idea of the cyborg are discussed. It is argued that the morally relevant difference is that between persons and non-persons, which does not necessarily coincide with the distinction between man and machine. The concept of the person remains useful. It may, however, become more difficult to assess the limits of the human body. Next, the distinction between body and mind is discussed. The mind is increasingly seen as a function of the brain, and thus understood in bodily and mechanical terms. This raises questions concerning concepts of free will and moral responsibility that may have far reaching consequences in the field of law, where some have argued for a revision of our criminal justice system, from retributivist to consequentialist. Even without such a (unlikely and unwarranted) revision occurring, brain-machine interactions raise many interesting questions regarding distribution and attribution of responsibility.

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          From genetic privacy to open consent.

          Recent advances in high-throughput genomic technologies are showing concrete results in the form of an increasing number of genome-wide association studies and in the publication of comprehensive individual genome-phenome data sets. As a consequence of this flood of information the established concepts of research ethics are stretched to their limits, and issues of privacy, confidentiality and consent for research are being re-examined. Here, we show the feasibility of the co-development of scientific innovation and ethics, using the open-consent framework that was implemented in the Personal Genome Project as an example.
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            For the law, neuroscience changes nothing and everything.

            The rapidly growing field of cognitive neuroscience holds the promise of explaining the operations of the mind in terms of the physical operations of the brain. Some suggest that our emerging understanding of the physical causes of human (mis)behaviour will have a transformative effect on the law. Others argue that new neuroscience will provide only new details and that existing legal doctrine can accommodate whatever new information neuroscience will provide. We argue that neuroscience will probably have a transformative effect on the law, despite the fact that existing legal doctrine can, in principle, accommodate whatever neuroscience will tell us. New neuroscience will change the law, not by undermining its current assumptions, but by transforming people's moral intuitions about free will and responsibility. This change in moral outlook will result not from the discovery of crucial new facts or clever new arguments, but from a new appreciation of old arguments, bolstered by vivid new illustrations provided by cognitive neuroscience. We foresee, and recommend, a shift away from punishment aimed at retribution in favour of a more progressive, consequentialist approach to the criminal law.
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              Neurochemical selves

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                +31-107-043062 , m.schermer@erasmusmc.nl
                Journal
                Nanoethics
                Nanoethics
                Springer Netherlands (Dordrecht )
                1871-4757
                1871-4765
                1 December 2009
                1 December 2009
                December 2009
                : 3
                : 3
                : 217-230
                Affiliations
                Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine, ErasmusMC, Room AE 340, PO Box 2040, 3000 Rotterdam, The Netherlands
                Article
                76
                10.1007/s11569-009-0076-9
                2837217
                20234874
                5fcffaf9-faa4-4bde-964a-5678c8907ce7
                © The Author(s) 2009
                History
                : 5 November 2009
                : 5 November 2009
                Categories
                Original Paper
                Custom metadata
                © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

                Ethics
                neuroethics,deep brain stimulation,cyborg,moral responsibility,brain-machine interaction,converging technologies,brain-computer interfaces

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