implantable brain chips are seemingly noncontroversial, enabling those who are paralyzed or nat-urally less cognitively endowed to achieve on a more equitable level

electrodes with flexible tips did not damage the brain and that enough information torecognize commands could be produced by decoding only a small number of the neurons in a brain. n15

monkey to control a mechanical arm just by thinking

pacemaker-like brain implants help Parkinson's patients and thosewith essential tremors

genetic engineering may soonprovide treatments, if not outright cures, for most diseases; and nanotechnology andnanomedicine can address yet more ills. Together they could significantly extend ouraverage life span and improve the quality of our lives. Yet, with each of these technologies,a sequence of small, individually sensible advances leads to an accumulation of greatpower and, concomitantly, great danger

"I'm as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be 200 with a body of silicon,I'll take it." It seemed that he was at peace with this proces

superior robots would surely affect humans as NorthAmerican placentals affected South American marsupials

reduced to the statusof domestic animals

one in which humans gained nearimmortality by becoming one with robotic technology.

we were going to become robots or fuse withrobots or something like that,

We need conscious deliberation

The fact that the RP occurs before our feeling of consciously willing a movement and the movement itself does not show that we do not consciously will our voluntary actions

they reported that they were not consciously aware of performing it

it assumes that the RP is sufficient for both conscious will and voluntary movement. But there is reason to believe that it is sufficient for neither.

we continually have the experience that we are acting freely.

provide suchindividuals with appropriate psychiatric help

why should ourbrains delude us into thinking otherwise?”

consciousness is something that follows, and does not pre-cede, unconscious neural activity in the brain.

free will is better defined as a belief that there is acomponent to biological behavior that is something more than theunavoidable consequences of the genetic and environmental his-tory of the individual and the possible stochastic laws of nature

ostensibly

gods had a dailyimpact on the lives of individuals (4)

nature versus nurture

Any crime, however heinous, is in principle to be blamed on antecedent conditions acting through the accused's physiology, heredity and environment.

Ludovico is an aversive treatment in which prisoner-patients are forced to watch violent scenes while being made severely nauseated by means of injections

You cannot walk a mile in his shoes.

The unique patterns of neurobiology inside each of our heads cannot qualify as choices; these are the cards we’re dealt.

we choose neither one. We are each constructed from a genetic blueprint, and then born into a world of circumstances that we cannot control in our most-formative years.

If you think genes don’t affect how people behave, consider this fact: if you are a carrier of a particular set of genes, the probability that you will commit a violent crime is four times as high as it would be if you lacked those genes.

his behavior again returned to normal.

After one session I never saw the Doctor again, and since then I have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail.

can’t account for personal responsibility

If our actions are not predetermined, however, there is room for free will.

causal indeterminism. In this view, the future

So quantum indeterminacy is not restricted to the microworld. Its effects can be felt in the macroworld as well

there was no way to test it.

there are events, like the decay of a radioactive atom, that are uncaused.

we can’t be held responsible for our actions

everything that will happen in the future is the consequence of what has happened in the past plus the laws of nature.

ausal determinism, which says that every event is the consequence of past events plus the laws of nature

the universe is like a giant billiard ball game. Just as the path of every billiard ball is determined by the forces acting on it, so is the path of every elementary particle.

Laplace’

causally determined,

Those who believe that we have no free will—that there are no free actions—are known as hard determinists

work out a person's intentions before they have acted on them.

could also drive advances in brain-controlled computers and machinery to boost the quality of life for disabled peopl

certain degree of certainty."

what patterns are associated with different thoughts

We see the danger that this might become compulsory one day, but we have to be aware that if we prohibit it, we are also denying people who aren't going to commit any crime the possibility of proving their innocence."

brain imaging has been used to identify tell-tale activity linked to lying, violent behaviour and racial prejudice.

How free is our will? Is conscious choice just an illusion?

seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them.

which the outcome of a participant's decision can be predicted before it is made.

reversing the longstanding stance of innocent until proven guilty into presumed guilt.

McDaniel had never committed a violent crime, his only vices being smoking some weed and playing a little dice. And yet, he was deemed one of the most dangerous people in the city via this algorithm, which critics have used as an example of increased racial profiling by police.

major profiling, which reinforces pre-existing profiling issues such as race and socioeconomic status.

rejected. But I know of no argument which proves that there could never be such knowledge about a person's future acti

This, however, is irrelevant. I do not claim that anyone will ever have such

Ben's belief is surely based on evidence which puts it beyond reasonable doubt that Algy will commit the offence, and proof beyond reasonable doubt is all we ever require when we find someone

to involve the surely wrong idea that after the offender has been punished he has a right to commit his

son to prefer

which all involved know he intends to and will commit after his punish

e way deserves to

raints that prevent us from practising it. By 'prepunishment' I mean punishment for an offence before the offence is committed; I shall use 'postpunishment' to mean punishment after the offence has been committed. This leav

innocent, and that is no doubt partly why we do not usually

requireconsentbecauseoftheirsensitivitytoheadmovement

"Thehumandimensionofbeingsubjectedtotheassessmentofyourpeershasprofoundsocialandcivicsignificance.Ifyousupplantthatwithabiologicalmetric,you'relosingsomethingextraordinarilyimportant,evenifyougainanincrementalvalueinaccuracy."

acceptanceofDNAprofilingmaybeanotherbellwether.Highlycontroversialwhenintroducedinthe1980s,ithadthesupportofthescientificcommunityandisnowwidelyacceptedinthecourts.

Iviewitasnodifferentthandevelopingadiagnostictest.

developedpattern-recognitionalgorithmsthatidentifydeceptioninindividualsubjectsbycomparingtheirbrainscanswiththoseinadatabaseofknownliars

thebasicneuromechanismssharedbyallactsofdeception

luctuationsinbloodflowtogroupsofneuronsastheyfire

OneofthepioneersinthefieldisDanielLangleben,apsychiatristattheUniversityofPennsylvania.Backin1999,hewasatStanford,examiningtheeffectsofadrugonthebrainsofboysdiagnosedwithattentiondeficithyperactivitydisorder.HehadreadapapertheorizingthatkidswithADHDhavedifficultylying.InLangleben'sexperience,however,theywerefullycapableoflying.Buttheywouldoftenmakesociallyawkwardstatementsbecause"theyhadaprobleminhibitingthetruth,"hesays."Theywouldjustblurtthingsout."Langlebendevelopedahypothesisthatinordertoformulatealie,thebrainfirsthadtostopitselffromtellingthetruth,thengeneratethedeception–aprocessthatcouldbemappedwithascanner

managedtoincriminatemyselfwithoutevenopeningmymouth.

aloneagainintheprivacyofmythoughts

commercialfMRIlie-detectionservices,marketedinitiallytoindividualswhobelievethey'vebeenunjustlychargedwithacrime

Functionalmagneticresonanceimaging–fMRIforshort–enablesresearcherstocreatemapsofthebrain'snetworksinactionastheyprocessthoughts,sensations,memories,andmotorcommands.Sinceitsdebutinexperimentalmedicine10yearsago,functionalimaginghasopenedawindowontothecognitiveoperationsbehindsuchcomplexandsubtlebehaviorasfeelingtransportedbyapieceofmusicorrecognizingthefaceofalovedoneinacrowd.Asitmigratesintoclinicalpractice,fMRIismakingitpossibleforneurologiststodetectearlysignsofAlzheimer'sdiseaseandotherdisorders,evaluatedrugtreatments,andpinpointtissuehousingcriticalabilitieslikespeechbeforeventuringintoapatient'sbrainwithascalpel.NowfMRIisalsopoisedtotransformthesecurityindustry,thejudicialsystem,andourfundamentalnotionsofprivacy.I'minalabatColumbiaUniversity,wherescientistsareusingthetechnologytoanalyzethecognitivedifferencesbetweentruthandlies.Bymappingtheneuralcircuitsbehinddeception,researchersareturningfMRIintoanewkindofliedetectorthat'smoreprobing

scientistsareusingthetechnologytoanalyzethecognitivedifferencesbetweentruthandlies

enablesresearcherstocreatemapsofthebrain'snetworksinactionastheyprocessthoughts,sensations,memories,andmotorcommands

including consid-50erable risk of false-negative and false-positive results.

neuroimaging evidence is little different, inprinciple, from commonly accepted forms of physical evi-dence, such as blood tests, breathalyzer tests, or fingerpri

He observes that these techniques arenot capable of exposing the content of a subject’s cogni-tive thoughts

subject’s familiarity

Neurological testresults provide information on the basis of which to resolvecontested factual disputes in criminal trials.

jurors, for example, could be made moreemotional or more deliberative with magnetic interventions.

for what they do, not what they think

“You could require counseling, surveillance, G.P.S.transmitters or warning the neighbors

but it can also place individuals injeopardy for acts they haven’t committed — but might someday.

barely linked that withanything,”

when you have a picture of a mechanism, you have atendency to overestimate how much you understand the mechanism,”

In otherwords, just because you have a biased reaction to a photograph doesn’tmean you’ll act on those biases in the workplace.

“We have no evidence whatsoever that activity inthe brain is more predictive of things we care about in the courtroom tha

ould pose a serious challenge to our freedom of though

lie detectors in thecourtroom will become much more accurate, and correspondingly moreintrusive.

that we have not free willbut “free won’t.”

that somehow your brain generates to explain to you whatyour brain has already done”

When shouldanger be an excusing condition?”

Sinceall behavior is caused, this would mean all behavior has to be excused.

but in fact, the homicide rates of Danishand Finnish youths are very different than American youths.

appears

whether you’re rational, but you can have someone who is totallyrational but whose strings are being pulled by something beyond hiscontrol.”

“To a neuroscientist, you are your brain; nothing causes your behavior otherthan the operations of your brain,”

deterring future harm

retribution — the idea that bad peopleshould be punished because they have freely chosen to act immorally

“This suggests that moraljudgment is not a single thing; it’s intuitive emotional responses

personally harming an individua

landmark case in which a divided Supreme Courtstruck down the death penalty for offenders who committed crimes whenthey were under the age of 18.

affidavi

severely damaged his amygdala

new and sometimes troubling lines between “normal” and“abnormal” brains.

see which one lighted up the face-recognition area inways suggesting familiarity

since thetechnology allows us to tell what people are thinking about even if they denyit.

“You were focusing on the intent, and the others focusedon the harm,” Buckholtz said reassuringly

few 7-teslamagnetic-resonance-imaging scanners in the world.

This is the new frontier in law and science

t the same time, skepticsfear that the use of brain-scanning technology as a kind of super mind-reading device

Thereport concludes that neuroimaging evidence is of mixed reliability but “thelarge number of cases in which such evidence is presented is striking.

Neuroscientific evidence haspersuaded jurors to sentence defendants to life imprisonment rather than todeath;

derigueur

head trauma to the tendency of violent video games tomake children behave aggressively.

arachnoid cysts were associated withviolence

weren’t yet widely accepted by the scientific community

evidence of Weinstein’sarachnoid cyst shouldn’t be admitted in court.

act under duress

an abnormal cystnestled in his arachnoid membrane

neuroscience began to transform the American legal system,

planting false memories would rob us of our free will and authenticity

invasiv

if doing so could benefit the patient

Our question for participants was

it isn’t too far-fetched in principle that somebody could deliberately give you a false memory

especially likely to occur when someone plants the seed of a false suggestion in our mind,

memory researchers have known for decades that our recollections of the past are often inaccurate

touched that someone cared so much about your wellbeing

Changing or losing memories could make you happier or sadderdepending on if you’re losing sad or happy memories.”

“Memories make upour identity, including our personalities, and in some important ways, we areour memories so if we lost or changed our memories we would be differentpeople.

Memories are incredibly interlocked with oneanother.”

“Our memories and our experiences are fundamental to our personhood, toour lives, to everything that makes us who we are

“And even if it does change a little bit of our personalidentity, it makes us able to function.

thatmemory-erasing treatments don’t really change who we are

thus we don't have complete emotions aboutthe present, only about the past.

would be to destroy apart of ourselves

pace in which our characters transform is slow.

unified self

maintaining of personal numerical identit

numerical identity

the criterion for numerical personal identity and a feeling of unified self.

erasing a memory can harm another person who shares it

violate post-traumatic growth

earning lessons from these painful memories

So memory erasure can be treated as one of the problems of human enhancement.

propranolol does not disrupt numerical personal identity, because propranolol does not threaten psychological continuity, and only dampens the link between memory and emotion

beneficial effect of making people less convinced thattheir memories are absolutely true.

identities areamazingly fluid and inconsistent even today

identityhe has now created for himsel

truthfulness is an issue

emotional strength reduced

Such research raises hope for treatingconditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD), in which painful memories become intrusiveand damage an individual’s ability to live an ordinarylife.

selectively to wipe outtraumatic memories.

So, our moral dispositions are based in ourbiology.

If genetic and biomedical means of enhancement could countersuch natural tendencies, they could have a crucial role to play in improving our moralcharacter,

Thus, the most likely effect of cognitive enhancementby genetic or biomedical means may be to speed up a growth of knowledge that wouldotherwise have taken humanity a longer time to achieve

The US military routinely uses both modafiniland Ritalin for its pilots

enabled them to share knowledge with eachother.

contemporary mathematicians are mathematically enhanced by the traditionalmethod of education

cognitive enhancement of all of us which makes us more proficientin fulfilling our aims must be for the best of all of us on the whole.

may make it more difficultfor others to fulfil their prudential goals.

fulfilment of ends could be as great as possible

increase the risk of the development or misuse of weapons of mass destruction

are evil individuals can act with catastrophic effect.

we could never be justified in depriving someoneof his free will, no matter how gruesome the violence that wouldthereby be prevented.

different intheir predispositions to act morally,

continuum of readiness to help others.

voluntarily do great harm to innocent people

than a dozen people walked or bicycled past the injured child

We shouldevaluate and regulate the use of each cognitive enhancement drug amongst the ill and the healthy alike, as and when they become approved and available

virtually all medications have potential side effects

elucidates

against any use of medicine for enhancement

varying degrees for different people

against the new methods that have become available through science and technology

education and meditation to drinking caffeinated drinks and taking herbal or vitamin supplements

the employer might consider thenon-enhanced as virtuous, self-motivated, good employ-ees who have made a choice to be ‘‘normal,’’ or couldconsider them to be unmotivated lower achievers

Cognitive skills are also clear examples of bona fidequalifications.Intelligenceandaptitudetestinginemployment have been used since World War I

owever, an employeris not required to provide an accommodation which wouldresult in undue hardship in their business

Absent an employment contract or other type of agreement,employers may fire employees for ‘‘good reason, bad rea-son or no reason at all’’

silent advantage

weighed by organizations and byindividual

A panoply of chemical agents also are being shown tohave significant effects on specific social attitudes, moraljudgment, emotional attachment, memory, and economicjudgment. Any of these could be used temporarily or longterm for specific tasks in specific jobs.

existential neu-rointerventions

maximize their satisfaction with work.

market themselves

regulatory policy within medicine andcriminal law.

In both fields, emphasis has been placed onhow freedom and responsibility might be undermined byresearch in the neurological bases of behavior, how socialinequity might arise from enhancing cognitive abilities,and how detecting mental states might challenge privacy

ffected by such interventions, frommemory to mood to morality.

her performance, she says, is optimal, pre-dictable and consistent. She says she can work harder,longer, and better, and can prove it.

So, Alice wouldhave to agree to use such techniques as warranted

she will not use

screening fordesired traits and for modifying abilities

free coffee in the break room

Fear of change and of the unknown is understandable. F