Brain-Computer Interaction and Medical Access to the Brain: Individual, Social and Ethical Implications
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Elisabeth Hildt
This paper discusses current clinical applications and possible future uses of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) as a means for communication, motor control and entertainment. After giving a brief account of the various approaches to direct brain-computer interaction, the paper will address individual, social and ethical implications of BCI technology to extract signals from the brain. These include reflections on medical and psychosocial benefits and risks, user control, informed consent, autonomy and privacy as well as ethical and social issues implicated in putative future developments with focus on human self-understanding and the idea of man. BCI use which involves direct interrelation and mutual interdependence between human brains and technical devices raises anthropological questions concerning self-perception and the technicalization of the human body.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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- Brain Gene Transfer and Brain Implants
- Neuroethical Issues in Neurogenetic and Neuro-Implantation Technology: The Need for Pragmatism and Preparedness in Practice and Policy
- Brain-Computer Interaction and Medical Access to the Brain: Individual, Social and Ethical Implications
- Future Issues with Robots and Cyborgs
- Brain-Machine Interfaces and Personal Responsibility for Action - Maybe Not As Complicated After All
- New Questions, or Only Old Questions in a New Guise?
- Kevin Warwick's Experiment 1: Future Identity
- A Reply to My Commentators
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- The Convergence of the Physical, Mental and Virtual
- Article
- Artificial Companions: Empathy and Vulnerability Mirroring in Human-Robot Relations
- Brain Gene Transfer and Brain Implants
- Neuroethical Issues in Neurogenetic and Neuro-Implantation Technology: The Need for Pragmatism and Preparedness in Practice and Policy
- Brain-Computer Interaction and Medical Access to the Brain: Individual, Social and Ethical Implications
- Future Issues with Robots and Cyborgs
- Brain-Machine Interfaces and Personal Responsibility for Action - Maybe Not As Complicated After All
- New Questions, or Only Old Questions in a New Guise?
- Kevin Warwick's Experiment 1: Future Identity
- A Reply to My Commentators
