This case came to light with a warning from the British Data Monitoring Authority that efforts are being made to allow companies to use brain-reading technology to monitor or hire workers, with the breaches that may result if they do not are not used correctly, can this really happen soon?
What has been done so far
Dr. Ahmed Raslan, professor of functional brain surgery and neurosurgery at the American University of Oregon, tells ‘Sky News Arabia’ the real extent of technology in reading human thoughts, and what’s already there been used, or what it can achieve:
Currently, the intellectual content of a person can be predicted by analyzing the waves emanating from the brain, but not specifically, in the sense that we can predict that a person wants to eat, but it is not possible to predict what she thinks to eat. It is also possible to predict that a person is thinking about the past or moving an arm, but all this requires the placement of receptors on the surface of the skull or in the brain itself. These receptors must have a strong connection between them and the brain in order to read thoughts. It is also now possible to predict a person’s behavior, not by reading thoughts and brain waves, but by behavior, as happens in companies that analyze user behavior on the Internet, to find out which products suit them best. The mind contains about 2 billion cells and a very large group of connections called “neural connections” which can be a thousand times more numerous than the number of neurons, and the reading of all electrical content and activity recorded in all brain cells is currently impossible. Of course, some electrical activity can be read in certain places; It helps predict intellectual content, but it requires the implantation of devices inside the brain, and the implantation of these devices is so far only done for the purpose of altering brain activity in order to deal with a problem. Therefore, talk of companies reading employees’ minds is unlikely. Because companies can’t force them to implant devices. All this raises questions about the possibility of modifying behavior by means of electrical stimulation in the brain. The answer is yes, it is possible, but only in cases of incurable diseases to modify abnormal behavior. For example, a device can be implanted in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder to change the feeling of wanting to do something, but this change is still not a direct change in free will. Depression can also be treated, but not by direct personality change, and all within clear ethical frameworks, and by educating the patient and their family on the importance and reasons for this treatment.
The need for rationing
The most important point, according to Raslan, is that technology always precedes rationing, such as the coming technology that is about reading the brain by implanting media into it, as predicted by Neuralink or others.
In the middle of these leaps, there must be ethics and laws that determine who owns the information emanating from the brain, who has the right to access the implanted device, what are the security measures so that this device is not hacked, and how this information can be recorded and the analysis method.
If this does not happen, the human mind will be vulnerable to eavesdropping companies; Which contradicts a human right, which is the right to own ideas and their private life.
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