Navigating the Neural Frontier: Embedding Ethics and Epistemology in Neurotech

Context and Challenge Neurotechnologies are advanced tools developed to repair and enhance brain functions. Recent progress shows that wireless thought-based communication, as demonstrated by companies like Synchron and Neuralink, will soon be widely available. This development offers potential societal benefits through improved cognitive capacities, accelerated scientific progress, and more efficient information access. However, significant challenges accompany these advancements. To responsibly navigate a future where cognition-enhancing technology is powerful and prevalent, we require a better understanding of how the integration of silicon-based and neural computing affects human cognition, and of the ethical and epistemological issues raised. Questions on this interdisciplinary research agenda include: Which neurotechnologies, including brainreading techniques, will be most feasible the next 5-10 years and which should be prioritised in terms of their cognitive benefits? Will neurotech make us more or less subject to manipulation and misinformation and how can the risks of the latter best be managed? What are the potential effects of enhancement via neurotech on human autonomy, authenticity, and responsibility? Such questions mark out timely and open territory, and they necessitate collaboration beyond established disciplinary thinking, and in particular, between neuroscience and the humanities.

Aims and Objectives This project aims to develop (i) theoretical frameworks, (ii) neurotechnologies, and to (iii) lay the groundwork for new interdisciplinary subdisciplines. For (i), the team will produce three key theoretical frameworks: a Neurotechnology-Mediated Trust Theory, a Neuro-Authenticity Model, and an Epistemic Risk Assessment Tool. These will emerge from collaboration between philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists, and physicists at Glasgow's Centre for Neurotechnology and the Cogito Epistemology Research Centre. Building on initial results from...