Seite - 127 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

Cyberneuroethics • 127 the future. Generally, a conscious person will always be aware when he or she retains free will or when he or she is being coerced, whether in real or virtual reality. As the American neurologist William Cheshire explains: A brain-based neuroethics ultimately is a paper ethics, a morally thin con- struction that tears under the stress and collapses under pressure. A genuinely human neuroethics, by contrast, rises beyond its stature and reflects a wisdom not entirely its own.116 In legal and moral matters, total and complete freedom to make a free will decision may not exist, since all actions are conditioned to some degree by both biology and the environment. But at the same time, a completely mate- rial cause of free will cannot be accepted if the capacity of an individual to self-transcend exists. Moreover, juries or judges in court trials are usually very capable of distinguishing between degrees of responsibility arising from free will decisions. In this regard, it is interesting to note how troubled and offended human persons often become when they are compared to zombies, biological robots or puppets. This is noteworthy because it emphasises how much human beings seek value in being able to make free will decisions without being determined by, or reduced to, factors such as neurobiology or computers. Free will defines them for who they are. It gives them purpose, meaning and hope. This is because if free will did not exist, any moral edifice would col- lapse, since trust, sacrificial love and many other concepts that make human life worthwhile would become irrelevant. At the same time, it is recognised that a better understanding of free will is certain to arise from scientific advances in neurobiology, which will also help clarify the philosophical and ethical debates regarding freedom, autonomy and moral responsibility. Research may also eventually address behavioural burdens resulting from some brain dysfunctions.117 But the characterisation of human persons and their responsibility in this world confers on them a value and dignity that cannot simply be reduced to biology. Even though humans are physical beings, they cannot be explained by mere scientific con- cepts, since they can transcend the concept of physicality. According to this view, self-awareness and consciousness are mysteries that scientists and phi- losophers will never be able to fully understand and are, in this regard, similar to the concept of free will. In fact, consciousness is related to free will, in that it is conscious reflection and deliberation that enables a decision to be made between alternatives, thereby generating moral responsibility.118 But the fact that consciousness and free will remain a mystery does not mean that these concepts do not exist or that they are unimportant. As such, the very notion that individuals have a capacity to make free decisions, with- out being unduly influenced by deterministic factors beyond their control, This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.