Page - 40 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

40 • Cyborg Mind As a result of neurological research, and especially from the informa- tion obtained from brain injuries, it is possible to show that this sense of self-awareness is also based upon non-conscious functions in the brain. These both prepare certain aspects of conscious thoughts while processing the human body’s daily functioning, such as breathing and digestion. This means that non-conscious processes, in addition to conscious functions, make a contribution to the way in which persons understand themselves and others.23 However, this dependence on the physical brain of a person’s sense of self and self-identity may give rise to further questions. For example, it is pos- sible to ask whether an individual is still the same person if his or her brain changes quite significantly through, for example, injury, disease, surgery or even the passing of time. It may also be possible, in the near future, to exam- ine how these changes affect the physical brain, but this may still not provide any final answers.24 In addition, the manner in which the mind, including the way in which a person experiences self-consciousness, is related to biology has very impor- tant implications to the understanding of free will and responsibility, which has direct consequences on cyberneuroethics. If all the decisions of a person can be reduced to neurobiology or a material basis, how can he or she be responsible for his or her choices and actions? Indeed, responsibility means that an individual has a free will to make another decision. Would it then be possible, for instance, for persons to defend themselves in court by arguing that it was, in fact, their brains that made them commit a crime? From this perspective, a better understanding of neurobiology may completely change the manner in which free will and responsibility are con- sidered.25 But whether this may eventually happen remains an unresolved question. It is also important to examine how external influences may affect the brain and thereby the mind of a person, and whether this would then influ- ence the way in which a person makes decisions. As the North American ethicist Walter Glannon explains: [T]he mind emerges from and is shaped by interaction among the brain, body, and environment. The mind is not located in the brain but is distributed among these three entities as the organism engages with and constructs mean- ing from its surroundings. Our capacity for desires, beliefs, intentions, and emotions, and to deliberate, choose, and act, is grounded in the fact that we are embodied and embedded minds. We are embodied minds in the sense that our mental states are generated and sustained by the brain and its interaction with external and internal features of our bodies. We are also embedded minds in the sense that the content and felt quality of our mental states is shaped by how we are situated and act in the natural and social environment.26 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.