Page - 117 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

Cyberneuroethics • 117 storing information, but it is quite another to look at an interconnected set of neurons and make any deductions about the information stored. Certain mental disorders reveal that there are two basic types of memory: short and long term. Some older people may be unable to remember the pres- ent date, forgetting the answer almost as soon as it is given, but though their short-term capability has all but gone, their long-term memory may still be functioning. Many find the loss of short-term memory deeply frustrating, but the loss of long-term memory could be far more distressing, since it may be associated with a loss of identity and a failure to keep hold of a sense of self. Certain past memories may also help a person shape and form responses to similar situations in the future. This means that if certain memories are removed, the person may lose the necessary information that would enable him or her to react to future situations. For instance, with a mental disorder, such as Alzheimer’s disease, certain areas of the brain become damaged. Their function is often difficult to define, though they are recognised as being crucial for long-term memory and the process of learning.63 In such situations, scientists are proposing that an electronic memory chip could be implanted into the brain in order to replace damaged memory func- tions.64 In the future, it is even suggested that individuals could consider such memory implants in a positive manner because of their ability to bring back lost thinking processes.65 Whether such a direct neuronal interface system would ever be successful is an open question, but millions of dollars have already been invested by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA) to undertake research into restoring such lost memory functions.66 But DARPA has also expressed a need to restrict the memories of soldiers during horren- dous combat situations in order to put them beyond the reach of post-trau- matic stress disorder. Such interfaces could then eliminate or strictly control negative emotions, enabling the training of ‘guilt-free’, remorseless soldiers.67 In this regard, one of DARPA’s main projects with neuronal implants is the Reorganization and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery (REPAIR) programme, which has the aim of using computer chips implanted in the human brain to directly alter its information-processing functions.68 In this way, a person’s memories, thoughts and especially emotions could be modified by direct neuronal control.69 DARPA’s mission in this area began under the leadership of the American Tony Tether, who headed the agency from 2001 to 2009.70 He unashamedly invited society to seriously consider such an enhanced soldier by exclaiming: ‘Imagine a warrior with the intellect of a human and the immorality of a machine.’71 But neuronal interfaces affecting memory are not only being restricted to medical or defence considerations. This is because human beings know that 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.