Page - 130 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

130 • Cyborg Mind In this respect, the influence of cyberspace on decision-making is already being reported, including with some websites encouraging persons to commit suicide or participate in fundamentalist warfare. Even computer games may restrict the choices of a person if they follow the rules of engagement (or the rules of the game). Because of this, individuals may become more susceptible to being controlled by others or computer programmes. At the same time, it should be noted that the mind, including the free will of a person, can be influenced by a number of factors and experiences. Any increase in information, knowledge of language, geography, history, current affairs, science and medicine inevitably changes a person’s mind and his or her attitudes. In addition, it is recognised that a person’s level of moral behaviour can be changed through experiences such as torture, alcohol, drugs and electrocon- vulsive therapy but also with positive constraints. For instance, children are capable of improving their mental faculties through external sources, such as educational activities, which are considered as being positive. The use of cer- tain kinds of computer programmes could, in this regard, have a comparable effect to education. Thus, it is likely that a direct interface between a computer and the brain of a person will, similarly, have both negative and positive effects. For exam- ple, a direct interaction between a human mind and cyberspace may enhance a person’s imagination, though a computer program may be unable to create imagination as such. Furthermore, some individuals may be tempted to use the virtual world because it may actually provide a degree of anonymity that may shield them from any unfortunate consequences. This implies that, in order to control a person’s moral behaviour, it may be necessary to protect him or her from certain kinds of information, such as preventing children from accessing pornography. Undoubtedly, however, the enhanced mind should help a person see things more clearly and weigh up alternatives with more reason. This means that having more information at one’s disposal may enable a person to make better decisions, but it does not make a person more moral. Having access to more information can only help reflection on moral issues, since emo- tions and passions, for example, could still colour decisions. This means that enhancing the mental functions of a person through the use of neuronal interfaces would not automatically make a person more moral, though it may make him or her more informed and responsible for his or her acts. It would also partly depend on whoever or whatever is feeding the information through the neuronal interface. Caution is therefore required.132 In this regard, freedom of thought, conscience and religion is considered to be very important in a civilised society. This is why the Council of Europe 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.