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174 • Cyborg Mind
Finally, because the loss of the individual human body would have a
significant impact on the way in which an individual interacts with other
human beings, various sets of ethical questions may be considered:
– Since backups of a person would need to be created to protect against viral
attack or sudden catastrophic failure of a main drive, how can an indi-
vidual be sure that these are safe and secure?
– Could the backups, themselves, be considered as persons brought into
existence through a copying procedure of the original person?
– Who has access to these backups then becomes a significant question as
a breach of security would be cyberspace’s equivalent to a forced entry
or personal trespass. The lack of privacy and of informed consent to the
involuntary disclosure of information would also become a real problem.
Hacking, in this scenario, would be a personal invasion on an altogether
new level, perhaps putting it in the same category as other violent invasive
crimes such as rape.
– Questions can also be asked about what would happen if the backups and
the files expressing a person were irreversibly lost. Would this then repre-
sent a form of death of the individual?
– Backing up could, in addition, enable a person to relive certain experi-
ences. If one day did not turn out quite how he or she had planned, the
individual could return to the beginning of the day and go through it
again. However, this would require the person remembering that he or she
had chosen to relive the day, otherwise he or she might become trapped
in a never-ending loop. Moreover, if an individual was able to return to
happier versions of his or her life, would it really matter? Would anyone
actually know? And even if they did know, would they care?
– Reliving in a computer may be meaningful only as long as the person does
not interact with another uploaded being. Otherwise, this first person’s
existence and electronic actions would become part of the timeline and
experience of the second individual’s memory and cyber-experience. In
other words, it would not be possible for the first person to delete his or
her experience without requiring the second person to delete his or her
own memories as well. This means that existing in a computer might
enable a person to stop ageing, but this cannot assume that the clocks of
cyberspace have stopped.341
– How would concepts such as compassion (‘suffering with’ in Latin) and
empathy (‘feeling in’ in Greek), which make existences meaningful, be able
to be expressed in digital persons, since these notions require a capacity to
suffer? It is also possible to ask how such a capacity to suffer in computers
could be developed. This is especially relevant for higher levels of suffering,
such as that arising from existential fear, which may be necessary if life is
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Cyborg Mind
What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics
- Title
- Cyborg Mind
- Subtitle
- What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics
- Author
- Calum MacKellar
- Publisher
- Berghahn Books
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-1-78920-015-7
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.9 cm
- Pages
- 264
- Keywords
- Singularity, Transhumanism, Body modification, Bioethics
- Category
- Technik
Table of contents
- Chapter 1. Why Use the Term ‘Cyberneuroethics’? 9
- Chapter 2. Popular Understanding of Neuronal Interfaces 25
- Chapter 3. Presentation of the Brain–Mind Interface 31
- Chapter 4. Neuronal Interface Systems 43
- Developments in Information Technology 44
- Developments in Understanding the Brain 45
- Developments in Neuronal Interfaces 46
- Procedures Involved in Neuronal Interfaces 47
- Output Neuronal Interface Systems: Reading the Brain and Mind 49
- Input Neuronal Interface Systems: Changing the Brain and Mind 57
- Feedback Systems of the Brain and Mind 67
- Ethical Issues Relating to the Technology of Neuronal Interfaces 84
- Chapter 5. Cyberneuroethics 99
- Chapter 6. Neuronal Interfaces and Policy 217
- New Cybercrimes 218
- Policy Concerns 223
- Conclusion 229
- Human Autonomy 232
- Resistance to Such a Development 234
- Risks of Neuronal Interfaces 234
- Appendix. Scottish Council on Human Bioethics Recommendations on
- Cyberneuroethics 239
- Glossary 244
- Index 251