Page - 186 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

186 • Cyborg Mind Because of such concerns, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe suggested in 2017 that transparency, regulation and accountability should be strengthened to address: – the automatic collection, processing and usage of personal data; – informing the public about the collection, processing and usage of their personal data; – informing the public about their right to consent to the use of their stored data and the length of time they are to be stored.395 Thought must also be given to the use of personal data as a means of social control, such as in cases of dangerous patients and public health matters. Thus, there may be a need for improved data protection principles and data protection regulations if neuronal interfaces are to be used appropriately in society, such as in a healthcare setting.396 Reading the Mind Despite many developments, what is currently known about the brain and how it works is not yet sufficient to enable a person’s thoughts to be ‘read’.397 But this does not mean that attempts are not being undertaken to reach a stage where ‘mind reading’ could eventually become a possibility. Moreover, transparent communication systems between persons who could then directly communicate between their brains could open up completely new applica- tions. This is also an area of particular interest to military, intelligence and law enforcement communities, where having the ability to decode a subject’s intentions, aims and strategies would be an advantage. In this regard, the convergence of brain imaging techniques, such as EEG and fMRI, is already beginning to enable the identification of neuronal patterns associated with mental states. This is because every thought or per- ception experienced by an individual can be traced back to a unique and complex pattern of brain activity. By repeatedly tracking this process with the assistance of statistical and computational methods, a certain thought or perception can eventually be associated with a distinct pattern of brain acti- vation in EEG or fMRI. Having identified this pattern, it can then be used to infer or predict future thoughts.398 However, significant challenges remain to be overcome. One such prob- lem is that the technology is not currently sufficiently developed to dis- tinguish some of the subtle differences between the vast numbers of brain states.399 Moreover, each person exhibits a certain degree of individuality and uniqueness in the way in which he or she thinks. This means that dif- ferences exist in the neuronal coding between each person’s mental state, not 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.