Volume 2, Issue 3 
3rd Quarter, 2007


Perception Shifting in Neurosociety: Ethical and Societal Implications

Zack Lynch

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Looking forward, we see a whole new set of ethical and legal challenges centered around brain privacy. Will governments have the right to mandate brain scans of suspected criminals; aren’t individuals innocent until proven guilty?

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Image 9: Brain Privacy: New Ethical and Legal Challenges

Is it right to use neurotechnology to control the actions and thoughts of convicted individuals as alternatives to prison? Should parents have rights to vaccinate their children against addictive qualities of nicotine, cocaine, alcohol, and other substances? What are the long term social implications for choices here?

These and other issues related to cognitive liberty are emerging quickly and will grow in importance in the coming years. The issue that concerns me the greatest is the behavioral differences that may emerge as individuals begin to consciously shape their emotions and thus, their perceptions. How will they perceive each other, family relationships, and political rhetoric; the economic outlook and cultural norms? What happens when substantial shifts if specific basic emotions become possible?

How will this impact how we feel about the events that define our lives? What could be more important than feelings; our perceptions, our underlying feelings regarding an event that drive our decisions and actions. From the mundane to the most profound, nothing less than war and peace are driven by feelings of one’s perspective of their events.

Arts, marriage, birth, death, disease, religion are all powerful sources of feelings.  Because they make us feel uplifted, and thankful or destitute and homeless or hopeless; they drive our actions. In short, feelings just don’t matter; they are what mattering means.

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Image 10: Societal Wild Card: Perception Shift

As tools emerge to allow individuals to quickly and radically reshape their feelings in whole new combinations, human culture will forever be changed. Today we sit on the cusp of a societal transformation and the forces driving it are clear.

In the last 200 years, global population has soared from nearly 300 million to over 6.5 billion. At the same time, life spans have more than doubled from 30 to 70 years. Our aging and large population coupled with global extensive connectedness has created new problems for modern humans.

Constantly blasted with images of unattainable lifestyle, people face daily identity crisis as they search for meaning in a world with continuously shifting truths. In every culture, feelings of uncertainty, depression, anger, and resentment have surfaced on a vast scale.

Having spent thousands of years improving our control over the physical environment, humans will soon have new tools to address the mental stress however, that arises from living longer lives in a highly connected urbanized world. With this diffusion of neurotechnology, a new form of human society will emerge; a post industrial, post informational, neuro-society.  Thank you.

Bio

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Zack Lynch
is Managing Director of NeuroInsights, the world's leading neurotechnology research and advisory firm and the publisher of the investment newsletter, Neurotech Insights, an industry weblog providing commentary on the intersection of neuroscience and society. Zack is also co-author of NeuroInsights’ annual report on The Neurotechnology Industry.  Previously, he was an executive and founder of several enterprise software companies in profit optimization and collaborative forecasting. Zack received an MA in Economic Geography and double BS in Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Science, all from UCLA.

 

 

 

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