Brain Computer Interfaces
How Far Should We Go?
Brain-Computer Interfaces, or BCIs are an emerging technology that connects a person’s brain to a computer. Although most are still in the developmental stage, the few successfully implemented BCIs and their studies give a taste of what’s to come. With our increasing understanding of how the brain works and the improvement of various technologies that interact with it, what used to be science fiction is now becoming more and more real. Knowing this, it is important, especially as Catholics, to: understand ourselves as God’s creation, how BCIs interact with the brain, and what that means for us as God’s creation.
Read the full paper Here
Quick History
1924- First EEG made by Hans Berger
1961- Cochlear Implant invented
1968- First MEG made by David Cohen
1973- UCLA actually coins the term BCI
1976- UCLA demonstrates that a cursor can be controlled using BCIs
1998- Phillip Kennedy implants a BCI into a person with locked-in syndrome that allowed them to control a cursor
2004- BCI implanted into Matt Nagle allows him to control a prosthetic arm
2016/2017- Kernel, Neuralink, Facebook, and the US Military announce their plans with BCIs
2018- UCal Berkeley invents neural dust
Taking a Look at BCIs and How They Work
In order to fully understand ourselves as God’s creation, as well as how BCIs work, we need to look at how the brain works on a physical level. From there, we can go on to understand how BCIs interact with the brain on a physical level to do what they do.
Concerns and Church Teaching
Developing more advanced BCIs however does raise major concerns. There are questions of privacy, hacking, and social divide. The Church does not have explicit teachings about BCIs but do have many related teachings that will help us determine how far should we go.