1st Edition

Neurotechnology Premises, Potential, and Problems

Edited By James Giordano Copyright 2012
    354 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    New technologies that allow us to investigate mechanisms and functions of the brain have shown considerable promise in treating brain disease and injury. These emerging technologies also provide a means to assess and manipulate human consciousness, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors, bringing with them the potential to transform society. Neurotechnology: Premises, Potential, and Problems explores the technical, moral, legal, and sociopolitical issues that arise in and from today’s applications of neuroscience and technology and discusses their implications for the future.

    Some of the issues raised in this thought-provoking volume include:

    • Neurotechnology in education: an enablement, a treatment, or an enhancement?
    • The potential and limitations of neuroimaging technology in determining patient prognoses
    • Tissue implantation technology as a way of engendering personalized medicine
    • Neuroprostheses: restoration of functions of the disabled vs. enhancement to transhuman capabilities
    • Deep brain stimulation and its use in restoring, preserving, or changing patients’ personal identity
    • The benefit and risk of cognitive performance tools
    • Cyborg technology and its potential to change our vision of humanity
    • Methodologies for reducing the risk of neurotechnology’s impact on ethical, legal, and social issues

    With contributions from an international group of experts working on the cutting edge of neurotechnology, this volume lays the groundwork to appreciate the ethical, legal, and social aspects of the science in ways that keep pace with this rapidly progressing field.

    Neurotechnology as Demiurgical Force: Avoiding Icarus’ Folly ; James Giordano
    The Potential Utility of Advanced Sciences Convergence: Analytical Methods to Depict, Assess, and Forecast Trends in Neuroscience and Neurotechnological Developments and Uses ; Ashok Vaseashta
    Is the Use of Neurotechnology in Education an Enablement,
    Treatment, or Enhancement? M. Layne Kalbfl eisch
    Images of Uncertainty: Two Cases; Tom Koch
    Neurogenetic and Neural Tissue-Implantation Technology: Neuroethical, Legal, and Social Issues James Giordano
    Neuroprotective Agents Commonly Display Hormesis: Implications for Nanoneuropharmacology; Edward J. Calabrese, John A. Ives, and James Giordano
    Neuroprostheses: Implications of the Current and Future State
    of the Science and Technology; Pratik Y. Chhatbar and Subrata Saha
    Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Deep Brain Stimulation, and Personal Identity: Ethical Questions and Neuroethical Approaches for Medical Practice; Fabrice Jotterand and James Giordano
    Promises and Perils of Cognitive Performance Tools: A Dialogue; Erik Viirre, Françoise Baylis, and Jocelyn Downie
    The Age of Neuroelectronics; Adam Keiper
    Ethical Issues in Performance-Enhancing Technologies: From Bench to Headline Eric Racine, Donald DuRousseau, and Judy Illes
    The Cyborg and Cyborgization; Paolo Benanti
    Is Neuroenhancement Unnatural, and Does It Morally Matter? Helena Siipi
    A Surety Engineering Framework and Process to Address Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues for Neurotechnologies; Wendy L. Shaneyfelt and David E. Peercy
    Neurotechnology, Culture, and the Need for a Cosmopolitan Neuroethics; James Giordano and Roland Benedikter
    Cognitive Enhancement, Analogical Reasoning, and Social Justice; Darryl Gunson
    Policy Implications of Technologies for Cognitive Enhancement ; Daniel Sarewitz and Thomas H. Karas
    Neurotechnology Research and the World Stage: Ethics, Biopower, and Policy; Misti Ault Anderson, Nicholas Fitz, and Daniel Howlader
    Biotechnology: Who Benefits, Who Is Harmed?; Jolyon Jesty

    Biography

    James Giordano, PhD, is Director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, Virginia, Fulbright Professor of Neuroscience, Neurotechnology and Ethics at the Human Science Center of Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany, and Research Professor of Neurosciences and Ethics in the Department of Electrical and Computational Engineering at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. His ongoing research addresses the ethical issues that are generated from neuroscientific and neurotechnological research and its applications in medicine, public life, and sociocultural conduct.