In this ninth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Stephen Rainey. Dr. Rainey is Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Technology at Delft University of Technology, specializing in neuroethics and neurophilosophy. He is the author of the 2023 book Philosophical Perspectives on Brain Data, which raises and addresses questions about how neurotechnologies can and ought to be used. His current research focuses on exploring the intersections between neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence, especially Large Language Models and the prospect of mind-reading technology. Dr. Rainey applies his research findings in the form of policy advice, working with committees of the European Commission and the WHO. In this episode, we discuss several aspects of Dr. Rainey’s work, including what brain data is and how it differs from other types of personal data, the distinction between mind reading and neural decoding, neuromarketing and neurocapitalism, science fiction prototyping, the possibility and risks associated with the use of neurotechnology in the criminal justice system, and the debate surrounding neurorights.

In this eighth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Stefan Lorenz Sorgner. Dr. Sorgner is a philosophy professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Director and Co-Founder of the Beyond Humanism Network, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), and Editor-in-Chief and Founder of the Journal of Posthuman Studies. Dr. Sorgner is well known for his work on transhumanism, Nietzsche, philosophy of music, and ethics of emerging technologies, and is the author of many books, including most recently We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism and Philosophy of Posthuman Art. In this episode, we discuss several aspects of Dr. Sorgner’s wide-ranging work, including Nietzschean philosophy and its connection to transhumanism, Sorgner’s concept of metahumanism and how it differs from transhumanism and posthumanism, his cyborg thesis, his critique of traditional utopianism, the differing data collection models in the U.S., China, and the EU, his critique of the EU’s GDPR privacy laws, and his proposal for government-managed anonymized medical data collection to enhance technological competitiveness and support universal healthcare, among other topics.

In this seventh episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Sara Goering. Dr. Goering is Professor of Philosophy, and Core Faculty for the Program on Ethics and the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington. She co-leads the ethics thrust at the UW Center for Neurotechnology and also spends time discussing philosophy with children in the Seattle public schools, through the UW Center for Philosophy of Children. In this episode, we discuss several aspects of Dr. Goering’s wide-ranging work, including the medical versus social model of disability, the intersection of philosophy of disability and neuroethics, the importance of user-centered design in BCI research, the value of a ‘needs pull’ rather than ‘technology push’ approach to such research, the BCI Pioneers Coalition, privacy concerns and informed consent in the context of brain data, neurotechnology and the concept of relational agency, the extended mind and its connection to disability, and more topics.