Major Grant Awarded for Work on the Philosophy of Neurotechnology

Four philosophers are leading an interdisciplinary team spanning the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford that has received a £1 million grant from the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) to study the philosophy of neurotechnology.

The project, “Navigating the Neural Frontier: Embedding Ethics and Epistemology in Neurotech,” is a collaboration between philosophers J. Adam Carter, Emma Gordon, and Christoph Kelp (Cogito, University of Glasgow) and Mona Simion (Oxford), and neuroscientists and quantum physicists at the Glasgow Centre for Neurotechnology (Daniele Faccio, Simon Hanslmayr, Monika Harvey, and Lars Muckli).

The funding will serve to establish MindTech Research Lab, an inter-university, interdisciplinary research lab dedicated to investigating issues in epistemology, ethics, and mind raised by neurotechnologies developed to repair and enhance brain functions, as well as to develop new, philosophically-informed neurotech.

The research focus of the project is described as follows:

Neurotechnologies are advanced tools developed to repair and enhance brain functions. Recent progress shows that wireless thought-based communication will soon be widely available. This development offers potential societal benefits through improved cognitive capacities, accelerated scientific progress, and more efficient information access. However, significant challenges accompany these advancements. To responsibly navigate a future where cognition-enhancing technology is powerful and prevalent, we require a better understanding of how the integration of silicon-based and neural computing affects human cognition, and of the ethical and epistemological issues raised. Questions on the MindTech interdisciplinary research agenda include: Which neurotechnologies, including brainreading and brainwriting techniques, will be most feasible the next 5-10 years, and which should be prioritised in terms of their cognitive benefits? Will neurotech make us more or less subject to manipulation and misinformation and how can the risks of the latter best be managed? What are the potential effects of enhancement via neurotech on human autonomy, authenticity, and responsibility? Such questions mark out timely and open territory, and they necessitate collaboration beyond established disciplinary thinking. MindTech brings neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, quantum physicists, and philosophers together to investigate how to embed ethics and epistemology in neurotech. 

For more details, the project’s website can be accessed here.