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By Sunidhi Ramesh Image courtesy of Pexels . Humans in the 21st century have an intimate relationship with technology. Much of our lives are spent being informed and entertained by screens. Technological advancements in science and medicine have helped and healed in ways we previously couldn’t dream of. But what unanticipated consequences may be lurking behind our rapid expansion into new technological territory? This question is continually being explored in the British sci-fi TV series  Black Mirror , which provides a glimpse into the not-so-distant future and warns us to be mindful of how we treat our technology and how it can affect us in return. This piece is part of a series of posts that will discuss ethical issues surrounding neuro-technologies featured in the show and will compare how similar technologies are impacting us in the real world.  SPOILER ALERT: The following contains plot spoilers for the Netflix television series,  Black Mirror .  Plot Summary “...

By Jonah Queen Image courtesy of  Pixabay . As neurotechnology advances and our understanding of the brain increases, there is a growing debate about if, and how, neuroscience can play a role in the legal system. In particular, some are asking if these technologies could ever be used to accomplish things that humans have so far not been able to, such as performing accurate lie detection and predicting future behavior. For September’s Neuroethics and Neuroscience in the News event, Dr. Eyal Aharoni of Georgia State University spoke about his research on whether biomarkers might improve our ability to predict the risk of recidivism in criminal offenders. The results were published in a 2013 paper titled “ Neuroprediction of future rearrest 1 ," which was reported in the media with headlines such as “ Can we predict recidivism with a brain scan? ” The study reports evidence that brain scans could potentially improve offender risk assessment. At the event, Dr. Aharoni led a discus...

It is our pleasure to present you with two newly released publications: the second edition of The Neuroethics Blog reader and the 8.4 issue of the American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience . Image courtesy of Flickr user Leo Reynolds . The second edition of The Neuroethics Blog reader features the most popular posts on the site, with topics ranging from human knowledge and its enhancement to mental illness to gut feminism. The reader includes posts from luminaries in neuroethics, scientific pioneers, undergraduates, graduate students, and established scholars from both within and outside the field of neuroethics.  The Neuroethics Blog , now in its 6th year of creating weekly publications, is pleased to present this reader to you and would like to thank our amazing blog editorial team: Sunidhi Ramesh (Volume Editor of this reader and Assistant Managing Editor), Carlie Hoffman (Managing Editor), Nathan Ahlgrim, Kristie Garza, and Jonah Queen (Supporting Editors and blog contributor...

By Nathan Ahlgrim Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons . Humans in the 21st century have an intimate relationship with technology. Much of our lives are spent being informed and entertained by screens. Technological advancements in science and medicine have helped and healed in ways we previously couldn’t dream of. But what unanticipated consequences may be lurking behind our rapid expansion into new technological territory? This question is continually being explored in the British sci-fi TV series Black Mirror , which provides a glimpse into the not-so-distant future and warns us to be mindful of how we treat our technology and how it can affect us in return. This piece is part of a series of posts that will discuss ethical issues surrounding neuro-technologies featured in the show and will compare how similar technologies are impacting us in the real world. *SPOILER ALERT* - The following contains plot spoilers for the episode “San Junipero” of the Netflix television series Black Mir...

By Jonah Queen "The world of tomorrow" was the motto of the 1939 New York World's Fair Image courtesy of Flickr user Joe Haupt “One day, when you are old enough, you will be impregnated with a perfect clone of yourself. You will later upload all of your memories into this healthy new body. One day, long after that, you will repeat this process all over again. Through this cloning process, Emily, you will hope to live forever.” These are some of the first lines of dialogue spoken in the 2015 animated short film, World of Tomorrow .* These lines provide an introduction to the technology and society that this science fiction film imagines might exist in our future. In response to a  sequel , which was released last month, I am dedicating a post on this blog to discussing the film through a neuroethical lens. Plot Summary ( Note: the following contains spoilers for World of Tomorrow) Those lines are spoken to a young girl named Emily by one of her clones (a “third generatio...