Neurorights: the danger of brain implants and mind-reading technologies comes to Congress | Science

Rafael Yuste feels a weight on his shoulders similar to that of Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb. In his case, the armed What keeps him up at night – and which has yet to explode – is neurotechnology, a field in which he is a first-rate expert. This Spanish neuroscientist from Columbia University, who convinced the White House to invest hundreds of millions to map the brain, knows that mind-reading technologies are real and dangerous. Implants to connect the brain to machines, devices that induce memories, devices that read thoughts: they are already being developed in laboratories around the world and by companies like Elon Musk, who has already implanted his first chip in a human. For that, since 2017 Yuste travels around the world to get governments to protect neurorights, the rights of the human spirit, through laws. He already made it in ChileBrazil, Mexico and the United States. Next week, she arrives with all this conviction at the Congress of Deputies, so that Spain joins this avant-garde club and becomes the first European country that legally defends the privacy of thoughts.

“I am going there with the best intention in the world, to achieve a consensus of all political parties. It is part of my duty to convince the whole spectrum, from the separatists to Vox, because this is what we have achieved in other countries,” explains Yuste by videoconference. Monday 26, the neuroscientist will present the film to honorable deputies Theater of Thought (theater of thought), which he filmed with the famous filmmaker Werner Herzog to warn of the risks of neurotechnologies for privacy, identity and free will. On Tuesday 27, behind closed doors with MPs, a dialogue will take place with specialists on the ethical implications of progress in neuroscience.

“The objective is not only to have a good time discussing this issue, but to explore the possibility of developing in Spain a bill that covers this area, promoting a specific protection law, like this is done elsewhere”, recognizes Yuste, president of the Neurodroits Foundation. “In this way it will be integrated, although late, but better late than never, in everything that is happening in the rest of the world on this issue,” explains the Spaniard, co-director of the Neurotechnology Center Columbia. Yuste, from Madrid, regrets that many people believe he is Chilean, because he managed to move the legislators of that country before those of his own.

“It’s a subject that everyone magically agrees on because no one likes the idea of ​​having their thoughts read,” he says with a laugh. The neuroscientist is not afraid of the difficulties of Spanish politics in reaching consensus: he has achieved this in political environments as polarized as Chile, Brazil, Mexico and in the United States. It is in the latter country that he achieved his most recent success, this month: The state of Colorado will ratify the world’s first brain protection law, technically speaking. In Chile and in Brazil This goal has been achieved before, but not through specific regulations, but with more abstract recognition in constitutional amendments.

The Spanish scenario of union of left and right is favorable, because they have already agreed on what is important, money, with Signature of two of the most divisive administrations in Spain, those led by Pedro Sánchez and Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The headquarters for the development of neurolaws will be the future National Center for Neurotechnology, Spain Neurotechwhich will have a workforce of 400 employees and funding of 200 million until 2037: the 60% will be provided by the central government and European funds and 40% the Community of Madrid (78 million) and the Autonomous University of Madrid, on whose campus it will be located.

In this National Center for Neurotechnology there will be a team of 30 people, “the most important group in the world”, in the words of Yuste, “working in the field of neurolaws from the scientific, medical, technological point of view, but also legal”. vision, ethics, philosophy, with the intention of adopting the human rights approach to anchor it in the middle of neurotechnology across the world. The scientific promotion of this center, in collaboration with Yuste, is carried out by José Carmena, from the University of California at Berkeley, and Álvaro Pascual-Leone, from Harvard University.

Ayuso showed particular interest in the Spanish Neurotech initiative, since he visited Yuste in Colombia when he was in New York in October. And the Sánchez government has from the beginning promoted the value of these new mental rights. The Secretary of State for Digital and Artificial Intelligence included neurorights in his 2021 Digital Rights Charter (item XXVI). And Vice-President Nadia Calviño took advantage of the rotating presidency of the EU to have around thirty countries recognize them in October 2023 in the León Declaration, “the first European document establishing ethical principles for the development and responsible use of neurotechnologies, with a human-centered approach”. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State also claims other efforts have “contributed to strengthening the debate on neurorights at the European and international levels”. But there is still nothing in Spain with regulatory status.

Office C

Yuste’s meeting with lawmakers is being facilitated by the Congressional Office of Science and Technology, the call Office C, which is dedicated to providing advice through reports on specific topics to improve Parliament’s knowledge on technical issues. In their latest round of reports, they include one on advances in neuroscience, and next week’s meeting coincides with the presentation of these documents to the House. Pascual-Leone, Mavi Sánchez Vives (of ICREA) and Liset Menéndez de la Prida (of the Instituto Cajal, CSIC) also participated in the debate at the door of the Martes, who collaborated in the elaboration of the information for the diplomats, as the propio And you.

The document also includes neurorights, which their promoters defined in an article in the magazine Nature from 2017, and which today can be summarized in five: the right to personal identity, for the integration of brains with technology and the influence of algorithms; to free will, because technological tools compromise human autonomy; to mental privacy, the most urgent, because brain information can now be collected; to equitable access, so as not to increase existing inequalities; and bias protection, to correct bias in algorithms and prevent discrimination.

“Neurotechnology directly touches the essence of being human, namely our brain. That is why it is only right that we approach the problem from a human rights perspective,” explains Yuste. So far, the only objections he has encountered in his proselytizing have come from certain business pressure groups: “Everyone agrees when you tell them, except for certain parts of the tech industry who see it as a threat and don’t want it to be. regulation.” Regardless, he believes his job “is to talk to everyone and convince them, so that it will be much easier if a bill is presented later, so that they benefit prompt support and runs smoothly.

In his documentary, Herzog asks a scientist: “Could you in the future read my mind and know my next film before I even shoot it?” » While troubling questions like this are resolved, some scientists hope for legislation before we can read – and manipulate – Herzog’s mind. And that of any other human.

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