[HN Gopher] Neurotechnology: Current Developments and Ethical Is...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Neurotechnology: Current Developments and Ethical Issues
        
       Author : Quinzel
       Score  : 49 points
       Date   : 2023-07-22 11:57 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.frontiersin.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.frontiersin.org)
        
       | paraschopra wrote:
       | I once went deep into rabbit hole of why neurotechnology
       | progresses so slowly.
       | 
       | My conclusion was that it's a chicken and egg situation. Tech
       | advances depend on what we know about human brain and what we
       | know about it is constrained by ethical concerns
       | 
       | Here's the full write up
       | https://notes.invertedpassion.com/Consciousness/Why+brain-ma...
        
         | coltonv wrote:
         | "constrained by ethical concerns" glosses over "chimps that we
         | test on die at horrific rates" pretty hard.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | pmarreck wrote:
           | if we are just chemical reactions writ in meatspace, then
           | where's the room for "ethical considerations" except as
           | performative nod to the illusory problem of pain and death?
           | 
           | /speaking sarcastically about hard materialism, of which I am
           | simultaneously a critic but also recommend to be the
           | universal null hypothesis
        
             | jschveibinz wrote:
             | That is quite the statement, sarcasm aside. I guess I need
             | to read more on hard materialism. These sound like folks
             | you probably don't want to chat with at a dinner party.
        
               | ChatGTP wrote:
               | You don't find enough hard materialists on HN?
        
               | Filligree wrote:
               | Not many that are ethically bankrupt.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | anonymouse008 wrote:
       | Nothing will depress you more than showing VCs how those on
       | academic probationary can literally lift themselves to academic
       | achievement only to be told "people don't care about education"
       | "who is actually going to spend money on this" "sounds nice but
       | hardware is just too much" "keep in touch" etc ---
       | 
       | This technology is waiting for its Mike Markkula - the person who
       | can shepherd neurotech's next generation founders. Without his
       | early leap of faith, marketing influence, and savvy capital, I'm
       | convinced Apple wouldn't have made it out the garage - who will
       | be neurotech's?
        
         | BSEdlMMldESB wrote:
         | but transhumanism is ideologically corrupt!
        
       | wslh wrote:
       | Neurotechnology involves more stuff that the article depict. It
       | shows the author doesn't really know about the topic. One missing
       | examples is transcraneal estimulation [1].
       | 
       | [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5180077/
        
       | apienx wrote:
       | I haven't read the paper because I consider Frontiers Media a
       | shit-tier publisher. Their acceptance rate is 90%. A few
       | institutions don't consider their papers when judging the
       | performance of researchers. The National Publication Committee of
       | Norway doesn't consider their papers to be "academic".
       | 
       | Sorry for attacking the medium rather than the message. I just
       | feel that more people need to know about the shady practices of
       | Frontiers.
        
         | f6v wrote:
         | I think this particular article doesn't look credible. And the
         | whole "Opinion" type probably shouldn't be published in
         | journals, just post your opinion on Twitter.
         | 
         | That being said, I know for a fact that publically funded
         | Norwegian research is published in Frontiers and researchers
         | from Norway do consider those to be real academic journals.
        
         | frontalier wrote:
         | Nice to see someone is paying attention.
        
         | dr_dshiv wrote:
         | There are some great Frontiers journals and plenty of amazing
         | papers. Here is some nuance:
         | 
         | "As of 2022, 96 Frontiers journals are listed in the Norwegian
         | Scientific Index, two of which are rated 'Level 2' (top 20% of
         | all journals in the field), and more than 88 journals has been
         | rated "Level 1" (standard). academic journals), 1 journal has a
         | rating of Level X (probably predatory), and 5 have a "Level 0"
         | (non-academic) rating."
         | 
         | https://academic-accelerator.com/encyclopedia/frontiers-medi...
        
         | BSEdlMMldESB wrote:
         | such prejudice, I really really hope you're not an academic
         | ethicist
        
         | Wherecombinator wrote:
         | Thanks I didn't know that. I've read them with an interest in
         | neuroscience. Can anyone suggest a better alternative
        
           | Quinzel wrote:
           | You can always check the impact factor of the journal you're
           | accessing, and their acceptance rate etc... it can give an
           | indication of the credibility of article published, as well
           | as the journal.
        
           | etrautmann wrote:
           | Pretty much anything in elife or nature communications for
           | open access journals, or neuron, nature neuroscience for non
           | open access. You can almost always find biorxiv preprints for
           | closed access pubs too.
        
       | sylvain_kerkour wrote:
       | Neurotechnology is coming way faster than most people expect,
       | especially with AR/VR headsets (EEG) and wristbands with
       | electrodes (EMG), which are pushed hard by Meta, Apple & co.
       | 
       | I wrote a few notes about it: https://kerkour.com/nobody-cares-
       | about-the-metaverse-neurote...
        
         | isaacremuant wrote:
         | Some of us didn't budge when entire nations, media, tech and
         | security forces were trying to lock us down, denying are
         | movement and associatio rights and trying to coerce us into
         | taking things that presented no health benefit based on a
         | played up risk profile.
         | 
         | We'll be okay not wearing the shit they push. You CAN say no.
        
       | Quinzel wrote:
       | I was researching AI-enhanced BCI's a while ago, and this was an
       | article I stumbled upon.
        
       | arisbe__ wrote:
       | The trend of employing optogenetics and optogenetic-like
       | functional tech to this problem I find frightening. And keep in
       | mind "opto" isnt just visible light.
       | 
       | The other big idea (which the paper mentions) is the coupling of
       | systems being sensed. For example in the medical research they
       | now couple fMRI (bloodflow) with EGG (coarse firing activity) and
       | also EGG with pulsed ultrasound neuromodulation. This is
       | interesting because the metabolic process is almost a "mind if
       | its own".
        
         | etrautmann wrote:
         | Why is this frightening? Because of the use of viral vectors or
         | some implication of interfacing with the brain more
         | effectively?
        
       | TaylorAlexander wrote:
       | Looks like this should say (2017)
        
       | londons_explore wrote:
       | I reckon you could do some cool things with mice and neural
       | implants and large language models.
       | 
       | Find a way to semi-automate the process of fitting the neural
       | implant, and you should be able to do science a lot faster too.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-07-22 23:01 UTC)