As sci-fi thriller “Inception” topped box offices across the world, audiences were delighted and appalled by its futuristic story of a criminal gang invading people’s dreams to steal valuable data.
More than a decade on, the technology envisioned by filmmaker Christopher Nolan is likely not far off, according to experts in Chile, who have moved the security debate beyond burglar alarms to safeguarding the most valuable real estate people ever own: their minds.
The South American nation is aiming to be the world’s first to legally protect citizens’ “neuro-rights,” with lawmakers expected to pass a constitutional reform blocking technology that seeks to “increase, diminish or disturb” people’s mental integrity without their consent.
Opposition senator Guido Girardi, one of the authors of the legislation, is worried about technology — whether algorithms, bionic implants or some other gadgetry — that could threaten “the essence of humans, their autonomy, their freedom and their free will.”
“If this technology manages to read (your mind), before even you’re aware of what you’re thinking,” he told AFP, “it could write emotions into your brain: life stories that aren’t yours and that your brain won’t be able to distinguish whether they were yours or the product of designers.”
Excerpts from The Japan Times:
“We already have digital biomarkers that can indicate if someone is predisposed to developing dementia. Let’s say (that) data is shared with a prospective employer, you could face discrimination on the job market,” he said.
In 2018, Ienca published a review of six commercially available “neuromonitoring” headsets in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
He found that the electroencephalography (EEG) data gathered by the devices as they measure electrical activity in the brain could be leaked online, sold to third parties, or subjected to uses that consumers did not consent to.”
“….Girardi favors strict regulation. “We didn’t regulate the big social media and internet platforms in time, and it costs us. We have lost control of all kinds of data, from our location to our romantic interests — it’s all up for sale,” he said.
“My proposals would give the status of your mind data the same as your organs, like your heart,” he added. “No one can interfere with it.”‘