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Empathy

Hacking the Brain

Could advances in technology soon give us perfect knowledge of other minds? Bora Dogan investigates.

I may not know what you’re thinking, but I know a machine that can – several, in fact. With names like Cerebus and BrainGate, these machines wouldn’t sound out of place in a sci-fi movie, but they’re real and they’re here to read your mind. The latest devices in brain-machine interface technology have been developed to analyze the neural activity of the brain and figure out what you’re thinking. This branch of neuroscience promises a future where we can operate computers and machinery by thought alone.

Why should philosophers care? Philosophy has a history of handing over its domains of enquiry to other disciplines – or, it might be said more generously that philosophy has given birth to other disciplines.

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