Gerald Q. Maguire, Jr. - Brain Implant Technologies

Dr. Gerald Q. Maguire, Jr. discusses Neuralink, Synchron & the future of brain implant technologies themes from his paper, "Becoming Borg to Become Immortal". Last year, Neuralink implanted their first patient with a brain implant, and rival manufacturer Synchron has already enrolled six patients - forcing us to confront the question of whether brain implants have different moral & ethical concerns than other parts of the body, or do they highlight existing ethical questions that haven't been adequately addressed? Dr. Maguire and co-author Ellen McGee wrote "the potential of brain implants to change and significantly affect humans is potentially far greater than that of genetic or drug enhancements", because implants open the door to new information, whereas genetics & drugs can only improve what's already there. Brain implants are a miniaturization of information technologies we already use - like smartphones & wearables. Over time our digital appliances have gotten smaller, and Maguire argues that they will inevitably become part of bodies - and in a sense, we will become part of the Borg. Dr. Gerald Q. Maguire, Jr. is Professor Emeritus at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Dr. Maguire has a Bachelors in Physics from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a two PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Utah. He has also been a Gastprofessor with Technische Universität Graz and a Program Director for Experimental Systems at the U.S. National Science Foundation. His research interests include mobile computing and communication systems, internetworking, and picture archiving and communication. LINKS & RESOURCES: Becoming Borg to Become Immortal: Regulating Brain Implant Technologies https://philpapers.org/rec/ELLBBT Gerald Q. Maguire (IEEE BIO) https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37331827700 Gerald Quentin Maguire (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Quentin_Maguire Neuralink - Pioneering Brain Computer Interfaces https://neuralink.com/ Synchron - The Brain Unlocked https://synchron.com/