Computer Interface with Brain
If we asked who was the Einstein of the millennium age, it would be Elon Musk. He is running the world’s most valuable car manufacturer, Tesla. He also is running the world’s only private spaceflight company, SpaceX. Neuralink, his ambitious project that he announced in the past years, will turn a situation that sounds utopian like the ability to read thoughts into reality.
Neuralink is a technology that can help humans interact with machines using their brains. With the surgical chip attached to your brain, you will be able to communicate with machines and even control them.Neuralink chips consist of cables inserted directly into the brain and a chip placed in the skull. Thanks to a surgical robot developed by Neuralink, the cables will be placed inside the brain. For the operation, without the need for any anesthesia, a part of the skull is cut, and cables are placed. These cables are used to detect brain neurons. The Neuralink surgical robot, thanks to its artificial intelligence, scans the brain, maps the veins and places the cables where there are no veins. In this way, any bleeding or deformation in the brain is prevented.
These brain machine interfaces, which you can only control with your mind, are expected to break ground in curing deadly neurological diseases.Neuralink’s main mission is to help people with brain damage. Max Hodak, head of the revolutionary project, says the project aims to bring hope to many, from paralyzed people to patients with Parkinsons. In addition, he suggests that it will cure diseases such as memory loss, hearing loss, blindness, depression and insomnia.If the FDA approves human experiments this year, the company led by Elon Musk could take a big step in that direction. Neuralink had previously conducted experiments on primates and pigs. The results of these experiments were found to be quite successful, and the desired performance was achieved. Elon Musk talked about the progress of Neuralink in a Talk Show he recently attended at the Clubhouse. “We have a little monkey with a wireless implant in his skull who can play video games using his mind,” says Musk. He raised the expectation considerably.
There is no information yet on when Neuralink, which is a very important technology with what it promises, will come to life. However, it is even now possible to foresee the legal problems that we may face when this project comes to life.
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Neuralink and Legal Problems
The legal problems that may be created by Neuralink technology will first show itself in criminal law and data privacy. Punishing people because of their thoughts can cause it to turn into a preventive criminal law logic.However, according to the criminal law, people cannot be punished for their opinions. In order for an act to be punished, it must have caused the typical consequences of the criminal law. However, the fact that only our mental activities have consequences in the outside world due to the chip inserted in our brain will cause the need to make the definition of what the action is in the sense of criminal law. Including mental activities within the scope of movement will cause many problems in terms of freedom of expression. Not saying something is also within the scope of freedom of expression. Facing a legal sanction for what we have not said may cause unfair consequences in terms of criminal law.
In addition, interfering with people’s brains due to such a chip will undoubtedly threaten the unlawful capture and recording of their personal data and violate the privacy of their private lives.
Dr. Allan McCay, professor at Sydney Law School, addressed some of the legal and ethical problems that neurotechnology can create.
- can employers make their employees use neurotechnologies to monitor brain activities?
- if people start committing crimes by way of brain-computer interface, what is the criminal act?
- should legal systems medicate those who break the criminal law, for example by using anti-libidinal drugs for sex offenders?
- what if there was a brain implant that could detect the neural patterns associated with impulsive aggression, then issue a warning to the person that they may be on the cusp of a violent outburst, or even automatically act on their brain to calm them down?
As companies like Neuralink implement their projects on neurotechnology, it is inevitable that various social, legal and ethical consequences will arise.
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Cyborg
In addition to the fact that artificial intelligence is the last great invention of humanity and will bring a whole new perspective to our lives, many people fear that robots with artificial intelligence will take our jobs. Elon Musk says that against this danger; humans should also become robotic, that is, a species called semi-robot half-human Cyborg should be formed by adding robot parts to themselves. Thus, human beings will re-create themselves against the threats that artificial intelligence can create.Cyborg body functions refer to people supported by technological devices. A human with a robotic arm, a person living with an artificial heart, a person with a chip in his brain thanks to Neuralink can be given as examples.
We can say that cyborgs will be a superhumanly developed new species, that they can resist physical fatigue and that we can be free from needs such as thirst, hunger and sleep that limit us due to our physical characteristics.Thanks to Neuralink, it is possible to use the chips attached to the brain to increase the emotional intelligence of people and to purify the human brain from bad thoughts.
Legal Status
According to property law, if artificial limbs are inseparably combined with the human body, they will be a part of the personality and therefore will not be regarded as objects. Considering that cyborgs are a new superhuman species, recognizing them electronic personalities sounds like an ideal solution, as in artificial intelligence.In the doctrine, it is stated that robots and cyborgs should have equal rights and responsibilities with humans and in this sense, it should be accepted that they also have legal and criminal responsibilities. Indeed, to say that a being that is superior to man, more intelligent and free of weaknesses will have no legal responsibility would be to throw a bomb with the pin pulled into social life.
However, if cyborgs can be controlled from the outside, in this case, they will not have their own discrimination power, so it may lead to discussions about who will take responsibility for their actions. In such a case, it may be necessary to operate an indirect agency in criminal law.If a person has accepted to become cyborgs of her/his own free will and therefore lost the power of discrimination, she/he is expected to be responsible for her actions in this process according to the 59th article of the Turkish Code of Obligations. The question of whether the cyborg, whose will is intervened without it’s permission, can sue and open a lawsuit because it’s privacy was violated and it’s freedom of thought was interfered with is a separate matter of discussion.
References
- https://www.just-work.com/blog/super-insana-giden-yol-neuralink/
- https://www.the-daily-record.com/story/business/2020/09/06/elon-musks-neuralink-aims-let-brain-meet-computer/5705905002/
- https://www.technopat.net/2021/02/05/neuralink-insan-deneyleri-bu-yil-baslayabilir/
- https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/news-and-events/news/2020/09/08/potential-pitfalls-of-technologies-like-elon-musks-neuralink.html
- https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/news-and-events/news/2020/09/08/potential-pitfalls-of-technologies-like-elon-musks-neuralink.html
- Sera Reyhani Yüksel- Yarı Robot-Yarı İnsan: Cyborg ve Hukuki Statüsü
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