Ethical Risks of Brain-Computer Interface Technology?

Ethics Committee refers to the committee composed of medical, pharmaceutical and other background personnel, whose responsibility is to independently review, agree, follow up review of the trial protocol and related documents, obtain and record the methods and materials used to obtain and record the informed consent of the subjects, so as to ensure that the rights and safety of the subjects are protected. The composition and all activities of the committee shall not be interfered or influenced by the clinical trial organization and the conducter. According to Chinese law, the ethics committee is subject to the management of the medical and health institutions where it is located and the supervision of the subjects. The National Health and Health Commission, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the local health and family planning administrative departments at or above the county level are responsible for the inspection, supervision or daily supervision of the ethics review work.(伦理委员会指由医学、药学及其他背景人员组成的委员会，其职责是通过独立地审查、同意、跟踪审查试验方案及相关文件、获得和记录受试者知情同意所用的方法和材料等，确保受试者的权益、安全受到保护。该委员会的组成和一切活动不应受临床试验组织和实施者的干扰或影响。根据中国法律规定，伦理委员会受所在医疗卫生机构的管理和受试者的监督，由国家卫生健康委员会、国家中医药管理局以及县级以上地方卫生计生行政部门负责对伦理审查工作的检查、督导或日常监督管理。) BCI research on animals and humans, applications for scientific research projects and papers published must be strictly reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee.(无论是对动物和人类开展BCI 研究，还是申报科研项目和发表论文，都必须经医学伦理道德委员会严格审查和批准。) The research and development personnel of brain-computer interface technology have the professional knowledge that ordinary people do not have, and directly participate in the research and development and promotion of brain-computer interface technology. Therefore, the research and development personnel of brain-computer interface technology have the unshirkable responsibility to avoid ethical risks. However, in practice, researchers of brain-computer interface technology often pay more attention to brain-computer interface technology itself and ignore the ethical risks of brain-computer interface technology.A survey of ethical norms and attitudes towards scientists working on human embryonic stem cell transplantation showed that most scientists were evasive and did not agree with the importance of ethical norms.The possible ethical risks in the application of brain-computer interface technology are as follows: security ethical risk, privacy ethical risk, fairness ethical risk, free will ethical risk, responsibility ethical risk, life ethical risk and ecological ethical risk.(脑机接口技术的研发人员具备常人所不具备的专业知识，并且直接参与脑机接口技术的研发和推广，因此，脑机接口技术的研发人员对于规避伦理风险负有不可推卸的责任。然而，在实际中，脑机接口技术的研发人员往往较为关注脑机接口技术本身而忽视了脑机接口技术的伦理风险。曾有一项关于针对从事人类胚胎干细胞移植研究的科学家的伦理规范和态度的调查，调查结果显示，大多数科学家对于伦理规范持回避态度，他们并不认同伦理规范的重要性。脑机接口技术在应用过程中可能出现的伦理风险如下：安全伦理风险、隐私伦理风险、公平伦理风险、自由意志伦理风险、责任伦理风险、生命伦理风险和生态伦理风险。)

脑机接口隐私风险的新特征：

控脑-技术威胁隐私由于BCI技术基于人机的互动融合，因此这种情况下便可以反向操纵，用户依赖BCI的同时意味着用户控制权的丧失，而这种丧失并不是有形的内容而是无形的思想。"脑黑客"攻击可发生在BCI周期的每个环节。这表现为两种情况：一种是通过输入操纵的黑客行为，在BCI周期的信号采集阶段对用户进行攻击，通过输入操纵改变呈现给用户的刺激，此时脑黑客就会发生。例如，"脑黑客"可以预先选择目标刺激，以引起用户的特定反应，从而方便获取用户的神经信息。这种类型的黑客已经被最近的计算机安全和人机交互研究证明是实际可行的；另一种是通过测量操纵、解码操纵和反馈操纵进行的"脑黑客"行为对身体和心理安全构成威胁。这些类型的黑客可能会对使用者造成严重的身心创伤和隐私胁迫，而这种伤害与BCI在帮助使用者的身体和心理表现方面的受益程度是成比例的。例如，与使用BCI之前相比，一旦使用BCI控制轮椅的患者突然失去其重新获得的活动能力，被迫回到最初的障碍状态，内心可能出现极度恐慌以及可能出现的技术统治人类。另外，受到这类攻击的BCI用户可能会因无力执行他们在神经上诱导的行动而产生心理困扰。例如一旦病患遭到BCI被撤销的威胁，而条件是满足威胁着的非法意愿比如杀人，那么这种情况下该如何判定呢？这又牵涉到知情同意权与责任的划分问题。与此同时，非法分子还会利用心理操纵和洗脑机会。例如处于犯罪动机可以有选择地从受害者或旁观者的大脑中清除记忆，以防止日后被识别。人工智能算法黑客窃取的仅仅是应用后的数据，而通过BCI四环节不仅可以操纵数据的应用，还可以直接控制数据的生成，甚至通过替换其中组件，轻松实现提取和更改个体隐私数据信息，最终操纵个体意志。
读脑-解读威胁隐私 BCI技术直接获取个体神经信号，接触到一个人大脑最深处的"神经意图"，也即思想。一般而言，思想是自由的，因为它具有隐私性，思想的私密性意味着他人无法感知以致控制个体的思想，而一旦入侵思想则等同于完全暴露隐私。解码"神经意图"，意味着BCI技术的发展不仅使我们反观大脑运行，而且还可以深思大脑运行的结果，即凝视个体最私密的观点、态度和意图。通过这种大脑"阅读"不仅违背了思想的隐私，而且以他人思想评判他人思想，这种情况下人不再是唯一不可替代的。BCI将改变人们现有的隐私环境，由于他们的大脑活动可能会受到监测，因此BCI的使用将意味着个体对自我心里的防备和不信任，例如向公众询问对于歧视的看法，公众在受到社会氛围和价值观的影响下可能会表面服从社会价值取向，但是内心反应却未必如此。这意味着将不可能为BCI用户保证思想的私密性。神经科学的进步也对法律产生了影响。国外有学者将解码"神经意图"解读为解码"大脑指纹"，记忆和目击者的证词是容易出错的法医证据形式，容易受到多种心理偏见和错误的影响，通过BCI直接解读可以提供法医信息的替代来源。但神经数据与神经状态之间的关联，将来也会被雇主用作监视员工，以最大程度提高生产力，只是问题在于该技术的发展使我们对于数据提取量以及数据可以解读的信息毫不知情。
脑控-大数据威胁隐私 BCI通过记录用户的神经信号，分析确定个体在不同时空下依靠主观经验正在思考、感受、计划和即将采取的行动，这其中也会记录分析个体的偏好，与人工智能隐私泄露类似，会产生针对个体的有效的"神经营销"，同样地也会产生"信息茧房"现象。BCI大数据会引发与身份识别相关的隐私问题。BCI研究可能引发重新识别研究参与者的风险，这是因为BCI研究的规模较小，且这些研究吸引媒体与大众的关注。在过去的几十年中，医学领域中看似匿名的数据，可以与使用的诊断代码、罕见病例等特定信息相关联。对神经数据匿名化处理，首先没有特定标准；其次神经数据一旦与其他数据进行关联，例如BCI神经数据与遗传或微生物序列数据、生物标本、电子病历、医院行政数据或其他形式数据结合使用时，都会增加重新识别的风险；再次，医疗的进步来源于大数据的联合，在于实验室乃至国际合作研究，数据匿名对医学本身发展也不利。此外，对研究参与者身份重新识别的担忧与当前可从BCI数据中推断出的内容无关，而与该数据可能具有的潜力无关。即使在实验室之间也存在诸多隐私问题。

Although brain-computer interface technology can be used to treat many diseases, improve and enhance individual cognition and behavior ability, but the risks of physical safety, emotional psychological problems, weakening autonomy, erosion of creativity, and serious homogeneity to users can not be ignored. To sum up, it is mainly reflected in the following five aspects:(脑机接口技术虽然可以用来治疗许多疾病，提高和增强个体的认知、行为能力，但是对用户所造成的身体安全隐患、情感心理问题、自主性被削弱、创造力被消蚀、同质化严重等风险亦不可忽视。归纳起来，主要体现在以下五个方面)

Physical security risks of users: Unexpected power outages, computer faults, product quality problems, and hijacking and attacks by hackers may bring unpredictable harm to users.(用户的身体安全隐患：使用过程中突如其来的停电、计算机故障、产品质量问题等意外情况及黑客的劫持、攻击，可能给用户带来不可预知的伤害);
Emotional psychological problems of users: Users who use external tools such as electrodes, chips, and computers to mechanize and interact with the outside world have accumulated over time, and the emotional experience feedback mechanism formed by the connection between their sensory organs and reality in the natural biological sense has slowly failed. It is difficult to produce corresponding emotional response to external environmental changes and stimulation, which may lead to emotional alienation, coldness, numbness and other diseases, and the ability of empathy and pro-social instinct (environmental adaptation instinct) gradually decline. The concept of self-body representation constructed in the user's brain also changes. The device used for a long time is often regarded as a part of the body. Even if the device is removed, the illusion of the device's existence is still conditioned. As a result, users' understanding of the distinction between self-subject and external object, natural ability and artificial skill is becoming more and more blurred.(用户的情感心理问题：凭借电极、芯片、计算机等外在工具同外部世界进行机械化联系、互动的用户，积日累久，其天然生物学意义上的感觉器官与现实连接所形成的情感体验反馈运行机制慢慢失灵，对外界环境变化和刺激难以产生相应的情感反应，可能导致情感疏离、冷淡、麻木等病症出现，共情的能力和亲社会的本能（环境适应本能）逐渐下降；用户大脑中建构的自我身体存在表征观念也会发生变化，往往会把长期使用的设备看成肉身的一部分，即使去除设备，仍会条件反射式地产生设备存在的幻感，导致用户对自我主体与外在客体、天然能力与人工技能的区别界限等认识越来越模糊);
Users face the challenge of weakening autonomy: autonomy is an essential feature that distinguishes humans from animals and the ability or characteristic that humans can act according to their subjective will. Brain-computer interface technology involves direct interaction between the brain and the machine, which may create the risk of losing human qualities.(用户面临自主性被削弱的挑战：自主性是人类区别于动物的本质特征，是人可以按照自己主观意愿行事的能力或特性。脑机接口技术涉及到大脑和机器之间的直接交互，这种交互可能会产生失去人类特质的风险);
Users face the risk of gradual erosion of creativity: human curiosity, curiosity, imagination and creativity can only be fully stimulated in the context of psychological security and spiritual freedom. Individuals who apply brain-computer interface technology can collect, decode and analyze their basic personal information, behavior habits, thinking ideas and secret fantasies by machines.(用户面临创造力逐渐消蚀的风险：人类的求知欲、好奇心、想象力、创造力，只有在心理安全和心灵自由的情境中才能被充分激发。应用脑机接口技术的个体，其个人基本信息、行为习惯、思维意念、秘密幻想等，都可被机器收集、解码、分析);
The phenomenon of user homogeneity is becoming more and more serious: the application of brain-computer interface technology makes the ways and paths of individuals to acquire knowledge, improve and extend capabilities more and more similar, the sense of mutual dependence on brain-computer interface devices and devices deepens, and the gap of habitual neural circuits is narrowing more and more. Individual cognition, thinking and behavior are gradually convergent, and gradually lose their own personality and speciality.(用户同质化的现象越来越严重：脑机接口技术的应用使个体获取知识，提升和延展能力的方式、路径越来越相似，彼此对脑机接口装置设备的共同依赖感加深，习惯性神经回路的差距越来越缩小，个体的认知、思维、行为方式日渐趋同化，渐渐丧失掉自身的个性、特长);

Spillover risk of multi-domain diffusion of brain-computer interface technology:(脑机接口技术多领域扩散的外溢风险)

Brain privacy data leakage: During the operation of the brain-computer interface device, the interface device collects the user's daily neural information and thinking information by means of "neural monitoring", and then fixes the information by means of data, code, and symbolization. The abstract will of the user can be preserved forever, but there is a certain risk of leakage. This part, which involves the protection of individual neurological information and activities, is closely related to the new form of rights called "neural rights". Although it has been proposed that the brain-computer interface anonymous technology can be used to preprocess neural signals to identify and delete brain privacy information, thus achieving the purpose of protecting brain privacy data; But this is not enough to prevent a wide range of privacy leaks, and the technology itself can be cracked by hackers, and as long as privacy data is generated, it is difficult to make privacy data leaks disappear completely. Under the temptation of profit, these private data can always be packaged and circulated in a dark corner of the world. The disappearance of brain privacy means the shrinking of individual freedom: on the one hand, these leaked brain privacy makes people's thinking information appear in a certain "explicit" state, which is an invasion of people's spiritual private domain and dispels the space of people's anonymous social network; On the other hand, some people may use this privacy to manipulate us for special purposes, such as promotions by businesses and surveillance by managers of employees, thus forcing us to be subject to rules set by external subjects.(脑隐私数据泄露：脑机接口设备在运行过程中，接口装置会以"神经监控"的手段收集用户日常的神经信息和思维信息，再将这些信息通过数据化、代码化、符号化的方式进行固定，用户个人的抽象意志得以永续保存，但其间就存在一定的泄露风险。这种涉及对个人神经信息和活动的保护部分，与"神经权利"这一新型权利形式关涉密切。尽管有人曾提出，可以利用"脑机接口匿名者"技术对神经信号进行预处理，使其鉴别并删除脑隐私信息，从而达到保护脑隐私数据的目的；但这并不足以防范大范围的隐私泄露问题，况且这项技术本身也可能被黑客组织破解，只要存在隐私数据生成这一行为，就很难使隐私数据泄露全然消失。在利益诱惑下，这些隐私数据总能再世界的某个灰暗角落里被打包、流转。脑隐私的消失意味着个人自由的萎缩：一方面，这些泄露的脑隐私让人们的思维信息以某种"显性"的状态展现在世人眼前，这是对人们精神私域的侵犯，消解了人们处于匿名性社会网络的空间；另一方面，有人可能会利用这些隐私，对我们实施出于特殊目的的操控，如商家的促销、管理者对雇员的监视等，从而让我们被迫受制于某种外在主体设定的规则);
Malicious manipulation of brain consciousness: The subjective will in the user's mind can still be controlled by the individual, and the diffusion of technology will flood the social living space of people with brain-computer interface devices, and the expression of subjectivity and free will based on the individual will will be restricted or even malicious. The social consequences are more severe than privacy leaks. For example, hackers steal other people's consciousness by maliciously attacking brain-computer interface systems, and use other people's consciousness to carry out illegal and criminal activities such as robbery, robbery, and murder, thus making individual people unconsciously become a tool to attack others. The addition of the brain interface connection auxiliary peripherals endows it with greater destructive power and higher success rate. Except for patients, some healthy average person can obtain the opportunity space of "nerve enhancement" and "brain enhancement" and become "cognitive superman". When they try to participate in social competition in a hidden and deceptive way, they can easily gain advantages over ordinary people. Different interpretation paths to this possible phenomenon will inevitably have different effects on social equity order.(脑意识恶意操纵：存于用户心中的主观意志尚能受个体所支配，而技术的扩散将让脑机接口设备充斥于人们的社会生活空间，这种基于用于个体的主体性、自由意志的表达将会受到一定的限制甚至是恶意操作，其带来的社会后果比隐私泄露更为严峻。例如，黑客通过恶意攻击脑机接口系统盗取别人的意识，借助他人的意识去进行抢夺、抢劫、杀人等违法犯罪活动，从而让个体的人在无意识中成为攻击别人的一种工具。大脑接口连接辅助外设的加持赋予其更大的破坏力以及更高的成功率，除去患者，一些健康的普通人可获得"神经增强"、"大脑增强"的机会空间，成为"认知超人"。当其试图以一种隐蔽性、欺骗性的方式参与社会竞争，很容易获得相对于普通人的优势，对这种可能出现的现象不同的解释路径对社会公平秩序必然产生不同的影响);
Capital monopoly of brain algorithms: Brain-computer interface technology is a very sophisticated technology form, which obtains capital appreciation through uncontrolled expansion of space production and self-diffusion. Based on the scenario where technology inventors are separated from technology users, users do not need to fully understand the internal operating rules of interface technology. As long as the corresponding algorithm data is clear and combined with simple operation instructions, it is relatively easy to get started. Therefore, the user's cognition of the artificial structure of this technology is always in the "algorithm black box" state. This "algorithm black box" makes brain algorithm in a hidden corner unknown to the public, and there is still a vacuum area for its supervision, which provides a gray channel for capital algorithm monopoly. In other words, the R&D, popularization, and application of a new technology cannot be achieved without the participation of capital, which is inherently profit-seeking and self-expanding. The large amount of bets in the early stage of capital means that brain-computer interface technology will naturally carry the "original sin" of profiting for capital in the later stage of popularization and use. The amount and amount of financing can best demonstrate capital's confidence in the future of brain-computer interface applications. According to Statista, the global brain-computer interface market was about $125 million in 2018 and is expected to grow to $283 million in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 12%. The accumulation of capital accelerates the monopoly of brain algorithm capital. The "invisible hand" behind the algorithm is used to manipulate and manage the daily habits of users, and to peep and record the value preferences of users. And further transform these information into positive factors in the process of capital appreciation, and complete the closed loop of capital appreciation logic. In this process, the spatial production of brain-computer interface expands according to the logic of capital appreciation, which is manifested as the multi-domain diffusion of products and rapid expansion of quantity. Capital can also use its financial advantages to realize its "algorithm power" expansion in the Internet field. At that time, algorithm monopoly will become a means of capital to realize social control and slavery, social wealth and possession will become more and more unbalanced, and the "Matthew effect" of the weak and the strong will be more prominent.(脑算法资本垄断：脑机接口技术是一项十分精密的技术形态，通过空间生产的无节制扩张和自身扩散获得了资本增值，基于技术发明者于技术使用者分离的场景，用户并不需要完全了解接口技术的内部运行规则，只要明确相应的算法数据，并结合简单的操作指令，便可相对轻松地上手。故而，用户对这一技术人工物地结构认知始终处于"算法黑箱"状态。这一"算法黑箱"使脑算法处于公众不知道地隐藏角落，对其监督还存在真空区域，这恰恰为资本地算法垄断提供了灰色通道。具言之，一项新型技术的研发、推广、应用，都离不开资本的参与，由于资本天生具有逐利性和自我扩张增值的倾向，资本前期的大量投注便意味着脑机接口技术在后期的推广使用中会天然带有为资本牟利的"原罪"。融资的数量和金额最能彰显出资本对脑机接口应用前景的信心，根据Statista的数据显示，2018年全球脑机接口市场规模约为1.25亿美元，2025年有望增长至2.83亿美元，复合年均增长率达到12%。资本的积累进场加速着脑算法资本的垄断化，利用算法背后的那只"看不见的手"，操控、管理者用户的日常生活习惯，窥视、记录用户的价值偏好，并进一步将这些信息转化为资本增值过程中的积极因素，完成资本增值逻辑的闭环。在这一过程中，脑机接口的空间生产按照资本增值逻辑扩展，表现为产品的多领域扩散和数量的急速膨胀，资本也得以利用其金融优势，实现其在互联网领域内的"算法权力"扩张。彼时，算法垄断将成为资本实现社会控制和奴役的一种手段，社会财富和占有也会愈加不平衡，弱者恒弱、强者恒强的"马太效应"更为突出);
Barriers to personal information circle: The multi-field diffusion of brain-computer interface technology shapes our time and space, and makes us bathe in a relatively closed human-computer communication circle for a long time without knowing it. Although the brain-computer interface breaks the off-body barrier of the original plane narrative with immersive three-dimensional narrative, it seems that the user does not need much effort to find information. The brain wave output can be used to search for ideas, thus obtaining massive amounts of information relatively easily. However, most of this information is intellectual rather than social, and the attention of people trapped in the interface device will be greatly narrowed, which makes more and more users reluctant to complete daily chores in a "hands-on" manner. As people are willing to allocate less time for community companionship, and the change and interconnection of human community information shrinks greatly, a major barrier to the establishment of normal human institutions has been formed. The immersive experience created by brain-computer interface aggravates the separation of users between reality and virtuality, and the isolated individual form of "atomization" between people becomes prominent, followed by the fragmentation of interest demands and the fragmentation of social governance structure.(个人信息圈壁垒：脑机接口技术的多领域扩散，形塑者我们的时间与空间，使我们长期浸浴在相对封闭的人机交际圈而不自知。尽管从形式上看脑机接口以身临其境的立体叙事打破了原有平面叙事的离身性壁垒，用户寻找信息似乎不需要费多大力气，借助脑电波输出就可以实现意念搜索，从而相对轻松地获取海量信息，但这种信息大多是知识性地而非社交性的，困在接口设备中的人所关注的信息将大为窄化，这降一补使得越来越多的用户怠于以"亲身体验"的方式完成日常琐事，人们愿意为社群陪伴分配的时间渐少，基于人类社群信息的更迭和互联大为收缩，建立正常人机关系的一大壁垒就此形成。脑机接口所营造出的沉浸体验加剧了用户在现实与虚拟之间的割裂，人与人之间"原子化"的孤立个体形态变得显著，随着而来的就是利益诉求的碎片化以及社会治理结构的支离破碎);

Risks to the Education Metaverse:(教育元宇宙面临的风险)

Emotional crisis: The educational meta-universe narrows the space-time distance between educators and educated people, but expands the physical distance invisibly, and the sense of acquisition and authenticity of real situation interaction is weakened, and serious alienation is easy to occur between learners.(情感危机：教育元宇宙拉近了教育者与受教育者之间的时空距离，但在无形中扩大身体距离，真实情境互动的获得感和真实性不断弱化，学习者之间容易产生严重的疏离感);
Crisis of addiction: With the help of various technologies, the perplexity of learning disappears, and educational activities evolve into a superficial "education and fun" sensory game between educators and educated people in the educational meta-universe. Learners are imperceptibly intoxicated with the learning pleasure brought by science and technology, and are extremely disgusted with the unhappiness in real education.(沉溺危机：在各种技术的辅助下，学习的困惑随之烟消云散，教育活动在教育元宇宙中演变为教育者与受教育者间一种流于表面的"寓教于乐"的感官游戏，在这个过程中，学习者在潜移默化中陶醉于科技带来的学习快感，对现实教育中的不快产生极度的反感);
Digital crisis: In the educational meta-universe, machine learning and structural algorithms are used to infer the preferences of users, and information magazines are automatically screened out in information push, leaving learners in "filter bubbles" and can only be passively selected. Based on knowledge graph, natural imagery, and natural language processing technologies, the education meta-universe can scientifically and accurately understand and predict users' real requirements by analyzing users' big data, ensuring that users are satisfied with information. Gradually form relatively stable social groups and increasingly firm "information cocoon room", further affect the spread of positive energy and the cohesion of value consensus.(数字危机：在教育元宇宙中，通过机器学习和结构算法推测应用者的偏好，在信息推送中自动筛除信息杂志，将学习者置身于"过滤气泡"之中，只能被动地选择。教育元宇宙基于知识图谱、自然画像、自然语言处理技术等通过对用户大数据的分析能够更为科学、准确地掌握并预测使用者的真正需求，确保给使用者推送"心满意足"的信息，逐渐形成相对稳定的社交群体和日益牢固的"信息茧房"，进一步影响正能量的传播和价值共识的凝聚);

cmy2022 / neural-interface

Ethical Risks of Brain-Computer Interface Technology? #3