Ethical Analysis of 'Mind Reading' or 'Neurotechnological Thought Apprehension': Keeping Potential Limitations in Mind

摘要

We appreciate Meynen's examination of ethical implications of using neurotechnologies to decode neural data and make inferences about cognitive processes. Here, we address three issues that we believe limit the relevance of Meynen's analysis. First, at various points, Meynen discusses applications of neurotechnological thought apprehension (NTA) whose technical feasibility is highly uncertain. Second, if some type of NTA technique was reliable and relevant to psychiatry, its use in forensic contexts would likely face significant restrictions in the U.S. and countries with similar legal systems. Finally, what is perhaps the most prominent form of NTA being developed for psychiatry—adaptive deep brain stimulation—is likely to utilize a fundamentally different kind of mental state information than the applications of NTA on which Meynen focuses.