Direct-to-Consumer Neurotechnology: A Grounded Appraisal

摘要

Kreitmair (2019) paints a picture of a consumer wearables Utopia, one in which all consumer technology contributes in some way to "human flourishing." In this Eden of ethical technology, my Inbox would be limited to ten messages a day (automatically filtering out any distractions), my Twitter feed would not display stressful news, and iPhones would automatically limit speaker volume in public places. Indeed, in Kreitmair's view, all consumer products ought to contribute to "human flourishing," or at the very least not hamper it. This is a lofty ideal, and I admire Kreitmair for staking out such a bold claim. However, the dreary reality is that we live in a capitalist society, where companies that manufacture consumer products are motivated by profit, not goodness. Thus, approaching the real-world problem of dir-ect-to-consumer (DTC) neurotechnology from the starting point of a philosophical ideal may be less productive than approaching it from a grounded understanding of the policy issues, the consumer neurotechnology landscape, and the science.