Technology has been developing vertiginously for decades. At such a speed that it is sometimes scary; especially when we see how vulnerable our privacy is. It is very easy for third parties to get all the data that, day and day too, we dump in that insatiable box called internet. For years, different scientific groups have been working on the development of a technology that allows human beings to control a device using their mind exclusively. A work that is usually funded by technology companies, such as Facebook.
This technology is primarily designed to help those who suffer from some type of neurological condition. A few months ago, a group of neuroscientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) managed to pick up a person's thinking by reading his brain through electrodes and his mouth movements. "This study shows that, for the first time, we can generate entire sentences based on the brain activity of an individual," said neurosurgeon Edward Chang, a team member.
Helmets and virtual reality
Precisely, the team behind this research is subsidized by Facebook. The company was exultant after UCSF doctors published their latest study. However, at the Mellow Park offices they are not only interested in the medical possibilities that it can offer. They also monitor that these advances serve to develop devices that allow the user to write with the mind. And that would only be the tip of a huge iceberg.
The technology company has repeatedly stated that its Facebook Reality Labs research team is striving to create a world in which human beings are able to use portable devices that allow them to contact their loved ones through the use of virtual reality. Regardless of the geographical area in which they are located and the health problems they may have. A sort of «Matrix» in which everything is possible thanks to the union between mind and technology. "It's going to be something completely new," Michael Abrash, chief scientist at Facebook recently said in an article.
At the moment, the company is working on a helmet-shaped research kit that, they hope, will be able to decode words directly from human thinking in the future. The fact that this technology is in the embryonic phase does not imply that the social network is the only one interested in its future implementation. Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, has been flirting with the idea for some time. To that end he created the company Neuralink in 2017.
Privacy
Last July, Musk himself announced that his company is working on an interface composed of threads that are sewn to the user's brain and that, in the future, they will allow him to move a machine with his mind, connect to a computer and Even download information directly to your head. From the lessons of the university, to a language. "A monkey has already been able to control a computer with his brain, so you know it," the Tesla CEO said during the presentation of the device, which took place at the San Francisco Academy of Sciences.
And the data protection?
Although the arrival of this technology is still far away, jurists and experts in Ethics are already beginning to wonder what the implications will be for data protection. And, if companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple or Microsoft already have in their hands a huge amount of information about the people who use their devices and services, what would happen if they get to capture the data they keep in their mind?
«When technology companies are able to create a device that works by reading the mind, we will be facing a revolution at the level of what the Internet meant in its day. When it is functional and commercialized, it will be essential that changes be made to the data protection legislation, which currently does not go so far, ”explains digital lawyer Samuel Parra to ABC.
The expert is aware that these types of devices are still in the experimental phase. However, he does not hesitate to point out the questions that may come up in a decade: “It will be important that we think about how this technology can be used from an ethical point of view. For example, would it be correct to use a device capable of reading the mind to know if a person has homicidal tendencies or is thinking of committing a crime? It is something that we should reflect on thoroughly, ”he adds.
The lawyer specializing in data protection Paloma Llaneza, meanwhile, lacks something more transparency on the part of companies.
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