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This article examines the idea of mind-reading technology by focusing on an interesting case of applying a large language model (LLM) to brain data. On the face of it, experimental results appear to show that it is possible to reconstruct mental contents directly from brain data by processing via a chatGPT-like LLM. However, the author argues that this apparent conclusion is not warranted. Through examining how LLMs work, it is shown that they are importantly different from natural language. The former operates on the basis of nonrational data transformations based on a large textual corpus. The latter has a rational dimension, being based on reasons. Using this as a basis, it is argued that brain data does not directly reveal mental content, but can be processed to ground predictions indirectly about mental content. The author concludes that this is impressive but different in principle from technology-mediated mind reading. The applications of LLM-based brain data processing are nevertheless promising for speech rehabilitation or novel communication methods., Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

15 mei 2023, Item does not contain fulltext, The rise of neurotechnologies, especially in combination with artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods for brain data analytics, has given rise to concerns around the protection of mental privacy, mental integrity and cognitive liberty - often framed as 'neurorights" in ethical, legal, and policy discussions. Several states are now looking at including neurorights into their constitutional legal frameworks, and international institutions and organizations, such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe, are taking an active interest in developing international policy and governance guidelines on this issue. However, in many discussions of neurorights the philosophical assumptions, ethical frames of reference and legal interpretation are either not made explicit or conflict with each other. The aim of this multidisciplinary work is to provide conceptual, ethical, and legal foundations that allow for facilitating a common minimalist conceptual understanding of mental privacy, mental integrity, and cognitive liberty to facilitate scholarly, legal, and policy discussions.

The skilled use of a speech BCI device will draw upon practical experience gained through the use of that very device. The reasons a user may have for using a device in a particular way, reflecting that skill gained via familiarity with the device, may differ significantly from the reasons that a speaker might have for their utterances. The potential divergence between reasons constituting skilled use and BCI-mediated speech output may serve to make clear an instrumental relationship between speaker and BCI speech device. This will affect the way in which the device and the speech it produces for the user can be thought of as being “reasons responsive”, hence the way in which the user can be said to be in control of their device. Ultimately, this divergence will come down to how ownership of produced speech can be considered. The upshot will be that skillful use of a synthetic speech device might include practices that diverge from standard speech in significant ways. This might further indicate that synthetic speech devices ought to be considered as different from, not continuous with, standard speech., Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

This paper argues that calls for neuro- rights propose an overcomplicated approach. It does this through analysis of ‘rights’ using the influential framework provided by Wesley Hohfeld, whose ana- lytic jurisprudence is still well regarded in its clar- ificatory approach to discussions of rights. Having disentangled some unclarities in talk about rights, the paper proposes the idea of ‘novel human rights’ is not appropriate for what is deemed worth protect- ing in terms of mental integrity and cognitive liberty. That is best thought of in terms of Hohfeld’s account of ‘right’ as privilege. It goes on to argue that as priv- ileges, legal protections are not well suited to these cases. As such, they cannot be ‘novel human rights’. Instead, protections for mental integrity and cogni- tive liberty are best accounted for in terms of familiar and established rational and discursive norms. Men- tal integrity is best thought of as evaluable in terms of familiar rational norms, and cognitive freedom is constrained by appraisals of sense-making. Concerns about how neurotechnologies might pose particular challenges to mental integrity and cognitive liberty are best protected through careful use of existing leg- islation on data protection, not novel rights, as it is via data that risks to integrity and liberty are manifested., Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

This article provides analysis of the mechanisms and outputs involved in language-use mediated by a neuroprosthetic device. It is motivated by the thought that users of speech neuroprostheses require sufficient control over what their devices externalize as synthetic speech if they are to be thought of as responsible for it, but that the nature of this control, and so the status of their responsibility, is not clear., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

This paper asks what sorts of ethical caution ought to attach to increasingly data-driven approaches to understanding the brain. This is taken to be an important question especially owing to a likely near future of neuromonitoring and neuromodulation devices with applications in psychiatry. The paper explores this by i) sketching the concept of ‘digital twin,’ ii) drawing a schematic picture of ‘brain datafication’ in general, and iii) developing a means of understanding some challenges present in datafication through the lens of digital twins. One central concern arises from the role algorithmic processing of neural recordings plays in terms of neuroscientific objectivity, with knock on effects for psychiatric ethics. Essentially, this is owing to a way in which algorithmic processing in brain data construction appears to be deductive in character, but is in fact based on a particular scheme of inductive inference. The challenges explored urge ethical caution as they concern epistemological gaps in data-centered neuroscientific progress, as well as knock-on effects for psychiatry., Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

This paper presents a normative analysis of restrictive measures in response to a pandemic emergency. It applies to the context presented by the Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global outbreak of 2019, as well as to future pandemics. First, a Millian-liberal argument justifies lockdown measures in order to protect liberty under pandemic conditions, consistent with commonly accepted principles of public health ethics. Second, a wider argument contextualizes specific issues that attend acting on the justified lockdown for western liberal democratic states, as modeled on discourse and accounted for by Jürgen Habermas. The authors argue that a range of norms are constructed in societies that, justifiably, need to be curtailed for the pandemic. The state has to take on the unusual role of sole guardian of norms under emergency pandemic conditions. Consistently with both the Millian-liberal justification and elements of Habermasian discourse ethics, they argue that that role can only be justified where it includes strategy for how to return political decisionmaking to the status quo ante. This is because emergency conditions are only justified as a means to protecting prepandemic norms. To this end, the authors propose that an emergency power committee is necessary to guarantee that state action during pandemic is aimed at re-establishing the conditions of legitimacy of government action that ecological factors (a virus) have temporarily curtailed., Ethics & Philosophy of Technology

Brain reading technologies are rapidly being developed in a number of neuroscience fields. These technologies can record, process, and decode neural signals. This has been described as ‘mind reading technology’ in some instances, especially in popular media. Should the public at large, be concerned about this kind of technology? Can it really read minds? Concerns about mind-reading might include the thought that, in having one’s mind open to view, the possibility for free deliberation, and for self-conception, are eroded where one isn’t at liberty to privately mull things over. Themes including privacy, cognitive liberty, and self-conception and expression appear to be areas of vital ethical concern. Overall, this article explores whether brain reading technologies are really mind reading technologies. If they are, ethical ways to deal with them must be developed. If they are not, researchers and technology developers need to find ways to describe them more accurately, in order to dispel unwarranted concerns and address appropriately those that are warranted.

A passive acoustic emission monitoring system is described which has been tested on two M10000 IsaMills. The analyser detects acoustic emission stress waves generated by grinding media impacts with the mill liner, and locally propagating stress waves can be detected on the exterior lining surface using mounted broadband accelerometers. A six-month field trial showed large variations in acoustic emission power signature with process conditions. Analysis of the enveloped acoustic emission power output showed a strong correlation with mill process conditions, in particular grinding media relative loading, feed pulp density, feed volumetric flow rate and feed type. Accelerometers placed along the length of the mill body provided information on the relative deportment of the grinding media. The enveloped acoustic emission power detected by the mill body, discharge pipe and bearing housing sensors all captured information which was strongly correlated with mill operating parameters and process state., A passive acoustic emission monitoring system is described which has been tested on two M10000 IsaMills. The analyser detects acoustic emission stress waves generated by grinding media impacts with the mill liner, and locally propagating stress waves can be detected on the exterior lining surface using mounted broadband accelerometers. A six-month field trial showed large variations in acoustic emission power signature with process conditions. Analysis of the enveloped acoustic emission power output showed a strong correlation with mill process conditions, in particular grinding media relative loading, feed pulp density, feed volumetric flow rate and feed type. Accelerometers placed along the length of the mill body provided information on the relative deportment of the grinding media. The enveloped acoustic emission power detected by the mill body, discharge pipe and bearing housing sensors all captured information which was strongly correlated with mill operating parameters and process state.

Monomeric ruthenium(II) complexes [Ru(L)3]2+ containing unsymmetric bipyridine ligands [Where L = 5-methyl-2,2′-bipyridine (L1), 5-ethyl-2,2′-bipyridine (L2), 5-propyl-2,2′-bipyridine (L3), 5-(2-methylpropyl)-2,2′-bipyridine (L4), 5-(2,2-dimethylpropyl)-2,2′-bipyridine (L5) or 5-(carbomethoxy)-2,2′-bipyridine (L6)] have been studied and the meridional and facial isomers isolated by the use of cation-exchange column chromatography (SP Sephadex C-25) eluting with either sodium toluene-4-sulfonate or sodium hexanoate. The relative yield of the facial isomer was found to decrease with increasing steric bulk, preventing the isolation of fac-[Ru(L5)3]2+. The two isomeric forms were characterized by 1H NMR spectroscopy, with the complexes [Ru(L1-3)3]2+ demonstrating an unusually large coupling between the H6 and H4 protons. Crystals suitable for X-ray structural analysis of [Ru(L1)3]2+ were obtained as a mixture of the meridional and facial isomers, indicating that separation of this isomeric mixture could not be achieved by fractional crystallisation. The optical isomers of the complex [Ru(L3)3]2+ were chromatographically separated on SP Sephadex C-25 relying upon the inherent chirality of the support. It is apparent that chiral interactions can inhibit geometric isomer separation using this technique.

Commercial on-line slurry particle size analysers either use ultrasonics or are based on distance measurement, laser scattering and laser diffraction. CSIRO have developed a new method which uses ultrasonic velocity spectrometry combined with gamma-ray transmission and can be used to determine the proportion of particles finer than particular sizes or provide a full particle size distribution. The method is capable of analysing highly concentrated slurries without dilution and best suited to fine particles of diameters from 0.1 to 30 micrometres. The method has been tested in the laboratory on a wide variety of mineral and paint slurries including silica, TiO2 and CaCO3. A general purpose particle size analyser based on this method has been developed consisting of an immersible probe with multiple ultrasonic transducers and a density gauge along with an electronics package to control the analyser, process data and output particle size information., Commercial on-line slurry particle size analysers either use ultrasonics or are based on distance measurement, laser scattering and laser diffraction. CSIRO have developed a new method which uses ultrasonic velocity spectrometry combined with gamma-ray transmission and can be used to determine the proportion of particles finer than particular sizes or provide a full particle size distribution. The method is capable of analysing highly concentrated slurries without dilution and best suited to fine particles of diameters from 0.1 to 30 micrometres. The method has been tested in the laboratory on a wide variety of mineral and paint slurries including silica, TiO2 and CaCO3. A general purpose particle size analyser based on this method has been developed consisting of an immersible probe with multiple ultrasonic transducers and a density gauge along with an electronics package to control the analyser, process data and output particle size information.

This report presents a technical basis for defining surface density of fallout contamination when the contaminating debris is fractionated. Specifically, it recommends that the exposure dose rate from fractionated debris be expressed as a contamination surface density multiplied by the sum of three terms. The first term is the exposure dose rate contribution of refractorily behaving fission product nuclides per unit contamination surface density. The second term is a similar quantity for volatilely behaving fission-product nuclides. The third term expresses the contribution of the induced activities.