In this ninth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Stephen Rainey. Dr. Rainey is Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Technology at Delft University of Technology, specializing in neuroethics and neurophilosophy. He is the author of the 2023 book Philosophical Perspectives on Brain Data, which raises and addresses questions about how neurotechnologies can and ought to be used. His current research focuses on exploring the intersections between neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence, especially Large Language Models and the prospect of mind-reading technology. Dr. Rainey applies his research findings in the form of policy advice, working with committees of the European Commission and the WHO. In this episode, we discuss several aspects of Dr. Rainey’s work, including what brain data is and how it differs from other types of personal data, the distinction between mind reading and neural decoding, neuromarketing and neurocapitalism, science fiction prototyping, the possibility and risks associated with the use of neurotechnology in the criminal justice system, and the debate surrounding neurorights.

In this eighth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Stefan Lorenz Sorgner. Dr. Sorgner is a philosophy professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Director and Co-Founder of the Beyond Humanism Network, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), and Editor-in-Chief and Founder of the Journal of Posthuman Studies. Dr. Sorgner is well known for his work on transhumanism, Nietzsche, philosophy of music, and ethics of emerging technologies, and is the author of many books, including most recently We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism and Philosophy of Posthuman Art. In this episode, we discuss several aspects of Dr. Sorgner’s wide-ranging work, including Nietzschean philosophy and its connection to transhumanism, Sorgner’s concept of metahumanism and how it differs from transhumanism and posthumanism, his cyborg thesis, his critique of traditional utopianism, the differing data collection models in the U.S., China, and the EU, his critique of the EU’s GDPR privacy laws, and his proposal for government-managed anonymized medical data collection to enhance technological competitiveness and support universal healthcare, among other topics.

In this seventh episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Sara Goering. Dr. Goering is Professor of Philosophy, and Core Faculty for the Program on Ethics and the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington. She co-leads the ethics thrust at the UW Center for Neurotechnology and also spends time discussing philosophy with children in the Seattle public schools, through the UW Center for Philosophy of Children. In this episode, we discuss several aspects of Dr. Goering’s wide-ranging work, including the medical versus social model of disability, the intersection of philosophy of disability and neuroethics, the importance of user-centered design in BCI research, the value of a ‘needs pull’ rather than ‘technology push’ approach to such research, the BCI Pioneers Coalition, privacy concerns and informed consent in the context of brain data, neurotechnology and the concept of relational agency, the extended mind and its connection to disability, and more topics.

In this sixth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Frederic Gilbert. Dr. Gilbert is an Associate Professor in Ethics and the Head of the Discipline for Philosophy at the University of Tasmania. His research focuses on the ethics of novel implantable brain-computer interfaces operated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Dr. Gilbert is a pioneer in various aspects of human-computer interaction, particularly the effects of AI on an individual's sense of control, autonomy, agency, and self, including during treatment for neurological and psychiatric conditions such as dementia, epilepsy, severe depression, Parkinson's disease, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this episode, we discuss several aspects of Dr. Gilbert’s wide-ranging work, focusing on deep brain stimulation (DBS). We talk about the phenomenological effects of DBS on the user’s sense of agency and autonomy, psychiatric versus neurological use cases of DBS, the BCI companies Neuralink and Synchron, neurorights, informed consent for having a brain-computer interface (BCI) explanted (as opposed to implanted), the burden of abnormality, deteriorative versus restorative estrangement following DBS, predictive neurotechnology, the media and academic hype surrounding mind-reading in neurotechnology, among other topics.

In this fifth episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Luke Roelofs. Dr. Roelofs is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the author of numerous articles as well as the 2019 book Combining Minds: How to Think about Compositive Subjectivity, published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Roelofs’ research explores the metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics of consciousness, including human consciousness, animal consciousness, and the possibility of artificial consciousness. In this episode, we discuss various aspects of Dr. Roelofs wide-ranging work, primarily as it relates to brain-computer interfaces. Some topics we focus on include brain-to-brain interfaces, the possibility of technological telepathy, the moral significance of shared mental states, split-brain and conjoined brain cases, the concept of neural mind melding, the unity of consciousness, insect colonies as possible real-life examples of hive minds, panpsychism, the problem of other minds, biopsychism and the possibility of AI consciousness, and integrated information theory.

In this fourth episode of the series, we are joined by José del R. Millán. Dr. Millán is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he runs the Clinical Neuroprosthetics and Brain Interaction Lab and holds the Linda Steen Norris & Lee Norris Endowed Chair in Neuroengineering in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also a professor in the Department of Neurology at Dell Medical School, co-director of the UT CARE Initiative and associate director of Texas Robotics. Dr. Millán has made several seminal contributions to the field of brain-machine interfaces (BMI), especially non invasive EEG-based BCIs. Many of his achievements revolve around the design of brain-controlled robots. While his work prioritizes the translation of BMI to people who live with motor and cognitive disabilities, he is also designing BMI technology to offer new interaction modalities for able-bodied people that augment their abilities. In this episode, we discuss various elements of Dr. Millán’s work, including neuroplasticity and brain signaling as a skill, noninvasive EEG-based mobile robots, VR-based neurorehabilitation, BCI-controlled wheelchairs and exoskeletons, telerobotic surgery, enhancing human driving capabilities with BCI technology, the importance of 'shared control' between human and machine, integrating AI and machine learning with brain-computer interfaces, and the evolution of non-invasive BCIs towards sleeker, more user-friendly designs.

In this third episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Steffen Steinert. Dr. Steinert is an Assistant Professor in the Ethics and Philosophy section at Delft University of Technology. His research focuses on fundamental theoretical issues of ethics and philosophy of technology - particularly the relationship between values and technology, and the link between emotions and technology. In this episode, we discuss various aspects of Dr. Steinert’s work, including the ethics of affective brain-computer interfaces, autonomy and BCIs, transformative experiences and informed consent, emotional contagion on social media, technology-induced value changes in society, and value-sensitive design approaches to emerging technologies.

In this second episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Susan Schneider. Dr. Schneider is the founding director of the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, where she is the William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. She specializes in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of artificial intelligence, metaphysics, and the philosophy of cognitive science. Dr. Schneider has written several influential books, including most recently Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind.  In addition to being an academic philosopher, Dr. Schneider is a very successful public philosopher. She frequently writes opinion pieces for outlets like the New York Times and Scientific American, and appears on TV shows on stations such as PBS and The History Channel. This episode covers many topics, including philosophical questions about the self and consciousness in the context of future brain chips, the possibility of mind uploading, quantum mechanics and Susan’s new theory of consciousness that she calls ‘superpsychism’, surveillance capitalism and privacy concerns surrounding AI and brain-computer interfaces, AI digital twins, brain-to-brain interfaces and questions about the unity of consciousness, what Susan calls the Global Brain Hypothesis and the new control problem, AI regulation and the AI global arms race, the concept of AGI and what it takes to create it, and epistemological issues surrounding AI as they relate to the opacity of AI systems and the hallucination problem for large language models.

In this inaugural episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Rafael Yuste. Dr. Yuste is Professor of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience at Columbia University, where he directs the Neurotechnology Center. Dr. Yuste is known for his pioneering work on neural circuits and the development of cutting-edge neural imaging techniques, like two-photon calcium imaging. He also co-founded the NeuroRights Foundation to promote and protect neurorights such as mental privacy and cognitive liberty, and was one of the originators of the BRAIN Initiative, a large-scale scientific effort launched by the U.S. government in 2013 to advance understanding of the human brain. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Yuste about some of his empirical work, as well as his work related to neurorights advocacy and the BRAIN Initiative. 

In our final episode in our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by universal basic income (UBI) advocate and writer Scott Santens. Scott is the founder and president of the Income To Support All Foundation (ITSA Foundation), the Senior Advisor for Humanity Forward, and he also serves on the board of directors of the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity and as the editor of Basic Income Today. In this episode, we chat with Scott about the viability of a UBI, the philosophical and political arguments in favor of a UBI, and the importance of destigmatizing the concept of free money. Interested listeners should check out Scott's debut book about UBI and how to pay for it, Let There Be Money.

Our fourth episode of our mini-series on the future of work features Gavin Mueller, Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam and the author of Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job. We speak with Gavin about the history of the Luddite movement, technological unemployment, and the possibilities of interstitial political action. Listeners interested in working-class efforts to subvert the technology that dominates our working lives are encouraged to read Gavin's latest book.

In the third episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Brian O'Connor, Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin. Brian and I discuss the value of idleness in our lives, the burnout caused by the work ethic, and the pressure to view oneself as a project to be continuously realized. We discuss the goods of learning to live more with more idleness - to place less emphasis on our contemporary obsession with purposeful, achievement-oriented pursuits. We encourage listeners to read Brian's excellent book Idleness for a rich discussion of the history of idleness and a vision of freedom in aimlessness.

In our second episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Andrea Veltman, Professor of Philosophy at James Madison University. We speak with Andrea about what it takes for work to be meaningful, if meaningful work is available to all, and what kinds of economic and social changes are necessary to help others find meaningful work. Please check out Andrea's excellent book Meaningful Work to learn more.

In the first episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by University of Leeds economist David Spencer. We discuss the experience of alienated labor under contemporary capitalism, the importance of work for meaning and dignity in our lives, and the reduction of the working week. Spencer persuasively makes the case for less but better work and how we might imagine a better world of work. Check out his excellent new book Making Light Work: An End to Toil in the Twenty-First Century.

Political philosopher Chris Zurn has just published Splitsville USA, a bombshell book arguing for the dissolution of the US. We talk about why Chris thinks this has become necessary, how history unnecessarily prejudices us against such a split, and what a post Splitsville future might look like.    Draw your own new national maps!   

The IEET and the UMB Applied Ethics Center recently released a White Paper on the political, moral and psychological questions involved in regulating the metaverse. J Hughes is the Executive Director of the IEET. Alec Stubbs is the Future of Work Post Doc at the UMB Applied Ethics Center. We discuss the main findings of the paper. You can find the paper here      

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine. In this episode Vlado and I talk to journalist and anthropologist Alisa Sopova about what everyday life feels  like in Ukraine as the war passes the 100 day mark. We discuss the regional differences in how the conflict is perceived, we ask whether Ukrainians have different views about Russian politicians and ordinary Russians, and we also talk about how Ukrainians perceive assistance from the west.   Alisa Sopova is an independent journalist from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She worked as a journalist and a news editor for the largest local newspaper, Donbass. When the war broke out, she was faced with the challenge of reporting on violence in her own city. With the local journalism collapsing, she began working for international media, including The New York Times and Time magazine where her coverage focused on the war and its humanitarian impact. Alisa is an author and co-founder of a #5Kfromthefrontline project (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/5kfromthefrontline/) that aims to bring to light everyday experiences of civilian life at the frontlines. Alisa holds a BA in journalism from Moscow State University and an MA in Regional Studies from Harvard University. She is currently working on a doctorate in anthropology at Princeton. Links to some of Alisa's pieces: https://americanethnologist.org/features/reflections/be-strong-like-a-kitchen-cabinet   https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/authors/alisa-sopova   https://time.com/longform/eastern-ukraine-war-civilian-life-frontline/

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine.  Our guest is Vesko Garcevic, former ambassador of Montenegro to NATO, OSCE, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Vesko is currently Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. We talk about what it means to diplomatically engage with Russia and whether it makes sense to think of it as a pariah state. We also take up some misconceptions about the role of NATO expansion in precipitating the current war. 

Vladimir Putin wants to put Russia back on the map as a great power. But what does it even mean to be a great power in the nuclear age? Is that idea still coherent? If it is, can Russia be such a power? And how is Putin using history to frame this quest? What does his framing reveal about him and about contemporary Russia?   The second in a series of conversations with historian Vladimir Petrovic about the implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  Resources: Putin's February 21st Speech, preceding Russia's invasion of Ukraine George Orwell's 1940 review of Mein Kampf Salvador Dali's "Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man" On Point interview with Alexander Vindman and Larry Wilkerson  

For a while, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we could tell ourselves that the American-led liberal internationalist order was on the rise. That story had some big holes in it, but if we squinted a bit it was almost believable. Not "the end of history", but maybe a long vacation from it. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its insistence on declaring a “sphere of influence” free from western intervention, and its alliance with China change everything.   Within a few weeks an older picture of international order - where great powers check each other and make sure none becomes ascendant - reemerged. Is the Balance of Power Back? Did it ever really go away? And if it is back, what’s next?   Vladimir Petrović  is a senior research fellow at the UMB Applied Ethics Center, and a senior researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade where he heads the Digital Center. He researches mass political violence and strategies of confrontation with its legacy. He studied contemporary history (Faculty of Belgrade: BA and MPhil) and Comparative history of Central and Southeastern Europe (Central European University: MA and PhD), completing his postgraduate studies at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam. He has taught at Boston University and was a recurrent visiting professor at Central European University. Petrović’s doctoral project which started at CEU, evolved over the time into a book The Emergence of Historical Forensic Expertise: Clio takes the Stand (Routledge, 2017). It examines the role of historians and social scientists as expert witnesses in some of the most dramatic legal encounters of the 20th century. Petrovic was exploring this intersection between history and law, both in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and in the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office. Petrović published extensively on ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and attempts to undo its legacy, as well as on the history of nonalignment during the Cold War and the collapse of Yugoslavia. He is currently working on the discursive history of mass violence.   Resources:   F. Fukuyama “The End of History and the Last Man”   J. Mearsheimer “The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis”   J. Mearsheimer “Back to the Future: Instability in Europe After the Cold War”   “The Congress of Vienna” From BBC’s In Our Time