By Alberto PEÑAApril 29, 2021. Yahoo News
Cuando el thriller de ciencia ficción “Inception” arrasó en las taquillas de todo el mundo, el público se deleitó y se horrorizó con su historia futurista de una banda criminal que invade los sueños de la gente para robar datos valiosos.
Más de una década después, la tecnología imaginada por el cineasta Christopher Nolan probablemente no esté muy lejos, según los expertos chilenos, que han trasladado el debate sobre la seguridad más allá de las alarmas antirrobo para salvaguardar el bien inmueble más valioso que poseen las personas: sus mentes.
El país sudamericano aspira a ser el primero del mundo en proteger legalmente los “neuroderechos” de los ciudadanos, y se espera que los legisladores aprueben una reforma constitucional que bloquee la tecnología que pretende “aumentar, disminuir o perturbar” la integridad mental de las personas sin su consentimiento.
El senador de la oposición Guido Girardi, uno de los autores de la legislación, está preocupado por la tecnología -ya sean algoritmos, implantes biónicos o algún otro artilugio- que podría amenazar “la esencia del ser humano, su autonomía, su libertad y su libre albedrío”.
“Si esta tecnología consigue leer (tu mente), antes incluso de que seas consciente de lo que piensas”, dijo a la AFP, “podría escribir emociones en tu cerebro: historias de vida que no son tuyas y que tu cerebro no podrá distinguir si fueron tuyas o producto de diseñadores”.
- Evitar la manipulación
Decenas de películas y novelas de ciencia ficción han ofrecido al público el lado oscuro de la neurotecnología, tal vez invocando a cerebros criminales instalados en fortalezas secretas, que manipulan el mundo con una risa ruin mientras acarician un gato.
De hecho, esta tecnología incipiente ya ha demostrado que puede tener aplicaciones muy positivas.
En 2013, el entonces presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, promovió la iniciativa BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neuro-technologies), cuyo objetivo era estudiar las causas de trastornos cerebrales como el Alzheimer, el Parkinson y la epilepsia.
Back in Chile, Science Minister Andres Couve told AFP the neuro-rights debate “is part of a consolidation of a new scientific institutionality in the country that is now capturing international attention.”
But many are worried about the potential for nefarious actors to abuse technological advances.
Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera proposed at last week’s Ibero-American summit in Andorra that countries legislate together on the thorny issue.
“I call on all Ibero-American countries to anticipate the future and to adequately protect, now, not just our citizens’ data and information, but also their thoughts, their feelings, their neuronal information, to prevent these from being manipulated by new technologies,” the conservative Pinera said.
The Chilean bill contains four main fields of legislation: guarding the human mind’s data, or neuro-data; fixing limits to the neuro-technology of reading and especially writing in brains; setting an equitable distribution and access to these technologies; and putting limits on neuro-algorithms.
Spanish scientist Rafael Yuste, an expert on the subject from Columbia University in New York, told AFP some of these technologies already exist, and even the most remote will be available within 10 years.
– ‘A new Renaissance’ –
They are already being applied to animals in laboratories.
Scientists have experimented with rats, implanting images of unfamiliar objects in their brains and observing how they accept those objects in real life as their own and incorporate them into their natural behavior.
“If you can enter there (into the chemical processes of the brain) and stimulate or inhibit them, you can change people’s decisions. This is something we’ve already done with animals,” said Yuste.
The science has opened the possibility of designing hybrid humans with artificially enhanced cognitive abilities.
The risk is that, without proper safeguards, the technology might be used to alter people’s thoughts, employing algorithms via the internet to re-program their hard wiring, to dictate their interests, preferences or patterns of consumption.
“To avoid a two-speed situation with some enhanced humans and others who aren’t, we believe these neuro-technologies need to be regulated along principles of universal justice, recognizing the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Yuste.
Yuste considers neuro-technology a “tsunami” that humanity will have to deal with, which is why people need to be prepared.
“Neuro-technology can be scary if you think about dystopian science-fiction scenarios. However, for every dystopian scenario, there are 10 beneficial ones,” said Yuste, who sees neuro-technology as “a new Renaissance for humanity.”
Already, neuro-technologies are used on patients suffering from Parkinson’s or depression by stimulating the brain with electrodes to “alleviate the symptoms,” said Yuste.
Similarly, deaf people are treated with “cochlear implants in the auditory nerve” that stimulate the brain.
It is hoped that something similar in the future will restore sight to the blind or treat those with Alzheimer’s by strengthening the memory’s neuronal circuits.
“It will be a beneficial change for the human race,” said Yuste.
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