Brain Computer Interface and The Internet: Legal & Ethical Questions

It has been argued that one of the most significant driving forces behind the expansive rapid growth of the World Wide Web from it's onset in the early nineties has been pornography. And one has to admit, that before the rise of companies like eBay and Amazon, it was the pornographers who truly exploited the profitability of the eCommerce concept. Unlike eBay and Amazon though, the profits of the pornographers came with a heavy price attached, for the rest of the world; morally, socially and culturally.

This is not a moral education article and my intention is not to preach. I am a Futurist and this article is about the Future. Before we speak of the Future though, we need to look at the Past. Herein, I simply weigh the issues.

The Internet has changed the world. It has brought about a shift in the human experience. I am writing this in Singapore. You may be reading this in Nigeria within seconds upon it being published at a mere click on my keyboard at my end.

Today, we select information we want, from the sources we choose. The news of today, has a two-way road structure. Mainstream press has to keep up with the masses. It is as if the world has turned 180 degrees.

The Internet facilitates business. It allows incubation across borders, across the greatest of distances on the surface of our planet. And then transactions. And then collaboration. 

The pluses are endless. The minuses of the Internet, are not insignificant. Parents around the world today feel a lot less secure about the well-being and safety of their children, than did their parents about theirs. Just as constructive commerce and societal functioning have become more efficient, so too has the dissemination or spread of vices. Children "grow up" a lot faster than states and parents alike would like and attitudes towards women remain on a trajectory of increasing objectification by the day - for as much as content on the Internet can enrich minds, content of less constructive nature has as much propensity to corrupt minds.

For the ills that the Internet presents, we cannot afford to abandon it, for forgoing the benefits would be too high a cost, for both our present and our future. And as we race towards the imminent future, we can anticipate the benefits of the Internet to multiply spectacularly. Equally spectacularly, we can expect the multiplication of the downsides and ills. This is where, before that future arrives, to pre-empt the threats, we need to start asking the legal and ethical questions.

The Future Technology

There will not be keyboards, mouses or touch-screens. The interface with computing devices will be touch-free. The instruction and interaction will be thought-based. You think it, and it happens. The experience of the Internet will not be 2-Dimensional. The experience will be virtual. The technological convergence, will enable the detection, identification, tracking, recording, uploading and streaming of thought - visually. And the possibilities will only be limited by imagination. It sounds like stuff for science fiction. So did the concept of the Tablet Computer or the concept of HMD that manifested as Google Glass or the concept of a Smart Watch. Reality, however, is that we'll be transcending continental distances to play chess in a virtual room that will look as real as the room you are sitting in right now, in less than two decades from now. Perhaps, in less than one decade from now. The timing is contingent more upon profitability and profit strategies, than feasibility, because feasibility, is already in hand.

The Scenarios

Gary has a conflict with Katrina. You know, the standard case of office politics. Gary logs on to a computing device, shuts his eyes and while recording his visual thoughts, he pictures Katrina, in compromising positions and then imagines a risqué (explicit rather) scenario between Katrina and himself. When he is done, he uploads the Virtual Reality recording of Katrina in the unflattering light onto the world wide web or privately transfers the recording to strangers around the world, virulating it in a manner that makes it more difficult to detect the source. Katrina is an instant porn star, without even knowing it. Talk about escalation. Its the next level of harassment or bullying.

Karen goes on a date with Peter. Things get romantic, then intimate. After the encounter, Peter shares his vivid visual memories with his friends, and those memories keep spreading from there. Like Katrina, Karen is an instant porn star, without even knowing it. A new level of exploitation and invasion of privacy.

Besides uploading thoughts and memories, as vivid visuals, it is going to be possible, to act on one's thoughts in the Virtual Space - with one's own imagination the only limit. As much as we may resent such technology, that someone can and probably will create and commercialise it somewhere, is a reality. When people interact through such technology or platforms enabled by such technology, pornography gets a whole new meaning. And the damage it can do, gets a whole new level.

On the Internet, a person can be anything he or she wants to be. In one's imagination, one can take on any form and appearance. What stops one then, from lying about age, gender, nationality and what nots, as well as feigning it very effectively or convincingly, if imagination is the limit.

Questions of Law and Ethics

If some engages with an under-aged person online, in realistic sexual acts, without knowing the true identity of the other party, and thus not knowing that that individual is legally a child; is that person guilty of rape?

Realistic virtual spaces could be used to substitute physical work spaces, cutting costs, increasing convenience, improving efficiencies and transcending distances. Virtual spaces may also be used as adult playgrounds that could be abused. How do we avoid the latter? 

When the online space of the future becomes the means for actions less desirable to society and state, who is held responsible and how?

While many countries attempt to block sites providing adult or pornographic content, and quite successfully so too, in the present day, the convergence of Brain Computer Interface and Virtual Reality for interaction over the internet may not exactly require a website as platform for such vices. How do you then police for infringements or violations or how do you impose restrictions?

The questions here are not about vices and pornography in particular. Questions relating to just that would honestly be subjective because while certain things are completely illegal in some nations, they are completely legal in contrast elsewhere.

The questions here are about safety and security of those rendered vulnerable by the internet, of the present and of the future. The questions here, are about how we will protect the children in our societies as well as our women, or ourselves. How do you safeguard the rights of individuals, to their privacies and dignities, when technology transcends all barriers with the most powerful weapon we can possibly know, which remains yet significantly untapped; the human mind.

For progress and preservation, the evolution of technology must be supported. The threats that that evolution will like present, must be mitigated, for that same progress and preservation to happen.

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting include Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning and Organisational Future Proofing.