Highlights from some of the week's top ethics news stories.
National / Employment
Unemployment benefits are getting cut short in many states including a few key swing states. Congress has recently attached limitations to the ninety-nine week unemployment benefits. With unemployment rates across the country staying at around seven percent, this means that thousands of people will lose out on benefits they had expected. Employment issues like these are certainly big ticket items in the presidential campaign.
read more......New York Magazine - Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Ending Early in Some Battleground States
read more......NYT - U.S. Winds Down Longer Benefits for the Unemployed
read about local impact.......AJC - Sustained Unemployment Rises
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| New York Times, Bureau of Labor Statistics |
Europe / Racism at Sporting Events
There has been a backlash this year against racism at European soccer tournaments. This year's Union of European Football Association (UEFA) cup is to be hosted by Poland and Ukraine. Soccer tournaments in Europe have become infamous because of racism from fans and players. The UEFA President Michel Platini has issued warnings that if racism occurs there will be fines or games will be held behind closed doors. Fans and players are to report any incident to referees. Widespread awareness of this problem was sparked by a BBC documentary entitled "EURO 2012: Stadiums of Hate."
read more about the candidates....Reuters - Soccer-Euro-Platini Tells Players to Let Referees Handle Racism
read more..... The Jakarta Post - Kiev, Warsaw Protest Euro 2012 Racism Accusation
watch BBC video....BBC - EURO 2012: Stadiums of Hate
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| New UEFA Campaign, Source: CNN |
Charles Taylor was sentenced by the International Criminal Court to fifty years in a British prison. Taylor is the first war criminal to be indicted since World War II. He served from 1999-2003 as the President of Liberia. During most of that time, he "supplied and encouraged" soldiers and militants to perform atrocious war crimes. These conflicts, mostly over diamonds and diamond mining resources, included neighboring Sierra Leone.
read more......CNN - Charles Taylor Sentenced to 50 Years for War Crimes
read more from a Catholic perspective.....BBC - Liberia ex-Leader Charles Taylor Gets 50 Years in Jail
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With the help of neuro-technology two people who were not able to use their limbs have been able to guide a robot arm to reach for and grasp objects with their brain activity. The participants, known as Cathy and Bob, had suffered strokes that caused loss of speech and motor skills. Scientists implanted recording devises that were made up of "100 hair thin electrodes" that recorded neural signals in the motor cortex of the brain. These signals represented the brain's intention to move and were transmitted to the robotic arm.
read more......Nature - Mind-Controlled Robot Arms Shows Promise
read more about Georgia whale......CBS - Paralyzed Woman Uses Mind-Control Technology to Operate Robotic Arm
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| Cathy, Source: Braingate2.org |
The neuroscience feature is exciting and I hope the technology continues to be improved over time. Of course the title and the "mind control" piece is a bit ambitious. First, on a practical level, as the article suggests, this technology still has quite a few glitches. While certainly providing significant benefit for these patients, the success rate of these brain machine interfaces is variable-- ranging from 20-60% success rate-- making this hardly the mind control device of an evil mastermind in a scifi fantasy. Second, no neuroscientist can tell you how a brain cell's activity translates into a thought, much less a "mind". Also, this technology is being developed and used by stroke patients. It's hard to know how/if these prostheses would work in "normal" healthy individuals.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me to ask: How might this technology be used in healthy individuals? Given the US military's role in this project and the military's growing enthusiasm for remote devices such as drones and virtual piloting, one can imagine how this technology could serve as an impressive military strategy (think transformers, but with Brain Machine Interface). This technology could also benefit civilians in physically dangerous jobs, such as construction laborers, by reducing injuries. Expert surgeons could remotely conduct surgeries in war zones or in countries that lack local expertise.
This leads me to a final consideration for readers to ponder: if an individual is killed by a robot arm/prosthetic/machine remotely operated by human with a brain machine interface implant, who is to blame, the machine or the human connected to the machine and how will this (legal) distinction in agency be made?
Thanks for including neuroethics in the news!