Earlier this year John Brockman amassed 100 of America's leading scientific thinkers to answer this question hypothetically asked by President Bush:

"What are the pressing scientific issues for the nation and the world, and what is your advice on how I can begin to deal with them?"

Insightful responses covered topics from global bioterrorism to increased funding for science education, but none addressed the issue that I believe will impact humanity most in the coming decades.  While a few people like Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, Mary Catherine Bateson, Steven Pinker and Steven Quartz pointed in the right direction, the remaining gap motivated me to send the following letter to the President.

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Dear Mr. President:

Emotions drive human society. Fear and anger easily bumping conscious thoughts out of our awareness, while wishing that anxiety or depression would go away just doesn’t work.  

Advances in brain science and biotechnology will soon change this reality by making it possible for individuals to significantly control their mental health.  With an initial focus on reducing the severity of mental illnesses, the same technology will also make it possible for each individual to enhance cognitive clarity, emotional control and extend their senses. 

When people begin to influence their emotions, how will this impact corporate innovation, political opinion and personal relationships?  When individuals can enhance memory recall and accelerate adult learning, how will this change the basis of competitive advantage?  As it becomes possible to safely extend our senses of sight, hearing and taste, what will this mean for artistic exploration and entertainment?

Just as the wheel, steam engine and electricity shaped the course of civilization -- the emerging tools of neurotechnology will create new industries, new forms of political organization and new modes of artistic expression. 

Neurotechnology's ability to temporarily influence an individual's mental health will have more profound implications for humanity, in a much nearer time frame, than genetic engineering for several reasons:

• Neurotechnology is temporary: Human genetic engineering won't become widely adopted until people can experiment with less permanent tools 
  
• Social acceptance is proven: Humans are already using first generation neurotechnologies on a vast scale.  For example, 17% of the US white-collar work force is currently using anti-depressants
  
• Regulation and distribution systems are in place:  The FDA and pharmaceutical development and distribution systems are already globally trusted processes

In fact, as neurotechnology develops it may turn out that in a majority of situations humans will choose neurotechnology instead of genetic engineering to combat disease and enhance themselves because of the versatility it offers.

The policy implications of neurotechnology's emergence include:

• Ethics: A national neuroethics discussion should be promoted to compliment your focus on bioethics.
  
• National defense: Neurowarfare capabilities need to be researched while programs that are already exploring neurotechnology's potential like DARPA's Human Performance Augmentation program should be expanded.
  
• Economic competitiveness: Mental health is the ultimate competitive weapon.  Neurotechnology represents new tools to enhance mental health and will create new forms competitive advantage.  To ensure American companies prosper in the coming years a focus should be placed on accelerating brain imaging and biochips technologies.

Neurotechnology's capacity to allow individuals to influence their emotional, cognitive and sensory states represents the most transformative force that human society will experience in the next 25 years.  This reality should be reflected throughout your administration's agenda.

Sincerely,

Zack Lynch