By Wrye Sententia

Greetings, I’m glad to ride Brain Waves with such stimulating guestbloggers.

We live at a time when technologies that interact closely with brain function almost daily surface in the news, intimating the emergence of some exciting possibilities, but also potentially alarming applications for individuals and for society.

Neuroethics, the topic I will be focusing on this week, calls for a consideration of the percolating social and ethical implications arising from these technological and scientific advances. My particular focus is that of “cognitive liberty.” Cognitive liberty is a term that updates notions of "freedom of thought" for the 21st century by taking into account the power we now have, and increasingly will have, to monitor and manipulate cognitive function.

As Richard Glen Boire and I guest-blog from the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics over the coming two weeks, we will examine the ways in which social mechanisms designed to protect individual and collective freedom will be challenged by burgeoning developments in neurotechnologies.