If the 1990s were the "Decade of the Brain," these 10 years could be called the "Decade of Neuroimaging," writes Joyce Ward in this month's feature article, The Minds Eye: Imaging Helps Unravel Mysteries of the Mind.
In her article in Advance Magazine (read by imaging, radiology and oncology professionals) Joyce takes them on a journey into how the neurodiagnostic tools they use daily to help patients understand their diseases are transformingother aspects of human society. Taking neuroimaging outside of medicine, she dives into neuromarketing and beyond.
Covering recent neuromarketing research by Brighthouse, NeuroSense and others, she finally arrives at the ethical implications. I've spent several years thinking deeply about the societal implications of neurotechnology, and like every tool ever developed, it's a double-edged sword. One side can slice open the fruits of life while the other cuts deeply through our souls.
As Thomas Friedman suggested in Dubai recently, the world is flat. I agree. And given this shift to business 3.0 where individuals are the locus of competition, not firms or countries, I have come to this position on much of the national neuroethics discussions....And so she ends the article on this thought:
"But inquiries into the ethics of neuroimaging may be a case of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. If there is a competitive advantage to using brain imaging to screen employees or to determine which advertising campaign will bring the best response, then industry will adapt the technology, says Zack Lynch, managing director of Neuroinsights, a commercial and financial consulting company based in San Francisco. Lynch is writing a book called "Neurosociety—How Brain Science will Shape the Future of Business, Politics and Culture."
"If you look at it historically, the financial sector is the first to adapt to technology advances," Lynch says, predicting that 10 years from now, industry would spend one of every 10 marketing dollars on neuromarketing, making the commercial use of neuroimaging a fait accompli.
"We live in a global economy," Lynch says. "If you are a company, and you are 15 percent more efficient because you use brain scanning and biochips, the next company will have to use it."
We might not like our cell phones, but they help us survive in our infomation society. We might not like our mind's read, but are you really trustworthy? Are all of us?
Beyond therapy and enhancement is survival.
Zack Lynch is author of 
