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You know, for all of human history, our
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own minds have been the one truly
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private place, a fortress that no one
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could get into. But what happens when we
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decide to build a bridge into that
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fortress, a direct line from our
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thoughts to the digital world? And what
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happens when someone else figures out
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how to cross that bridge? Just think
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about that for a second. What if you
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could write an email just by thinking
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the words? Or, I don't know, steer a
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wheelchair with nothing but your mind.
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This this isn't science fiction anymore.
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This is the incredible promise of a
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technology that is right now becoming a
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reality. Okay, so let's get on the same
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page. A brain computer interface or BCI
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is pretty much exactly what it sounds
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like. It's a system that records the
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tiny electrical signals zipping between
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your neurons, your brain waves, and then
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uses some seriously powerful algorithms
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to translate them into commands for a
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computer. It is quite literally the
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ultimate hands-free device. And the
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potential here, it's just staggering. I
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mean, we are talking about giving
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movement back to people who are
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paralyzed. Giving a voice to those who
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can't speak, letting someone control an
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advanced prosthetic limb as if it were
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their own. But it goes way beyond just
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medical uses. This could completely
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change how we interact with, well,
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everything. enhancing our own minds,
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creating virtual reality experiences so
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real you can't tell the difference. The
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list goes on. And this isn't some pie in
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the sky faroff future. It's happening
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now. In January of 2024, Elon Musk's
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company, Neurolink, announced that it
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had successfully implanted its first
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wireless BCI into a human being. The
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patient is apparently doing great, and
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the device is already detecting neuron
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activity. The future has officially
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arrived. This quote from Elon Musk just
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nails the ambition behind all of this.
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The goal isn't just to fix something
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that's broken. It's about going beyond
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our natural limits. The thought of
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giving a mind like Steven Hawkings the
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power to communicate at the speed of
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thought. I mean, that's just an
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incredibly powerful and inspiring
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vision. But here's the thing. Every new
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connection creates a new weak spot, a
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new vulnerability. What if this direct
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line into the brain could be
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compromised? What if it could be
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hijacked? The very same technology that
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promises to set us free could also be
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used to control us. And folks, this
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isn't just some hypothetical fear
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anymore. It's a security flaw that has
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already been proven to work. Now, here's
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what's so wild about this. For years,
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everyone worried about hacking the
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software or the data stream from the
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BCI. But researchers at MIT, they found
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something totally different. They found
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a vulnerability in the physical hardware
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itself. They figured out a way to get
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inside the system remotely before the
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data even gets processed. So, how does
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this brain hack even work? Well, it's
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actually kind of simple, which is what
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makes it so scary. An attacker just
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blasts out a specific AM radio signal,
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you know, like an old car radio. It
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turns out the unshielded wires on these
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BCI headsets, they act as perfect little
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antennas. They pick up that signal and
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the devices's own amplifier gets
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tricked. It accidentally interprets that
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radio wave as a real brain wave,
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injecting a fake command right into the
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system. And the results, they're pretty
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dramatic. In one of the most powerful
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tests, the MIT team took aim at a BCI
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that was being used to fly a drone. By
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injecting a signal that meant emergency
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stop, they could override the user's
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thoughts and send the drone crashing
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right out of the sky. This isn't just
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messing with data on a screen. This is
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causing realworld physical damage. In
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the drone was just the warm-up act. The
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team showed just how versatile this
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attack really is. They hijacked a
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virtual keyboard, forcing someone who
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was trying to think the word love to
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type hate instead. They tricked a
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popular meditation app into thinking a
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user was in a deep calm state when their
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eyes were wide open. And what's really
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crucial here is they proved this hack
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works on everything from super expensive
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research devices to cheap consumer
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gadgets. And this is where the academic
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threat gets real. It gets personal. As
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one person put it on a Reddit forum
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discussing this very thing, they said,
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"You could just flood the system with
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noise. Think of it," they wrote, like
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someone screaming inside your skull. And
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that that just perfectly captures the
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absolute horror of this kind of
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violation. But here's the really scary
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part. This brain hack, it's not a
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one-off problem. It's really just the
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next step in a long and pretty troubling
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history of security holes found in
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critical medical devices. Devices that
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are connected directly to our bodies.
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And just look at this timeline. This
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isn't a new problem. This has been
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building for more than a decade. We're
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talking a researcher hawking his own
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insulin pump back in 2011. It even
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reached the White House in 2013 when
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Vice President Dick Cheneyy's doctors
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had to disable the wireless feature on
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his defibrillator specifically to
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prevent an assassination attempt via
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hacking. Since then, it's just been one
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thing after another. Vulnerable insulin
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pumps, massive pacemaker recalls. The
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pattern is undeniable. And looking
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ahead, the threats are just getting
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smarter. Experts are now warning us
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about things like AI powered attacks
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that can actually learn your unique
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brain signals to create custom hacks
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that are almost impossible to detect or
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how future quantum computers could just
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shatter the encryption we use to protect
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our data today. And that's not even
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getting into old school threats like a
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malicious employee or even worse neural
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spyware. An app that doesn't try to
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control you but just listens, reading
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your private thoughts, your biases, your
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secrets. Okay, but it's not all doom and
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gloom. It's not. Because in the face of
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these incredible risks, there is a race
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happening right now on multiple fronts
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to build the defenses we're going to
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need. A race to build a firewall for the
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human mind itself. And it's being fought
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by engineers, lawmakers, and even
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philosophers. So, on the engineering
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front, for every vulnerability, there's
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a potential countermeasure. The fixes
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for that radio hack are actually pretty
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straightforward. problem. Unshielded
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cables. Solution: Use shielded ones.
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Simple. Attackers using one fixed radio
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frequency. Okay, fine. We'll just have
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the device constantly hop between
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different frequencies. An even clever
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idea is personalizing the BCI to your
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unique brain wave phase or timing. That
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way, the device knows the difference
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between a real thought from you and a
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fake one from an attacker. The point is,
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the technical fixes are there. The
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second front in this race is legal. All
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around the world, lawmakers are
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scrambling to figure out how to regulate
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this stuff. And it's leading to these
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fascinating brand new legal ideas like
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neurorites or classifying neural data as
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its own special highly sensitive
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category of information. And it's really
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interesting to see the different ways
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people are tackling it. Chile went allin
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becoming the first country on earth to
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actually write neuroites into its
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constitution. Here in the US, Colorado
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was the first state to say, "Nope, you
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can't collect this data without explicit
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opt-in consent. California followed suit
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with a slightly weaker law. And
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meanwhile, the European Union is trying
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to fit it into their existing GDPR
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rules, basically treating your brain
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data like any other health data." But
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that brings us to the third front in
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this race. And it might be the hardest
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one of all, the ethical one. What about
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the questions that technology and laws
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just can't answer? This tech forces us
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to ask these incredibly deep questions
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we've never really had to face before.
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Like, what does cognitive privacy even
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mean? Do you have a right to keep your
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own thoughts private? And this quote
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just hits so hard. Philosophers have
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always said that your mind is the last
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refuge of freedom. They could imprison
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your body, but your thoughts, your
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thoughts were always yours. With BCIs,
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for the first time in human history,
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that is no longer a guarantee. Which
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brings this whole massive complicated
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conversation down to one final and very
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personal question. As this technology
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moves out of the lab and into our lives,
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it all comes down to a simple powerful
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question of control. Who owns your mind?
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At the end of the day, the core tension
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is crystal clear. On one hand, you have
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this technology with almost godlike
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power to restore and revolutionize human
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life. And on the other hand, you have a
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security risk so deep that it threatens
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the very thing that makes you you. Your
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identity, your freedom, your
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consciousness. So I'll just leave you
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with this final thought. As this
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technology becomes our reality, we have
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to decide who's really in charge. Is it
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the engineers, the companies, the
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governments, or is it you? Who gets to
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write the user agreement for your mind?