“Decoding the brain’s own language”: Brain implants, neurorights, and the corporate race to decode thought

Isabel Pedersen will present at the annual conference of the Canadian Communication Association.

Precision Neuroscience, Synchron, Neuralink, and Paradromics are racing to develop brain implants for many applications including therapeutic use, cognitive enhancement, and for general, ‘everyday’ communication. The Paradromics website, for example, claims “we will continue to expand the capabilities of our massively scalable platform to support a pipeline of future applications that could benefit millions”. Precision Neuroscience celebrates the concept of “decoding the brain’s own language” (Vimeo, 2024). Elon Musk’s Neuralink has been approved for clinical trials in Canada (Reuters, 2024).

This presentation questions and explores how ‘neurorights’ can be established as these technologies evolve at an unprecedented pace and offer advancements due to the decoding of neurodata.