Meeting KI-Postdocs: 'Bridges between protein and silicon'

"Ethical challenges of merging biological and artificial cognition"
(Dr. Johannes Lierfeld; response: Pater Dr. Dr. Justinus C. Pech, Hochschule Heiligenkreuz)

The notion of a bridge between protein and silicon has slowly evolved into a reality due to the development of brain-computer interfaces or brain-machine interfaces (BCIs / BMIs). Besides some alarmism there is much hope to achieve wonderful things with and through the use of BCIs. However, as fruitful the applications can be in the best case, as severe the ethical repercussions would be in a worst-case scenario. Thus, serious ethical challenges monger around the usage of these mind-machine-bridges, since their applications might interfere with personal integrity, identity, and accountability. Especially the field of affective BCIs poses cascades of ethical concerns regarding their operative field: human affections and emotions.