A woman whose epilepsy was greatly improved by an experimental brain implant was devastated when, just two years after getting it, she was forced to have it removed due to the company that made it going bankrupt.
As the MIT Technology Review reports, an Australian woman named Rita Leggett who received an experimental seizure-tracking brain-computer interface (BCI) implant from the now-defunct company Neuravista in 2010 has become a stark example not only of the ways neurotech can help people, but also of the trauma of losing access to them when experiments end or companies go under.
What could possibly go wrong with your idea
It got us to the moon.
Then we decided to sell off our society for private profit under the lie that we’d all benefit.
Biggest reason this country has gotten this cartoonishly shitty, why our commons like bridges are literally collapsing.
Public research was slower and more considered, as it didn’t have the very unscientific sole goal of “how do we monetize this half-baked discovery NOW?!” with no other consideration let alone to societal consequences, but publically funded research yielded social benefits we all reaped through the commons. Reckless growth/metastasis for private profit is giving us technologies that make us miserable and that only truly benefit private shareholders at our expense. Plus you know, the whole reverse terraforming our only world against us, again for short term private profit.
OK, good point. Research yes. Somebody still needs to control and manage the things. That concerns me. I’m not imagining a medical /brain implant version of nasa. My problem is when politicians start imposing politics to the situation. I don’t want the governments or private companies dicking around in my brain imposing fad or outrage of the day changes. Standards good, control, not so good.
For-Profit Medical Corporations would miss out on some lowest effort, unethical, low margins for their extreme profiteering opportunities?