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<\/a><\/p>\nTry to remember every thought that crossed your mind at work today\u2014from the benign, like what to have for lunch, to the inflammatory, like why that supervisor is such a jerk. Now imagine if your boss had access to all of those thoughts and feelings. Sounds crazy, right? It\u2019s rapidly becoming closer to reality.<\/span><\/p>\n Tesla founder Elon Musk\u2019s company Neuralink just this summer announced<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that human trials will move forward next year for an implantable device that can read a user\u2019s mind; scientists at UCSF recently released the results of a brain activity study<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, backed by Facebook, that shows it\u2019s possible to use brain-wave technology to decode speech; in 2018, Nissan unveiled Brain-to-Vehicle technology<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that would allow vehicles to interpret signals from the driver\u2019s brain; and Nielsen<\/strong><\/span><\/a> is already using neuroscience to capture nonconscious aspects of consumer decision-making.<\/span><\/p>\n There are, of course, both therapeutic and nontherapeutic reasons why people are interested in trying to figure out how to decode the brain. Musk\u2019s clinical trial, for example, will focus on patients with complete paralysis due to an upper spinal cord injury. The hope is that the implanted mechanism will allow the user to virtually control any device, like a smartphone or an electric vehicle, with only their mind, which would be revolutionary for patients with physical limitations.<\/span><\/p>\n But Musk\u2019s plans for Neuralink aren\u2019t entirely altruistic. He believes every human being will eventually wear his device as a way to keep up with artificial intelligence. For now, though, a consumer-based EEG device, similar to a fitness tracker, is the most likely to impact us in the short-term. It\u2019s noninvasive, relatively inexpensive, and is already being implemented in places like China and Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n In April, the South China Morning Post<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a> reported that \u201cgovernment-backed surveillance projects are deploying brain-reading technology to detect changes in emotional states in employees on the production line, the military and at the helm of high-speed trains.\u201d According to The Sydney Morning Herald<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, several Australian mining companies have adopted a SmartCap, a device that looks like a baseball cap but is lined with EEG electrodes on the interior rim, to \u201creduce the impact of fatigue on the safety and productivity of their staff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n These detectors, then, in some cases, are being used to improve the safety of workers. The device might warn a miner of exposure to carbon monoxide poisoning before they suffer a traumatic brain injury or send an alert to a truck or train driver to pull over if excessive drowsiness is detected.<\/span><\/p>\n But, Nita Farahany<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, a leading scholar on the ethical, legal, and social implications of emerging technologies, who gave a TED Talk<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on the subject last November, warns that there are currently no safeguards in place to protect against inappropriate use of the data.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a significant societal interest in being able to listen to the brain activity of, say, a trucker or a pilot,\u201d says Farahany. \u201cBut we need space for mental reprieve. It\u2019s fundamental to what it means to be a human. Governments are starting to adopt broad privacy legislation, and some of that may implicate when and if companies can track this information. This is data like any other type of data, but I don\u2019t yet see governments focusing on brain data, in particular. It\u2019s something we need to be thinking about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Farahany thinks early adopters in the U.S. will be in industries like gaming, healthcare, aviation, trucking, and neuromarketing. And think about the implications in business: a company could theoretically use the technology to screen candidates in job interviews, track productivity on the job, and even monitor for dissident thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n