Abstract
Recent advances in neurotechnology allow for an increasingly tight integration of the human brain and mind with artificial cognitive systems, blending persons with technologies and creating an assemblage that we call a hybrid mind. In some ways the mind has always been a hybrid, emerging from the interaction of biology, culture (including technological artifacts) and the natural environment. However, with the emergence of neurotechnologies enabling bidirectional flows of information between the brain and AI-enabled devices, integrated into mutually adaptive assemblages, we have arrived at a point where the specific examination of this new instantiation of the hybrid mind is essential. Among the critical questions raised by this development are the effects of these devices on the user’s perception of the self, and on the user’s experience of their own mental contents. Questions arise related to the boundaries of the mind and body and whether the hardware and software that are functionally integrated with the body and mind are to be viewed as parts of the person or separate artifacts subject to different legal treatment. Other questions relate to how to attribute responsibility for actions taken as a result of the operations of a hybrid mind, as well as how to settle questions of the privacy and security of information generated and retained within a hybrid mind.
Highlights
Recent advances in neurotechnology allow for an increasingly tight integration of the human brain and mind with artificial cognitive systems, blending persons with technologies and creating an assemblage that we call a hybrid mind
We offer examples that illustrate the trajectory toward the specific form of artificial intelligence (AI)-brain hybrid mind in which we are interested: A hybrid of the organic human brain and mind that is functionally integrated with neurotechnologies and involves AI
The hybrid mind may constitute a novel point of access to the mind of a person because it involves the bidirectional exchange of information from the brain to the device and vice versa
Summary
Before moving on to discuss examples of the hybrid mind, as we use the term, we wish to note some different senses in which the human mind is conceived as a hybrid. Describe the mind as a hybrid because it consists of both inner (cerebral and phenomenological) and outer processes (bodily movements) They view expressive actions such as smiling as constitutive parts of the mental process because some mental states can be changed through such actions – smile and you feel better (Krueger, 2012). This relates to the influential Extended Mind Thesis, the claim that human thought does not take place solely within the skull but may instead extend to the external world (Clark & Chalmers, 1998). The idea of a hybrid mind can be addressed from the way in which the ordinary use of tools shapes human brains and minds. Studies show that interactions with tools such as musical instruments or the smartphones that direct us through the complex traffic of London City can have a profound impact on the organization of the brain
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