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25、我们应该对神经科学心生恐惧

　　Neuroscience | 新刊发布：我们应该对神经科学心生恐惧
　　原创 UNESCO Courier 联合国教科文信使 2

　　图片
　　阿涅丝·巴尔东

　　( Agnès Bardo

　　在神经科学领域，现实比小说虚构的情节更加不可思议。

　　谁能想到，有一天，我们可以在动物大脑中植入人造记忆，还能仅靠思维就将文本传输给计算机？如今，这些早已成为现实，而技术革命才刚刚拉开帷幕。

　　神经科学领域有着广阔的发展前景，因为该领域的技术进步有望为精神或神经疾病找到治疗方法，甚至有可能让完全瘫痪的患者与人互动交流或重获一定的活动能力。

　　然而，这门学科既带来了希望，也产生了相应的伦理问题。由于神经科学的应用范围远远超出了医疗领域，营销、教育，甚至电子游戏等行业都可见其身影，因此产生的伦理问题更加棘手。

　　如果神经科学发展到可以读取和传输大脑数据的程度，那么数据盈利性使用或恶意使用等问题就会变得极为尖锐。此类技术恐将被用来监控、操纵，甚至篡改我们最私密的想法。

　　这主要是由于神经科学具有特殊性，可与大脑直接互动，也就是说，与我们自身最本质的部分进行互动，涉及人类的自我认同、思想自由、自由意志和隐私等。

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　　?? 图为一位年轻健康的成年人的大脑矢状切面。磁共振成像(MRI)可以对大脑进行非侵入性的高精度测量。

　　虽然已出台保护隐私和消费者权利的法律，但针对神经科学形成的具体威胁，目前的立法尚存在盲区。保护人权的公约和条约也并未涉及保护自由意志或精神隐私等特定领域。一些国家已经在加强法律武器，保护公民的“神经权利”（尤以智利为最），但绝大多数国家还未展开行动。

　　因此，当务之急是要制定保护措施，填补上述空白，在预防利用公民的大脑数据方面提供有力保障。联合国教科文组织国际生物伦理委员会在其最新报告中提出了此项建议，并在联合国系统内主导关于该事项的讨论，其目的正是要制定神经技术的全球治理框架。

　　Editorial

　　Agnès Bardon

　　UNESCO

　　In the field of neuroscience, reality has already surpassed fiction.

　　Who could have imagined that it would one day be possible to implant false memories in an animal’s brain, or to dictate a text to a computer by using thought alone? This is now a reality – and the technological revolution is only just beginning.

　　These advances are promising when they make it possible to find treatments for mental or neurological pathologies, or when they give a totally paralysed patient the possibility of communicating, or regaining some mobility.

　　But the ethical questions that neuroscience raises are commensurate with the hopes it generates. This is all the more true as its range of applications extend far beyond the medical sector – to include marketing, education, and even video games.

　　To the extent that it becomes possible to read and transmit brain data, the issue of the exploitation of this data for commercial or malicious purposes becomes acute. There is a risk that these technologies will be used to monitor, manipulate, or even modify, our most private thoughts.

　　This is because neuroscience has the particularity of interacting directly with the brain – that is, with the part of ourselves at the very foundation of human identity, freedom of thought, free will, and privacy.

　　While there are laws to protect privacy and consumer rights, the specific threats related to neuroscience have not been legislated for. Conventions and treaties protecting human rights do not cover particular areas such as the protection of free will or mental privacy. With the exception of some countries – notably Chile and some others – few have begun to strengthen their legal arsenal to protect the “neurorights” of citizens.

　　It is therefore urgent to establish safeguards to fill these gaps and guarantee the effective protection of citizens against the possible use of their brain data. This is what UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee recommends in its latest report. And it is precisely the purpose of the debate led by UNESCO within the United Nations system to develop a global framework for the governance of neurotech

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　　注：部分摘自“联合国教科文信使”