{Radio} Brain Hacking
Fingers that can hear, ears that can see – science fiction? Prof Amir Amedi thinks not and over the past few decades has created super senses allowing those with reduced sight or hearing to retrain their brain to see and hear differently.
In this weeks on air chat Hong Kong Radio 3’s Phil Whelan and I chat about the future of brain interfaces as we explore the good, bad and uncertainty of hacking into our brain.
Hacking the brain isn’t entirely new, Doctors have been drilling into the brain to relieve pressure for centuries, we’ve been inserting cochlear implants, pacemakers, taking brain altering medicines and soon we”ll implant bionic eye.
Some of the new interventions include Elon Musk’s Neurlink, BCI Brain Computer Interfaces and Optogenetics the use of light to stimulate the brain.
Listen now to explore these incredible brain hack medical frontiers (14 minutes 17 seconds)
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is brain hacking in a foresight context?
The convergence of neurotechnology and digital systems to monitor, augment, or modify cognitive function. This ranges from consumer EEG devices tracking attention states to therapeutic BCI implants for neurological conditions to speculative but advancing cognitive enhancement technologies.
Q: How close are we to meaningful brain-computer interfaces?
Therapeutic applications are already in use for conditions like paralysis and treatment-resistant depression. Consumer-grade attention monitoring is a present-day reality. The more speculative applications — direct digital memory, thought-to-text interfaces — are further out but not science fiction.
Q: What are the ethical and governance signals around neurotechnology?
Significant and underexamined. The privacy implications of brain data are more profound than almost any other data category — it is not just what you do, it is how you think. Regulatory frameworks are nascent. The organisations and governments that engage seriously with neurorights now will be better positioned for what is coming.
Q: Can Morris Misel speak on neurotechnology futures and human identity?
Yes. These themes appear in his keynote work on human futures, technology ethics, and what it means to be human in an era of radical change. Book at morrismisel.com.
Fingers that can hear, ears that can see – science fiction? Prof Amir Amedi thinks not and over the past few decades has created super senses allowing those with reduced sight or hearing to retrain their brain to see and hear differently. In this weeks on air chat Hong Kong Radio.
When signals like Brain Hacking emerge, organisations that engage early have the advantage of choosing their response rather than reacting to events. That gap between those who prepared and those who did not is where competitive positioning is actually made or lost.
The most important question is not whether Brain Hacking will matter, but how quickly it will matter in your specific context. Leaders benefit most from mapping the ripple effects early — not just the direct impact but the second and third-order consequences that arrive later and hit harder. That is the practical work of foresight.
