WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | MAR 2022 16 implantable devices is exploding, with many start-up companies sprouting. At last count, there are 21 neurotech companies working the field: companies such as Kernel, Dreem, Thync, Halo Neuroscience, BrainCo, Inc., Neurable, Paradromics and several others. From treating depression, sleep disorders and speech pathologies to creating brain machine interface wearables and implantables, the whole area is ripe for development. What tensions do you expect this emerging fieldwill havewith privacy laws and norms? The initial reaction with BCI is that it is certainly an improvement over using a keyboard, mouse or eyewear to communicate. Oneof ElonMusk’s concerns, as he has expressed, is that thumbs on a keyboard may be able to reach 20 words a second, but the computer and artificial intelligence (AI) are growing in power and capability at a faster pace. If the human’s bandwidth connection to the computer does not increase, AI will progress onward without us and will become the leader and humans will lose their place at the top of the intelligence pyramid. If the sole aspiration for the BCI is to secure the humans’ race for intelligence as AI grows, as I call it the “brain race,” then that might be a worthy objective. But there are equally countervailing reasons not to engage in this “brain race.” Once the door to the mind is now open for direct communication with the computer, our thoughts, expressions, personalities, emotions and passions are on display for the computer to record and store to an external drive or download to a robot body. In his presentation using pigs, Elon Musk showed the behaviour of the implanted and recently unimplanted pigs and how both acted in a porcine way. The recently unimplanted pig seemed unphased by his recent implantation. In 2021, Neuralink used a macaque to play a ‘Pong’ video game solely with his mind while he sucked on a banana smoothie. To many, this is startling Dale M Fiola has been handling employment and labour actions since the early 1980s. Through decades of sound legal practice, the Law Offices of Dale M Fiola have focused primarily upon representing employees in all types of litigation, and have successfully brought actions on behalf of employees against large corporate employers, local governments and state and federal agencies. Dale is also a member of several professional associations and is currently a member of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA).
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