MAR 2022 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM 17 space age technology that even H.G. Wells could not have conjured up. But thoughts are private, and as the monkey navigates the ‘Pong’ game, his private thoughts are being monitored and recorded by that computer. If cell phones have the capability of picking up sounds or conversations through applications, it would be axiomatic that communicating your thoughts directly with a computer through a BCI would find those thoughts in its hard drives. If one’s thoughts are recorded, those thoughts may result in liability in a civil or criminal context. If intent, malice or negligence can be established by your thoughts, that computer can be transformed into the prosecution’s chief witness in finding you guilty of wrongdoing. As an example: you are riding in a selfdriven car and are upset with another driver’s careless driving methods. Your thoughts go to road rage and you direct your car to side-swipe the other vehicle. Your thoughts recorded in the car’s computer will be fair game for examination in the civil and criminal trial that ensues. Your claims that it was no more than inadvertence or simple negligence will be overwhelmed by evidence of malicious intent. Do you foresee any other significant trends regarding privacy laws in the near future? Just as cell phones have become such an integral part of our lives, the advancing technology of BCI will come to pass at some point in our lives. Cell phones will become obsolete and we will communicate with each other through implants. As science moves closer to decoding the electrical systems of the neurons, laws will have to be updated to protect the privacy of one’s thoughts and emotions. If we are all connected to the internet via our brains, it will be possible to know each other’s thoughts. Our every thought will be on display for social media’s consumption and governmental intrusion. Unless laws are mapped out demarcating what is recordable from that which is not, the right of privacy will cease to exist. With a cerebral implant in place, your private acts Pictures professionally shot by Angelica Reyn. Al-Law-Gory book cover designed by Mark Frazier. – including speech at home, in the office, or anywhere – is open to view by anyone connected to that mainframe computer. Why have you taken this interest inmatters of privacy in theUS? About 2 years ago, I heard that technology was in the works to create an implant for the brain. I am unsure if it was Neuralink that caused me to think it through. But during the COVID stay-at-home mandate of 2020, I decided to write a book on the subject called ‘The Devalued’ (right). The novel takes place about 100 years into the future when cerebral implants are inside a majority of human brains. The book portends that implanted individuals will be smarter, more physically capable, and more connected to computer-generated technology that gives them superhuman talents. There is no need to go to school when all the information they need comes from the computer’s vast information portals. Those that have submitted themselves to implantation view their privacy as consequential to the benefits of being implanted and have become acclimated to a world where privacy is no longer important. In ‘The Devalued’, the computers continue to amass vast amounts of information through self-generated AI and human participation. The predictions of the 21stcentury pundits ring true when AI and the computers have now become the leaders and humans the unwitting subordinates reliant upon AI to survive. Through years of feeding the computers information and making them more anthropomorphic, humans have created a world in which computers run everything. The more mundane tasks are performed by humans, leaving the difficult ones to the computer. Sure, it may have freed up more time for recreational activities, but humans no longer play an important role in worldly things. They have become devalued. There will be those who refuse to become implanted. Those individuals will be treated as outcasts, ostracised from the functioning groups of implanted. It cannot be expected that the computers will protect that right of privacy when their very existence depends upon and pervades every aspect of our lives, from bodily functions, to changes in our health and well-being, and our motives to act and reason. Do you have any further thoughts aswe begin to go down this road? This technology is coming. It cannot be stopped because it is the next stage in our development as humans toward the 22nd century. But, as we go through, it is important that at every stage of the development of BCI we assure and safeguard all our thoughts, emotions, reasons, passions and opinions from interfacing with computers just for the sake of using a computer. Privacy is of paramount concern for our individuality. Laws must develop alongside the advancing technology to focus on keeping computers out of our minds. Without those laws in place, our privacy will be doomed. ‘The Devalued’ - Dale M Fiola The advancing technology of BCI will come to pass at some point in our lives. D A L E M . F I O L A GO T I MP L AN T ? T H I NK TW I C E . “A gripping tale about a dystopia future that we may be already plunging headfirst into ... terrifying in its reality ... you won’t be able to put it down.” — R O G E R M C C A F F R E Y “Giving 1984 a run for its money.” — E V E R E T T M . “Scarily futuristic and probable.” — L O R E T T A I R V I N E D A L E M . F I O L A THIS FUTURISTIC DYSTOPIAN THRILLER offers insights into advancing technology of cerebral implants in which people are connected directly to the internet via cerebral implants. In that certain future, one will no longer need a device to connect to information centers. Once inside the inner sanctum of the mind, implants will present an array of opportunities at the price of a miasma of misfortune and degradation. Charleston, SC www.PalmettoPublishing.com
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