Friday, July 22, 2016: 2:00 pm (Friedman): Do our EEG, fMRI, and other biometric data contain the essence of who we are and what we think? In the future, could this data be used as an identifier for security and thought modification as well as exploring virtual worlds? If our “brainotypes” or “brain fingerprints” and concurrent cognitive processes are monitored, how do we prepare for this looming horizon? Though no one is entirely sure, these questions invite both scientific and metaphorical approaches addressing these issues. Ellen will discuss the emergence of technologies, research, and methods on brain datatyping; privacy and its ethical implications; sending and receiving motor commands between two different brains; moving robotic prosthesis through thoughts; the formation of memory; manipulating memory via frequencies of light; and hacking brain computer interfaces (BCIs) to extract vital information. Keeping these methods and techniques in mind, she will also show a brief excerpt from her own creation “Noor – a Brain Opera” which asks the question “Is there a place in human consciousness where surveillance cannot go?”

Ellen Pearlman