A woman whose epilepsy was greatly improved by an experimental brain implant was devastated when, just two years after getting it, she was forced to have it removed due to the company that made it going bankrupt.
As the MIT Technology Review reports, an Australian woman named Rita Leggett who received an experimental seizure-tracking brain-computer interface (BCI) implant from the now-defunct company Neuravista in 2010 has become a stark example not only of the ways neurotech can help people, but also of the trauma of losing access to them when experiments end or companies go under.
So should a lot of research, for public benefit. Medical absolutely, space absolutely.
The problem with that model is no one acquires immoral levels of wealth, which means those that set policy don’t get as large of bribes.
And as a species, our actions have spoken on no uncertain terms, we’d literally rather destroy our only habitat and ourselves then let go of the dream of living like modern Pharoahs on the backs of others.