Nuclear war is an example of an existential risk that poses a risk of human extinction. As such, while some existential risks pose the danger of extinction, some do not. Global existential risks are risks that threaten the premature extinction of earth originating life (Bostrom, 2012) or that threaten “the permanent and drastic reduction of its potential for desirable future development” (Cotton-Barratt & Ord, 2015). Secondly, BCIs make it easier than ever for totalitarian dictatorships to police dissent by using brain stimulation to punish dissenting thoughts, or even make certain kinds of dissenting thought a physical impossibility. Firstly, BCIs allow for an unparalleled expansion of surveillance, as they enable states (or other actors) to surveil even the mental contents of their subjects. This paper outlines how the development and widespread deployment of BCIs could significantly raise the likelihood of long term global totalitarianism. The risks this technology poses however, have been almost entirely neglected. In particular, well-corroborated research prototypes already exist (Guenther et al, 2009 Moses et al, 2019) a number of companies, including Facebook and Neuralink, are working to commercialise this technology over the coming decades (Constine, 2017 Musk, 2019) and there is widespread agreement among BCI researchers (86% agreement) that this technology is not just theoretically feasible, but will be on market in the near future (Evers & Sigman, 2013 Merrill & Chuang, 2018 Nijboer et al, 2011).

Though this sounds somewhat like science fiction, the current state of the technology is much more advanced than most realise. At present BCIs are used primarily for therapeutic purposes, but their potential use case is much wider. In particular, BCIs have been developed to read mental and emotional content from neural activity and have been developed to intentionally stimulate or inhibit certain kinds of brain activity. KeywordsĮxistential Risk, Brain-Computer Interface, Totalitarianism Introductionīrain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are technologies that allow the brain to interface directly with an external device.

We suggest that given the high likelihood of its impact, and the possible magnitude of such an impact, it deserves more attention, more research, and more discussion. At present, this risk factor has been entirely unnoticed.

In particular this is achieved not just by expansion of surveillance, but the expansion of brain stimulation. We illustrate how BCI technology could significantly raise the existential risk from global totalitarianism in the near future. This paper identifies a new existential risk factor that has not been recognised in prior literature: Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs). 26(2) 51–65Ĭo-Founder & Director at LEEP, London, England, United Kingdom Abstract

Intrusion 2 hacked health and weapons