Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

In "The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology," author Nita A. Farahany embarks on a thought-provoking journey into the ethical and legal quagmires presented by the rapid advancement of neurotechnology. Farahany, a distinguished ethicist and lawyer, presents a compelling narrative that is as much a warning as it is a guide to the uncharted territories of the mind.

The book opens with a chilling proposition: the very essence of what makes us human—our thoughts, beliefs, and memories—is at risk of being accessed and manipulated by emerging technologies.

Farahany deftly navigates through complex scientific concepts, making them accessible to the lay reader, while also delving deep into the philosophical implications of such advancements.

At the heart of Farahany's argument is the concept of "cognitive liberty"—the right to privacy and autonomy over one's own mental processes. She illustrates how neurotechnology, while holding the promise of treating neurological disorders and enhancing human capabilities, also poses significant threats to individual freedoms. The narrative is replete with real-world examples, from devices that can predict seizures to those that might one day decode our innermost thoughts.

Farahany doesn't just present problems; she offers solutions. She calls for robust legal frameworks and ethical guidelines to protect individuals from potential abuses. Her writing is a clarion call for society to recognize and safeguard cognitive liberty as a fundamental human right before it's too late.

"The Battle for Your Brain" is a meticulously researched, deeply insightful, and urgently necessary book. It serves as a wake-up call to the implications of neurotechnology on personal freedom and identity. Farahany's work is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, law, and human rights, and it will undoubtedly be a cornerstone in discussions about cognitive liberty for years to come.

This book will have you worried about things you probably haven't given much thought to. I am not sure if I am better informed having read it or if I'm more terrified of this world we live in. Artificial Intelligence is a lot scarier than I initially though. It is important to be informed but it's also important to not live in constant fear. I am not at all sure how I feel after reading The Battle for Your Brain.

Nita did an incredible job at making a complex topic more understandable and relatable to an average person. While readinf this book I often found myself stopping to think about how I negotiate throughout the day with my brain and how much I have become auto driven with so much AI in my everyday life. I found myself throughout the day stopping to consider some serious brain data gathering moments that could be triggered with new and current technology by just browsing.in the grocery store. Im grateful to have more knowledge about how technology is being used and can be used to gather such important ans personal data.

I really wanted to enjoy Battle for Your Brain, but found it rather repetitive, with no new information.

Fascinating, informative, … and scary!
The title of this book is very appropriate. There are MANY battles for our brains discussed in this book, and the information is both fascinating and scary. Many of the initiatives involve advancing our ability to provide medical treatment or to help people function after debilitating strokes or accidents, and there are already some impressive devices in use or development. For example, a South Korean biomedical company has an electroencephalogram (EEG) device that can detect early cognitive impairment that should allow better treatment for a number of neuropsychiatric diseases. The same research, though, can provide ways to invade our minds. Big Brother can use many techniques for purposes that we may consider ethical or an invasion of liberty. There are EEG headsets that are one step up from lie detector tests to see if someone is lying during a criminal investigation. Employers could require employees in occupations like pilots or truck drivers to wear such devices to measure their alertness. Is the protection of the public worth the invasion of an employee’s mind? The State Grid Corporation of China already uses EEG sensors to measure employees’ fatigue and other brain wave activities. There is also neuromarketing, a blend of neuroscience with consumer research that uses physiological and brain measurements to inform marketing, pricing, and product development. These are done now using willing subjects, but in the future companies may be able to collect information about us from devices we have for another purpose much as social media does today using our posts.The term “battle” is also appropriate in another realm, war. Both China and the US and no doubt other countries have efforts in various defense-related fields involving the brain.
I absolutely loved the dedication to this book, “To Mom and Dad, for always believing in me, even when they think that I have no idea what I’m talking about”. However, clearly Nita Farahany DOES know what she is talking about, despite her parents’ reservations. She is a professor of law at Duke University specializing in the legal, social, and ethical implications of emerging technology and has served on a number of distinguished commissions, such as President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. On a more mundane but very relevant level, she also wears a headband containing electrodes that detect her brain waves and send them to an app on her smartphone to help her use neurofeedback to control her migraine headaches.
Despite her credentials, Farahany does not rely on her own knowledge and opinions alone, and there is a wealth of discussion of the works and opinions of other experts, including some of my favorites like Francis Fukuyama and Michael Sandel. All the positions of others are respectfully reported even when the author does not agree with them.
Like many books that cover a lot of ground on subjects that will be fairly new to most readers, the first part of The Battle for Your Brain is less than fully clear at times and, perhaps because of the breadth of the subject, can sometimes be a little repetitive. If you find this, let me assure you that things get better, and it DEFINITELY is worth it.
This book is worth reading simply for the fascinating descriptions of techniques and tools being developed or already in use involving our brains, but a lot of this work can be use for good or ill . Farahany is overall a champion for neurorights and cognitive liberty. She ends the book with a call for action to protect ourselves and future humanity, while at the same time making the most of the wonderful possibilities offered by neuroscience and neurotechnology. Read this book, and I am confident you will agree.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book from NetGalley.

Excellent book! My, neuroscience has advanced over the past few years. I would hardly believe it were the book not well-referenced from actual articles and publications. The author goes into what's happening, as well as implications for the uses for these technologies - both good and bad, as well as what safety measures are in place or are needed to be put in place.

While a fairly large percentage of those who engage regularly with technology are convinced they don’t need to worry about the fact their every move is being noted and preserved because they aren’t doing anything interesting, a smaller one understands the long-range potential of the various ways our devices are spying on us.

The extent to which our lives are no longer our own should concern everyone, but it doesn’t. Given the potential next stage of technological intrusion, it’s time to fix that. For example, there are apps available now for use in monitoring sleep that should really make sensible people nervous.

“Consumers can see graphic displays of their brain wave activity in real time—delta (dreamless sleep), theta (deep relaxation, daydreaming, inwardly focused), alpha (very relaxed, taking a break, meditating), beta (aroused, engaged, stressed), and gamma (concentrating) waves—as well as patterns of blood flow in their brains and even the bioelectric changes in their muscles.”

At the moment, we’re assured that information is only stored locally, but bear in mind we’ve heard that song before.
Dr. Farahany is trying to get a jump on that next stage of that constant surveillance by alerting us to the ways the technology boffins are slowly but steadily advancing into the last bastion of our privacy—our minds.
“We must establish the right to cognitive liberty—to protect our freedom of thought and rumination, mental privacy, and self-determination over our brains and mental experiences.”

Already, she tells us, eager technophiles are experimenting with peripherals that allow them to play games using only their thoughts, or rather the micro-muscular movements triggered by their thoughts. It’s still early days, after all. And they do so totally oblivious to the kind of date being harvested while they’re having fun, data that will be used to create the next generation of brain monitors disguised as tools and toys.

“Unbeknownst to the gamers, the researchers were able to steal information from their brains by measuring their unconscious brain responses that signaled recognition to stimuli, including a PIN code for one gamer’s credit card and their home address.”

Well, I hear you thinking, I just won’t use any of that stuff. The problem is, corporations are already using it to monitor worker productivity, or in the trucking industry to determine when a driver has been on the road too long and showing signs of fatigue.
“[N]eurotech may become a requirement in modern workplaces and schools: no wristband, no job.”

Those who consider this farfetched are reminded there are currently multiple lawsuits pending brought by people, including healthcare professionals, who objected to being ordered to accept an experimental "vaccine" and were summarily fired. And still can't get their jobs back despite the growing evidence the treatment they refused is ineffective for the purpose advertised.
The problem, as is so often the case with questions like this is: Where do we draw the line between technological invasion and service to humanity? After all, Dr. Farahany notes, it’s hard to oppose something that can prevent accidents by ensuring workers are too tired to work safely.
“From Australia to the Americas and parts of Africa, more than five thousand companies worldwide in mining, construction, trucking, aviation, railway, and other industries use SmartCap [currently available monitoring technology] to ensure that their employees are wide awake.”

Then there are the medical applications.

However, along about Chapter 5, Dr. Farahany gives away that while her theme purports to be protecting the privacy of our thoughts, she's still more than a little enthralled by the idea of enhancing the human body using technology. You know—creating what in science fiction used to be called “cyborgs”. After all, just because using chemical enhancements in athletic competitions is illegal should preclude our using technological ones to improve our mental performance. And if one person uses it, won’t everyone who wants to be competitive need to accept those same enhancements?

“Better brain functioning can make us more successful at work, enhance our earning potential, reduce our likelihood of experiencing social and economic difficulties, and improve our overall health.”

I’ve seldom read a better example of free-market capitalist reasoning for screwing around with our bodies and minds.

Nevertheless, as an alert to what’s waiting in the wings to be introduced into our society, this books does what needs doing; and the explanation of the basics needed to protect ourselves from government and corporate overreach are worth the time to read about them. Although Dr. Farahany occasionally falls into full academic jargon mode, for the most part the book is reader-friendly, and the message is important enough to wade through the more technical stuff.

I would certainly recommend this to both technophiles and technophobes, on the grounds it’s better to know and not need than to need and not know. I don't share Dr. Farahany's enthusiasm for technological enhancements for reasons biological and ethical, in that a neoliberal free-market economy guarantees those who can afford it will be those who already have more advantages than they need. Still, the book addresses an important issue not enough of us are thinking about.

This is a masterful book that everyone must read. As Ms. Farahany convincingly proves, soon every employer is going to require that we all wear wristbands or headbands that will allow these firms to completely read our minds. Yes, they will be able to know one's every unspoken thought and they could use this information to our detriment. As Farahany clearly points out the time to assure our freedom from this unwarranted intrusion is now.

Well Documented Examination And Discussion. This book is, quite simply, one of the best documented books I've ever come across - 48% of the text of the ARC I read months before publication was documentation. Within the narrative itself, Farahany does a great job of using the principles espoused in John Stuart Mill's 1859 book On Liberty as a recurring touch point on the need for liberty of the mind and brain - the last bastion of true privacy left in this increasingly interconnected world of multiple overlapping surveillance systems. Farahany does an excellent job of showing both the biological and the social side of what is happening when, and the various implications it can have for everything from criminal prosecution to employment, and many other topics as well. Written from a decidedly libertarian, pro-freedom perspective, this is absolutely a book that everyone will need to read and contemplate. Very much recommended.