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How neurotech will redefine work

How neurotech will redefine work

Technology applied to our brain is coming faster than we imagine

Giammarco Pacifico & Federica Montrone
November 01, 2023

Have you ever wondered about having the power to focus or relax on demand?

Or to control your domotic house just by thinking about that?

If the answer is yes, or reading those questions has tingled your imagination, then this article is for you.

I have recently stumbled upon one of the most visionary books I have recently read “The Battle for Your Brain” by Nita A. Farahany and this article puts together the most insightful pieces of information and reflections I have collected through this reading.

As the neurotechnology market continues its expansion and is expected to reach $21 billion by 2026, things that seemed to be only a distant imagination start to become reality beneath our eyes without us even noticing it.

The following are just some of the technologies already available:

Smart Cap provides companies with a cap that monitors employee neural activity during their operations, ensuring they are vigilant. More than five thousand companies are already using this technology in different sectors like railways and aviation
Entertech has developed a neurotech platform with sensors and software to measure fatigue, stress, meditation, and mind control games, collecting massive quantities of EEG data. They have settled multiple partnerships with neural interfaces and AI companies together which further gather and analyse the data
Muse develops a neurosensing headband that helps you sleep and empowers meditation practice through EEG detection of different states of mind with real-time feedback
CTRL-Labs, now a Meta company, develops a wristband that transforms thoughts into digital actions, namely reinventing our way of interacting with computers

CTRL kit wristband and Muse headband

What’s next

Some of these technologies have the noble mission to improve people's lives and address some of today’s societal challenges as SmartCap does with workers' fatigue, which has caused catastrophic events over the years. On the other hand, they pose new challenges about how private our brains can still be, even when they are monitored for good purposes.

Employee surveillance is not an exotic novelty coming from a Black Mirror episode.

However, neurotechnology could bring it to a new level. Imagine your career advancement being questioned because your manager can detect your productivity levels during the year by looking at your brain waves. Or imagine your subconscious thoughts to be detected without having the time to thoughtfully translate concepts into speech rather than raw thoughts as they come to your mind.

Nowadays, through EEG, it is possible to classify not just if someone is paying attention or is drowsy, but also which type of task they are paying attention to, distinguishing for example between important tasks or something more collateral and marginal to your job. I won’t be surprised if, in the following years, the accuracy of these methods will allow us to detect every single word we think.

Even this is pretty close to happening. A recent research conducted at Berkley showed that using neurotechnology researchers were able to register unconscious responses from gamers when prompted images during the game. In this way, they were able to steal sensitive information like home addresses or PIN codes of credit cards, which were solicited by the images prompted.

Beyond work

Neurotechnology will force us to rethink our way of living as much as our working.

The urge for laws, policies and governance to align on this subject needs to become central as we approach a new era of accessible knowledge about us. We need to draw a line on what is acceptable and what is not, to claim for our safety when we feel it is endangered.

❝

The same neuroscience that gives us intimate access to ourselves can allow companies, governments and all kind of actors who don’t necessarily have our best interests in mind access too

The battle for your Brain - Nita A. Farhany

Here at Kickigai, work and innovation are our central focus. Hence, those kinds of advancement pose new questions and challenges in our approach towards working and living with technological advancement.

If surveillance of productivity becomes normal, which impact will this have on employees? Will they be willing to trust their managers and employers?

Will they be able to contribute as before, while stressed out to be checked or nudged even for the smallest downtime?

Who will define how much data is enough to look at for managers and employers?

Will we be required to develop superior self-control of our brain activity to preserve ourselves?

Neurotechnologies, like other fast-growing technologies, will reshape our living, not just by improving the quality of life for people with impaired conditions but also by enhancing and redefining a new normality. As reality evolves, we must be ready to evolve with it, recognising and welcoming what adds value to society while being suspicious of what needs to be confined, without becoming anti-technologists.

So what is the solution to that? Shall we make it slower or stop this technological advancement to protect our brains? No, this couldn’t and will never be the right solution. As Nita Farahany suggests, our priority is to focus on what is central and valuable to make the most out of this technology, and what needs to be protected to preserve our mental privacy.

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This week's top scientific reads

Foundation model or linear regression? (bioRxiv)
Immunotherapies for solid tumors (aRxiv)
By 2040, 120% more people will live with dementia (The Lancet)
Detailed cellular maps of the human brain (Science)
Magnetic resonance using diamonds (Science Advances)

Read my comments on these articles here.

Latest funding rounds in health & bio

Ready to turn this news into your next career opportunity? Here is how

Lillian Care raised €2.4M to solve the primary care shortage in rural parts of Germany 🇩🇪
Amatera closed a €1.5M pre-seed round to develop non-GMO strands of crops for a new generation of coffee production 🇫🇷
Ador Diagnostics raised $7.5M for their molecular diagnostic platform that focuses on infectious diseases 🇮🇹
Algorithmiq raised a $4.25M round, after their €13.7M Series A in June to further advance photo-activated drugs for cancer prevention 🇫🇮
Likeminded raised a €1.5M post-seed round (after a recent €5.9M seed) for mental health support in the workplace 🇩🇪
Galeneo raised €1M to scale their “hospital-at-home model” with on-demand and in-person delocalised medical services 🇪🇸
Homed-IQ closed a €1M pre-seed round to develop their high-quality self-administered health test for health diagnosis and monitoring 🇳🇱