Nanotechnology, the Brain, and the Future

pOur brain is the source of everything that makes us human: language, creativity, rationality, emotion, communication, culture, politics. The neurosciences�have given us, in recent decades, fundamental new insights into how the brain works and what that means for how we see ourselves as individuals and as�communities. Now - with the help of new advances in nanotechnology - brain science proposes to go further: to study its molecular foundations, to repair brain�functions, to create mind-machine interfaces, and to enhance human mental capacities in radical ways.
This book explores the convergence of these two�revolutionary scientific fields and the implications of this convergence for the future of human societies. In the process, the book offers a significant new approach�to technology assessment, one which operates in real-time, alongside the innovation process, to inform the ways in which new fields of science and technology�emerge in, get shaped by, and help shape human societies./p