The Battle for Your Brain

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.

A fun, wide-ranging, and provocative non-fiction book about the ethics and possibilities of neurotech (aka brain-meddling!!).

So I spent most of this audiobook running and arguing with it in my head. I almost threw the headphones off in an angry huff during the “why ADHD meds are cognitive enhancers and totally fine ok” - I stuck with it, if only because I enjoyed the ethical debating. (Even though I do think the ADHD meds chapter was GOODNESS ME, really eliding some big, obvious downsides to ADHD meds (and steroids). Like, that shit can fuck you up.

The author, Farahany, is a law prof and was on Obama's bioethics committee. So I do defer to her authority. At the same time, I feel like I'm kinda not into the Singularity/transhumanist world anymore - and I did sense some techbro enthusiasm in Farahany's writing, which made me eye-roll. But I can't criticize her too much; she did a decent job of outlining the ethical debate.