Composition
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Beginning
The beginning of the talk is unusual, as Farahany launches directly into a personal anecdote about the protests in Iran in connection with the 2009 presidential election, and the fact that some members of her family resided in Tehran during the most violent period. This may leave the audience somewhat confused, as the relation to mind-reading technology is not immediately pr…
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Middle
In the middle of the talk, Farahany is focused on both describing the possibilities of present and future EEG technology and on sharing her concerns about the potential for misuse and breach of privacy.
She starts with some basic neurological and technological definitions, describing how thoughts work and how EEG can ‘read’ them. She then gives specific examples of the kinds of things that EEG can currently do, such as “gauge a person’s mood” (l. 25) and “decode some single-digit numbers or shapes or simple words t…
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End
In the last sections of the speech, Farahany finally starts to present potential solutions to the ethical and legal issues surrounding advanced EEG technology, in an attempt to answer the rhetorical question presented in the title.
Her shift in focus from problem to solution is clearly signalled in the phrase “Before you panic, ...” (l. 86), meant to reassure her audience that there is a way to avoid the technological dystopia that she has just described.
She argues that it is unrealistic to restrict the flow of information (ll. 87-88), so the focus should be on the legal sector, ensuring that people have rights that protect them against misuse of their data…
