Dati digitali e neurotecnologie, tra etica e diritto

The production and exchange of digital data brings together processing subjects and processed information, delineating new forms and modes of human-machine interaction. In particular, wearable smart devices and neurotechnologies configure an Internet of Bodies, in a functional implementation relationship between big data and algorithmic, predictive and decision-making processes, with serious repercussions on fundamental human rights. Neurotechnologies gain attention from scientific, philosophical, ethical and legal perspectives, allowing for the bridging of some compromised subjective capacities, but raising unknowns about the privacy and security of neural data, questions that have prompted intense debate about the appropriateness of an autonomous legal category of neurorights. Also surfacing are unknowns about possible discrimination against those who cannot or will not use neurotechnology and about human enhancement, which is capable of sketching unprecedented inequalities. These developments take on philosophical, ethical, and normative significance, and the timeliness of the discussion results from numerous initiatives and regulatory measures, both European and international, that evolutionarily respond to advances in neurotechnology, AI, and robotics. Emerging is the need for assurance of individual and collective action, in the affirmation of nonnegotiable rights, placing digital technologies at the service of broader civic and social intentions.