ABSTRACT
People from different walks of life— for example, video gamers, students, academics, entrepreneurs, classical musicians, and public servants— are increasingly experimenting on themselves with putative cognitive enhancement (CE) technologies. "Cognitive enhancer" is a broad term for any of a number of different techniques aimed at improving the mind, and the phrase "neural modifiers" in the Presidential Commission's recommendation could technically refer to anything that effects changes in the brain. Transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulators are two examples of non-pharmacological CE techniques that have also been investigated and that comprise another important class of techniques and technologies that the Presidential Commission had in mind by its reference to "novel neural modifiers". Some modes of regulation can empower rather than disempower and thus enhance rather than diminish freedom. The narrow conceptions of "safety" and "effectiveness" in play mean that serious social and normative hazards are overlooked.
