I think this is a really comprehensive report on this space! Nothing against the report itself, I think you did a great job.
I’m pretty cynical about current brain imaging/BCI methods.
+ I don’t think getting high quality structural images of the brain is useful from an EA perspective, though it has substantial medical benefits for the people who need brain scans/can afford to get them. This just doesn’t strike me as one of the most effective cause areas, the same way a cure for Huntington’s disease would be a wonderful thing, but might not qualify as a top EA cause area.
+ I don’t think getting measures of brain activity via EEG or fMRI has yet produced results that I would consider worth funding from an EA perspective. Again, I’m not saying some results aren’t useful (I’m especially impressed with how EEG helped us understand sleep). But I don’t think any of this research is substantially relevant to preventing civilizational or existential risks.
+ I don’t think our current brain stimulation methods (e.g., TMS, TDCS) have any EA relevance. The stimulation provided from these procedures (in healthy subjects) just doesn’t seem to have huge cognitive effects compared to more robust methods (education, diet, exercise, sleep, etc.). Brain stimulation might have much bigger impacts for chronically depressed and Parkinson’s patients via DBS. But again I don’t think this stuff is relevant to civilizational or existential risks, and I think there are probably much more cost effective ways of improving welfare.
There may still be useful neurotechnology research to be done. But I think the highest impact will be in computational/algorithmic stuff instead of things that directly probe the human brain.
Super great to get a practitioner’s perspective—thanks!
Completely agree that structural imaging, EEG and fMRI, and existing stim methods are likely not differentially important (except as enablers for other tech, e.g. structural imaging being used for targeting for transcranial approaches like TUS).
I only included these methods for completeness in the review of current R&D. They’re absent from the recommendations.
My contentions above are:
(1) that more advanced neurotechnologies, which are currently in clinical and preclinical development, could have large-scale impacts in 30 years (1-5 decade range)
(2) neurotechnologies whose performance vastly exceeds the methods you mentioned above that might be differentially beneficial could be developed in 1-2 decades with concerted effort. Some of which we have fundable ideas for.
I think computational neuroscience will eventually be useful, but its utility is dependent on the quality of measurement and manipulation we can achieve of the brain. Neurotechnology is the key to better measurement and manipulation.
I think this is a really comprehensive report on this space! Nothing against the report itself, I think you did a great job.
I’m pretty cynical about current brain imaging/BCI methods.
+ I don’t think getting high quality structural images of the brain is useful from an EA perspective, though it has substantial medical benefits for the people who need brain scans/can afford to get them. This just doesn’t strike me as one of the most effective cause areas, the same way a cure for Huntington’s disease would be a wonderful thing, but might not qualify as a top EA cause area.
+ I don’t think getting measures of brain activity via EEG or fMRI has yet produced results that I would consider worth funding from an EA perspective. Again, I’m not saying some results aren’t useful (I’m especially impressed with how EEG helped us understand sleep). But I don’t think any of this research is substantially relevant to preventing civilizational or existential risks.
+ I don’t think our current brain stimulation methods (e.g., TMS, TDCS) have any EA relevance. The stimulation provided from these procedures (in healthy subjects) just doesn’t seem to have huge cognitive effects compared to more robust methods (education, diet, exercise, sleep, etc.). Brain stimulation might have much bigger impacts for chronically depressed and Parkinson’s patients via DBS. But again I don’t think this stuff is relevant to civilizational or existential risks, and I think there are probably much more cost effective ways of improving welfare.
There may still be useful neurotechnology research to be done. But I think the highest impact will be in computational/algorithmic stuff instead of things that directly probe the human brain.
Super great to get a practitioner’s perspective—thanks!
Completely agree that structural imaging, EEG and fMRI, and existing stim methods are likely not differentially important (except as enablers for other tech, e.g. structural imaging being used for targeting for transcranial approaches like TUS).
I only included these methods for completeness in the review of current R&D. They’re absent from the recommendations.
My contentions above are: (1) that more advanced neurotechnologies, which are currently in clinical and preclinical development, could have large-scale impacts in 30 years (1-5 decade range) (2) neurotechnologies whose performance vastly exceeds the methods you mentioned above that might be differentially beneficial could be developed in 1-2 decades with concerted effort. Some of which we have fundable ideas for.
I think computational neuroscience will eventually be useful, but its utility is dependent on the quality of measurement and manipulation we can achieve of the brain. Neurotechnology is the key to better measurement and manipulation.
Makes sense! Thanks again for writing such a comprehensive report!