Browsing by Author "Rainey, Stephen"

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    Accompanying technology development in the Human Brain Project: From foresight to ethics management
    (Elsevier, 2018-02-01) Aicardi, C.; Fothergill, B. Tyr; Rainey, Stephen; Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-; Harris, E.
    This paper addresses the question of managing the existential risk potential of general Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as the more near-term yet hazardous and disruptive implications of specialised AI, from the perspective of a particular research project that could make a significant contribution to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI): the Human Brain Project (HBP), a ten year Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship of the European Commission. The HBP aims to create a digital research infrastructure for brain science, cognitive neuroscience, and brain-inspired computing. This paper builds on work undertaken in the HBP’s Ethics and Society subproject (SP12). Collaborators from two activities in SP12, Foresight and Researcher Awareness on the one hand, and Ethics Management on the other, use the case of machine intelligence to illustrate key aspects of the dynamic processes through which questions of ethics and society, including existential risks, are approached in the organisational context of the HBP. The overall aim of the paper is to provide practice-based evidence, enriched by self-reflexive assessment of the approach used and its limitations, for guiding policy makers and communities who are, and will be, engaging with such questions.
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    Civil Society Organisations in Research: A Literature-based Typology
    (2016-12-26) Rainey, Stephen; Wakunuma, Kutoma; Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-
    This article explores literatures from various sources to highlight and understand differences among key players surrounding the perceived nature and role of civil society in research from different literature streams. Including civil society organisations (CSOs) in research activities is an integral part of a broad drive towards integration of science and society. Interest in CSO inclusion in research is widespread, but lacks a coherent focus and clarity on what CSOs are. Without this clarity, CSO-inclusive research, or policy, may be ineffective. This article addresses this gap in knowledge by presenting findings from an exploration of academic, policy and research project literature in order to come to a view on CSOs in research. This culminates in a typology of CSOs and provides a means of identifying types of CSOs. The typology shows four main types of CSO (Common cause, Shared voice, Research-oriented, Commercially-oriented) and provides a definition for each type, along with a basis for the definition; an example of each; some typical terminology; typical area of activity; properties; typical mission; key areas of interest and their ‘action logic’ in research.
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    Consciousness, Perspective, Community
    (Imprint, 2014-01-01) Rainey, Stephen
    This paper seeks to clarify some aspects of the nature of consciousness by drawing some contrasts between objects and conscious beings. It is argued that consciousness requires an account of self-conscious perspective that is itself reliant upon the communicative potentials of a community. Consciousness in this respect is best thought of as a general space of reasons in which specific evaluation of reasons takes place. To begin with, given the prevalence of computational notions and descriptions used as a parallel with consciousness, the objects in question will be computers. Having drawn out some distinctions between computation and consciousness, the argument will proceed to generalise these differences as between objects and conscious beings. This will suggest an awkwardness in distinguishing objects from conscious beings. The awkwardness is in the apparent inability to account for consciousness without resort to ‘mysterianism’ – that consciousness is a mysterious ‘otherness’ possessed by special kinds of things, such as persons. Deploying some explanatory arguments from Putnam, Brandom, Davidson and other resources from the philosophy of language, the awkwardness will be addressed and conclusions drawn about differences between objects and conscious beings. These will be based in how we understand systems, representation and community. In short, consciousness will require an account of self-conscious perspective that itself relies upon an account of community. These concepts will be shown as inter-reliant, or interpenetrating notions.
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    Ethics in Innovation Management as Meta-Responsibility: The Practice of Responsible Research and Innovation in Human Brain Simulation
    (Routledge, 2019-02-18) Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-; Timmermans, Job; Rainey, Stephen; Shaw, Mark
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    Ethics management and responsible research and innovation in the Human Brain Project
    (Edward Elgar, 2019-07-26) Rainey, Stephen; Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-; Shaw, Mark; Reinsborough, Michael
    Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is a key concept in current discourses concerning research governance and policy. The practice of ethics management in the European Union (EU) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship Human Brain Project (HBP) utilises a concept of meta-responsibility to further RRI. This chapter explains the theory and practice of meta-responsibility to demonstrate RRI in practice in the HBP. As a Flagship European Commission research project, the HBP represents a particular opportunity to espouse the best aspirations of the European research area. In this chapter, particular focus is given to RRI as it is theorised and implemented within the HBP. This chapter focuses specifically on the role and practice of ethics management in the RRI efforts of the HBP. However, it presents a truncated and incomplete view. This is unavoidable, given the complex nature of the area – the map is not the territory. Other perspectives are possible, from which other aspects of RRI, and of the HBP, might gain or lose emphasis. Nevertheless, here we present an ethics management perspective on, and role in, RRI so far in the HBP.
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    Ethics Management and Responsible Research and Innovation in the Human Brain Project
    (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) Rainey, Stephen; Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-; Shaw, Mark Christopher; Reinsborough, Michael
    Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is a key concept in current discourses concerning research governance and policy. The practice of Ethics Management in the European Union (EU) Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship Human Brain Project (HBP) utilises a concept of ‘meta-responsibility’ in order to further RRI. This chapter will explain the theory and practice of meta-responsibility to demonstrate RRI in practice in the HBP. As a Flagship EC research project, the HBP represents a particular opportunity to espouse the best aspirations of the European research area. In this chapter, particular focus is given to responsible research and innovation as it is theorised and implemented within the HBP. This article focusses specifically on the role and practice of ethics management in the RRI efforts of the HBP. As such, it presents a truncated and incomplete view. This is unavoidable, given the complex nature of the area – the map is not the territory. Other perspectives are possible, from which other aspects of RRI, and of the HBP overall, might gain or lose emphasis. Nevertheless, here is presented an ethics management perspective on, and role in, RRI so far in the HBP.
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    Experience and Consciousness: Concepts from the outside in
    (Springer International, 2014) Rainey, Stephen
    The ‘feel’ of driving a Porsche is unlike that of seeing red (O’Regan, J. Noë, A., 2000). Sensorimotor theory and enactivism hold that looking for mechanisms or something ‘inside the head’ is a mistake in accounting for this. Consciousness does not ‘lie behind’ experience and action, but rather that it is in experience and action. Studying the actions organisms undertake in environments can provide insight into their consciousness and experience. Taking such actions as the locus of study, moreover, can provide greater insight than can studies of mechanisms that drive such interactions. Studying organism-environment interaction in fact provides insight into mechanisms. However, it seems at least phenomenologically plausible that actions are caused and controlled by consciousness: that consciousness precedes action in significant ways. Phenomenology, whilst not irrelevant to a discussion of how things ‘feel’ needn’t form the central focus of a discussion here. In fact, this paper will discuss linguistic and epistemological aspects to the nature of experience (broadly construed) so as to provide input to the field of enquiry opened in sensorimotor and enactivist studies.
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    Friends, Robots, Citizens?
    (ACM, 2015-09) Rainey, Stephen
    This paper asks whether and how an artefact, such as a robot, could be considered a citizen. In doing so, it approaches questions of political freedom and artefacts. Three key notions emerge in the discussion: discursivity, embodiment and recognition. Overall, discussion of robot citizenship raises technical, political and philosophical problems. Whereas machine intelligence is hotly debated, machine citizenship is less so. However, much research and activity is underway that seeks to create robot companions, capable of meaningful and intimate relationships with humans. The EU flagship "Robot Companions for Citizens" project aims for "...an ecology of sentient machines that will help and assist humans in the broadest possible sense to support and sustain our welfare." This is a broad and ambitious aim, with a goal of making artefacts that can have genuine relationships with humans. This being so, in order to avoid merely creating highly interactive automata, the status of the robot must be carefully considered. Without significant public freedoms, for instance, the notion of a robot 'friend' would be a dubious one -- as dubious as the notion of a 'willing slave', for instance. In a broad sense, these issues relate to the politics of robot kinship and sociality, perhaps specifically to civic epistemology. With a technological ideal of genuine human-artefactual kinship in the future, these political questions cannot be ignored. One approach to this problematic involves accounting for the robot citizen.
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    Improving brain computer interface research through user involvement - The transformative potential of integrating civil society organisations in research projects
    (PLOS ONE, 2017-02-06) Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-; Wakunuma, Kutoma; Rainey, Stephen; Hansen, Christian
    Research on Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) often aims to provide solutions for vulnerable populations, such as individuals with diseases, conditions or disabilities that keep them from using traditional interfaces. Such research thereby contributes to the public good. This contribution to the public good corresponds to a broader drive of research and funding policy that focuses on promoting beneficial societal impact. One way of achieving this is to engage with the public. In practical terms this can be done by integrating civil society organisations (CSOs) in research. The open question at the heart of this paper is whether and how such CSO integration can transform the research and contribute to the public good. To answer this question the paper describes five detailed qualitative case studies of research projects including CSOs. The paper finds that transformative impact of CSO integration is possible but by no means assured. It provides recommendations on how transformative impact can be promoted.
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    Is European Data Protection Regulation sufficient to deal with emerging data concerns relating to neurotechnology?
    (Oxford University Press, 2020) Rainey, Stephen; McGillibray, Kevin; Akintoye, Simisola; Fothergill, Tyr; Bublitz, Christoph; Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-
    Research-driven technology development in the fields of the neurosciences presents interesting and potentially complicated issues around data in general, and brain data specifically. The data produced from brain recordings is unlike names and addresses in that it may result from the processing of largely involuntarily brain activity, it can be processed and reprocessed for different aims, and is highly sensitive. Consenting for brain recordings of a specific type, or for a specific purpose, is complicated by these factors. Brain data collection, retention, processing, storage, and destruction are each of high ethical importance. This leads us to ask: Is present European data protection regulation sufficient to deal with emerging data concerns relating to neurotechnology? This is pressing especially in a context of rapid advancement in the fields of brain computer interfaces (BCIs), where devices that can function via recorded brain signals are expanding from research labs, through medical treatments, and beyond into consumer markets for recreational uses. One notion we develop herein is that there may be no trivial data collection when it comes to brain recording, especially where algorithmic processing is involved. This article provides analysis and discussion of some specific data protection questions related to neurotechnology, especially BCIs. In particular, whether and how brain data used in BCI-driven applications might count as personal data in a way relevant to data protection regulations. It also investigates how the nature of BCI data, as it appears in various applications, may require different interpretations of data protection concepts. Importantly, we consider brain recordings to raise questions about data sensitivity, regardless of the purpose for which they were recorded. This has data protection implications.
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    Managing Ethics in the HBP: A Reflective and Dialogical Approach
    (Routledge, 2016-04-04) Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-; Rainey, Stephen; Shaw, Mark Christopher
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    The Method of Levels of Abstraction in Pluralism and Governance of Dialogical Interaction
    (Springer, 2014-02-11) Rainey, Stephen
    This paper deploys elements of the philosophy of information (PoI) in order to explore ideas of dialogical governance. Dialogue in the governance of contentious issues is at least partly a response to the recognition of pluralism among perspectives on various issues. This recognition is prevalent in the context of European governance. However, it is a first step to a better understanding of diverging opinion, rather than an end point. This paper argues that the PoI offers a fruitful path to follow up this first step. Specifically, PoI provides epistemological tools that can be used to clarify the meanings of terms and relevance of perspectives at issue in dialogical scenarios. Importantly, this approach revises the enlightenment view of the individual, offering a more nuanced and ultimately more accurate view of the self as internally complex. This represents a step beyond the status quo wherein these things are taken as unproblematic. This paper argues that PoI’s resources ought to feature as a methodological background to a reinvigorated dialogical governance paradigm. This method and these resources can inform an improved view of dialogical governance in Europe and, in their generality, beyond.
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    The Role of Ethics in the Data Governance of Large Neuro-ICT Projects
    (Oxford University Press, 2018-05-14) Stahl, Bernd Carsten, 1968-; Rainey, Stephen; Harris, Emma; Fothergill, B. Tyr
    Objective We describe current practices of ethics-related data governance in large neuro-ICT projects, identify gaps in current practice, and put forward recommendations on how to collaborate ethically in complex regulatory and normative contexts. Materials and Methods We undertake a survey of published principles of data governance of large neuro-ICT projects. This grounds an approach to a normative analysis of current data governance approaches. Results Several ethical issues are well covered in the data governance policies of neuro-ICT projects, notably data protection and attribution of work. Projects use a set of similar policies to ensure users behave appropriately. However, many ethical issues are not covered at all. Implementation and enforcement of policies remain vague. Conclusion The data governance policies we investigated indicate that the neuro-ICT research community is currently close-knit and that shared assumptions are reflected in infrastructural aspects. This explains why many ethical issues are not explicitly included in data governance policies at present. With neuro-ICT research growing in scale, scope, and international involvement, these shared assumptions should be made explicit and reflected in data governance.