Events
3600 Civic Center Blvd., Rm. 8-031
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Commercial Neurotechnologies and the Risks of Cognitive Warfare” - Łukasz Kamieński, PhD, MSc
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2026-06-16 12:00:00
2026-06-16 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Commercial Neurotechnologies and the Risks of Cognitive Warfare” - Łukasz Kamieński, PhD, MSc
Łukasz Kamieński, PhD, MSc
Professor
International and Political Studies
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Consumer neurotechnology, especially wearable brain-monitoring devices and non-invasive brain-computer interfaces, is moving beyond therapy into wellness, entertainment, and productivity, with major technology companies and start-ups investing in everyday applications. EEG- and ultrasound-based wearables are designed to detect cognitive states, including alertness, attention, stress, and mood. As these products are integrated into headbands, earbuds, and headphones, neurodata collection becomes ambient and continuous.
Neuroethical discussions usually emphasize mental privacy, autonomy, and liberty, yet national security remains an overlooked aspect. Neurodata may support personalized neuromarketing, but it can also enable hostile influence operations by turning consumer devices into platforms for “cognitive warfare.” This concept refers to unconventional conflict in which adversaries target the human mind by shaping perceptions, beliefs, and decision-making.
Neurodata may flow across platforms, cloud services, and jurisdictions in ways that remain opaque to users. Such transfers can enable third-party access without meaningful awareness or consent and may evade effective state oversight. When combined with other biometric information, including digital fingerprints, neurodata can enhance AI-driven psychological and sentiment profiling.
Neurodata-enabled microtargeting, therefore, marks a significant shift in cognitive warfare, making the protection of the cognitive domain both an ethical and a strategic imperative.
3600 Civic Center Blvd., Rm. 8-031
Penn Medical Ethics
3600 Civic Center Blvd., Rm. 7-031
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Medical and Scientific Construction(s) of Race: A History in Brief" - Rana A. Hogarth, PhD, MHS
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2026-06-23 12:00:00
2026-06-23 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Medical and Scientific Construction(s) of Race: A History in Brief" - Rana A. Hogarth, PhD, MHS
Medical and Scientific Construction(s) of Race: A History in Brief
Rana A. Hogarth, PhD, MHS
Associate Professor
History of Science / History of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Deans' Distinguished Visiting Professorship Program
This talk examines the long history of race making within medicine and its allied fields in the Americas. It pays special attention to medical claims that defined Black people’s bodies as peculiar in relation to whites. These claims trafficked in anti-Black racism and were deployed to legitimize the idea of innate racial differences. They shaped the contours of medical knowledge production from the era of slavery and beyond; they were features, not aberrations in the production of Western biomedical knowledge about human bodies.
This talk concludes by highlighting the enduring influence of anti-Black racism on the development of early twentieth-century eugenics. By foregrounding the process through which medicine and science constructed Blackness, Dr. Hogarth offers a new way of understanding the rise of eugenics—one that positions it as less a reactionary science and more an articulation of a long and deliberate process of race-making that still continues to this day.
3600 Civic Center Blvd., Rm. 7-031
Penn Medical Ethics
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