019 – Iris Coates McCall

Neurotech Podcast

Iris Coates McCall is a Neurotechnology Researcher at Neuroethics Canada, University of British Columbia. Iris holds a Bachelors of Arts and Science in Cognitive Science from McGill University, and a Masters of Bioethics from Johns Hopkins.

Top 3 Takeaways

1. There are three ways to apply ethical guidance to an organization.
2. Scientific evidence can change people’s beliefs in the credibility of a claim.
3. The ethics of augmentative neurosurgery are unclear.

Show Notes

• [1:00] How does Iris spend her time researching?
• [2:00] How Iris became involved in neuroethics
• [4:00] Neuroethics in the workplace
• [5:05] The ethicist’s practical toolkit
• [6:10] What kind of regulation governs consumer neurotechnology?
• [8:50] Enforcement of regulation
• [10:00] Impact of scientific evidence on what people believe
• [12:45] What’s the process for translating ethics research into policy/enforcement?
• [15:20] Do profitability and social good go hand in hand?
• [18:00] How can ethics be adjudicated?
• [20:00] Pragmatic neuroethics
• [22:00] Ethics of augmentative neurosurgery
• [25:20] Iris’s book recommendation

Selected Links

• Portraits of the Mind
• Neuroethics Canada, UBC

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• 014 – AJ Keller
• 013 – Ladan Jiracek, Manfred Franke, and Doug Clinton

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