4.3 Immersive technologies
4.4 Military applications
New and emerging immersive technologies (such as
those being capable of facilitating the emergence
of renewed virtual worlds like the metaverse,
virtual reality, augmented reality, haptic devices etc)
provide organisations with increased opportunities
to accumulate and utilise the personal information
of users – including neural data.164 The risk of
invasions of privacy, safety and security for people
in such immersive technologies (inherited from
underlying technologies or emerging from the new
digital ecology) may be wide‑sweeping,165 including:
As with many new and emerging technologies,
military forces around the world are beginning to
pay close attention to neurotechnologies. Military
applications of neurotechnologies can broadly fall
into three categories:
the management of massive data streams
pervasive user profiling activities
unfair outcomes of AI algorithms
mental health implications
safety of physical infrastructures and
human bodies166
cyberbullying
assaults, sexual exploitation and abuse
violent extremism.167
The personal data involved in immersive worlds
will likely be ‘more granular and unprecedentedly
ubiquitous to build a digital copy of the real
world’.168 This is especially the case as technologies
in the metaverse may collect and process data such
as brain wave patterns.169
It is likely that there will be an increase in the use of
neurotechnology to connect brain waves to gaming
and metaverse experiences to allow for immersive
experiences for users.170 Neuro feedback, as an
example, could provide organisations with real‑time
information about users’ brain activity, which is
collected while users engage in virtual experiences
and interact with different stimuli. BCIs could be
used to collect data related to neural activity, such as
electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. EEG can be used
to monitor brainwaves and potentially detect patterns
related to emotions, thoughts and cognitive states.
The UK ICO has noted that neurotechnology is being
used for games which allow players to operate drones
remotely via neurotechnology.171 It is expected that
there will be greater uptake of such technology for
gaming in the medium term (four to five years), with
more significant uptake in the use of neurotechnology
of modulating technologies aimed at gaming.172
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BCIs
neurotechnical enhancement
neurotechnological systems for deception,
detection and interrogation.173
The application of this technology could be used for
a range of purposes, including treating personnel
for physical and psychiatric injury, enhancing a
combatant’s effectiveness by improving cognitive
and emotional capacities, or even permitting neural
remote control of weapons.174
The experimental use of such technologies has
increased in the past decade.175 For example,
the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA), a research agency of the United States
Department of Defence, has a number of current
programs being conducted within its neuroscience
research portfolio.176
The UK Ministry of Defence has claimed that brain
interfaces could allow for the manipulation of the
physical world by thoughts alone – such as opening
a door handle to an aircraft from anywhere in the
world.177 Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Air
Force, Brian Moore has even predicted that BCIs have
‘the potential to revolutionise military dominance
much the same way nuclear weapons have done’.178
The application of such technology in warfare
is concerning, but so too is its use on military
personnel. In military settings, there will be
particular concerns surrounding consent and
vulnerability in adopting neurotechnologies due
to the hierarchical nature of military service.179
These issues are of direct relevance in Australia
with the Australian Army previously trialling BCI
technologies in 2022.
Protecting Cognition: Background Paper on Human Rights and Neurotechnology