Post 5 - Summary on Roundtable discussion

This post is a summary of the roundtable discussion that my group had. We chose question three for our discussion which is on whether the government should regulate the use of technology that can read human's brain. My group comprises of Angela, Jia Ru, Nurul'ain, Jian Feng and Shuai Xiang. Nurul'ain is the modulator for our group. Jia Ru, Jian Feng and Shuai Xiang supported the issue that is they feel that the government should regulate this technology. On the other hand, Angela and I are the opposition; we feel that the government should not regulate the use of this technology.

Firstly, Nurul'ain began the roundtable discussion with an introduction. She explained the topic that we are going to discuss and what Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is about. fMRI is used to collect data from our brain and together with a computational modelling, it can determine what words the subject is thinking about.

Next, Jia Ru argues that more research needs to be made for the fMRI and also to prevent people from abusing it. Shuai Xiang also argued that more research needs to be made. As for Jian Feng, he said that the use of fMRI is an invasion of privacy and people can used the data obtained to hack other’s people account. Therefore, the government should regulate the use of fMRI.

Next, Angela explained why she feels that the government should not regulate the use of fMRI. It is because using fMRI can help to cure disease without causing pain to the patient. In addition, it can also detect whether a person is lying and help in criminal investigation. She also explained that the information obtained from the scan can be kept confidential and the patient and the person conducted the test can be put in separate rooms. In this way, the privacy of the patient will not be intruded. As for me, I said that the data obtained can be used to control the robot so as to help the handicapped in their daily lives. Furthermore, no technology is perfect so error is unavoidable and improvement can still be made while using it. Therefore, the government should not regulate the use of fMRI.

At the end of the discussion, everyone agreed that the government should regulate the use of fMRI because of the cons for not regulating the use may bring upon.