Cognitive and other forms of physical ‘enhancement’ are now normal. ‘Big pharma’ and the AI and robotics industries have effectively lobbied for changes to law and regulation, amplifying their ability to roll-out enhancement technologies and pharmaceuticals across all sectors from education to health and sport.
Almost all students and staff use smart drugs to enable the extreme focus and endurance needed to complete academic work, as cultures of performance, productivity and metricisation intensify in universities. Cognitive training tools, brain-computer interfaces and electronic neurostimulators are also widely used. ‘Brain data’ dominates the data industry and is worth billions. Enhanced campuses incorporating routine use of facial, engagement and emotion recognition technologies are mainstream across all education sectors.
Off-grid citizen and freedom movements are gaining in power, however, as the implications of this for freedom, mental privacy and cognitive liberty become clearer.
Attribution, non commercial https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Links
Higher Education Futures (project page)