随着先进医疗技术越来越接近消费市场,，对受保护使用的护栏的需求应该会增加。一开始可能是一个帮助交流的神经植入物，但它可能会成为一种用来监管’内心深处想法的装置。

As advanced medical technology gets closer to hitting consumer markets, the need for guardrails on protected usage should increase. What might begin as a neural implant to aid in communication could become a device used to police one的 innermost thoughts.

对神经植入的深远益处和风险很感兴趣, Rachel Sava, 哈佛-麻省理工学院健康科学与技术项目的博士候选人, 在她的获奖作品中探讨了改变生活的医疗设备如何成为企业和政府实体的监控工具, “超级智能, Superintimate,” 第四届年度展望计算的未来奖品。

Intrigued by the far-reaching benefits and risks of neural implants, Rachel Sava, a PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, explores how a life-changing medical device can become a tool for surveillance by corporations and government entities in her winning submission, “Superintelligence, Superintimate,” for the fourth annual Envisioning the Future of Computing Prize. 

Sava的概念受到 IBM, 实习的启发，她在那里与伦敦 PACE 中心合作开展一个项目。 “A 该项目的导师是凯文·布朗,，他自己设计了最早的大脑解码器之一 — 一个基于脑电图的系统，他为一位因中风而患上闭锁综合症的同事构建了一个基于脑电图的系统,” 她说。 “对于这些患者群体来说，身体已成为不可靠的思维载体，这促使我在大约六年后撰写有关神经假体的文章。”

Sava的 concept was inspired by an internship at IBM, where she worked on a project with the PACE Center in London. “A mentor on the project was Kevin Brown, who had himself designed one of the earliest brain decoders — an EEG-based system he built for a colleague who had suffered a stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome,” she says. “It was this patient population for whom the body has become an unreliable vehicle for the mind that motivated my writing about neuroprostheses some six years later.”

Sava 解释说，目前的研究和应用正处于神经技术的 “ 分水岭。” 举例来说，公司利用神经植入来监测精神生产力, 或当局对人群进行监管“ 思想犯罪,” Sava 表示，随着这项技术进入消费市场,，人们真正担心，最初作为革命性医疗设备的东西可能会转变为更多反乌托邦用法。

Sava explains that research and applications right now are at a “watershed moment in neurotechnology.” Using examples like companies taking advantage of neural implants to monitor mental productivity, or authorities policing a population for “thought crimes,” Sava said that as this tech hits consumer markets, there is a genuine fear that what starts as a revolutionary medical device could transition into more dystopian usages.

在由 Caspar Hare, 主持的现场颁奖典礼上，SERC 前副院长兼哲学教授,（他于 2023 年创立了,）, 三名决赛入围者分别就自己的概念进行了 20 分钟的演讲，并回答了评委和观众的提问。

During a live awards ceremony hosted by Caspar Hare, former associate dean of SERC and professor of philosophy, who founded the prize in 2023, three finalists each gave a 20-minute presentation on their concepts and took questions from a panel of judges and audience members.

“SERC 和年复一年使这个奖项成为可能的捐助者都在问我们, 下一代科学家: ‘你想看到什么世界? 我认为’值得花时间问自己同样的问题,” Sava 说。 “如果,就像对我一样,情绪变得足够明亮以激发进一步的行动—那么’值得允许自己像做其他学术工作一样深入地探索它。”

“SERC and the donors who make this prize possible year after year are asking us, the next generation of scientists: ‘what world do you want to see? I think it的 worth taking the time to ask yourself the same,” Sava said. “And if, as it did for me, the sentiment grows bright enough to motivate further action — then it的 worth giving yourself permission to explore it as deeply as you do your other academic work.”

每年, 展望计算未来奖都要求学生超越技术进步，从一开始就考虑其工作的社会效益和成本。自成立以来, 竞赛一直吸引着来自各个学科的本科生和研究生。

Each year, the Envisioning the Future of Computing Prize asks students to look beyond technological advancement and consider the societal benefits and costs of their work from the outset. From its inception, the competition has consistently attracted undergraduate and graduate students from across a wide range of disciplines.