$19.28 with 36 percent savings
List Price: $29.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 21. Details
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$19.28 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$19.28
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Woodville Books
Ships from
Woodville Books
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology Hardcover – March 14, 2023

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 103 ratings

Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.

Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$19.28","priceAmount":19.28,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"28","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"JqvVUkj7nFFZ3Pgp3urG8VhCmTlDz6fzInZ%2FIqcCu3DgeaEFTHi3eTNldTiZ2UbF55sXeq38xeYWEyW%2BulUiUaR53yMNfmGJb5kJU5o0z6aiD7Llh3F5lTMOE6r9e6SC%2FILOntwsBVxXeKIofE1JLmQsyqUvcMOYR%2FQ%2FWPaeUr3aRcMII4zsrQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

A new dawn of brain tracking and hacking is coming. Will you be prepared for what comes next?

Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, your thoughts can be used as evidence of a crime, and your own feelings can be held against you. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, and the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories or cure addictions.

Neuroscience has already made all of this possible today, and neurotechnology will soon become the “universal controller” for all of our interactions with technology. This can benefit humanity immensely, but without safeguards, it can seriously threaten our fundamental human rights to privacy, freedom of thought, and self-determination.

From one of the world’s foremost experts on the ethics of neuroscience,
The Battle for Your Brain offers a path forward to navigate the complex legal and ethical dilemmas that will fundamentally impact our freedom to understand, shape, and define ourselves.

Read more Read less

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

$20.49
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$20.99
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$20.49
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Nita Farahany writes with clarity and verve about the promise and perils of the neurotech revolution―offering a fascinating and provocative tour of technologies that have the power to transform our lives for the better and even what it means to be human. More importantly, she encourages a timely global conversation about how to ensure the ethical progress of neurotech to benefit all of humanity.”
―Jennifer Doudna, University of California, Berkeley biochemist, Innovative Genomics Institute founder, Nobel Laureate for co-inventing CRISPR technology

“Essential reading for anyone interested in neurotechnology and its coming impact on our society. Engineering neural implants to decode the brain seems hard to fathom, but this is easy compared to the ethical challenges that lie ahead. Farahany masterfully navigates the issues that confront us.”
―Edward Chang, M.D., Department of Neurological Surgery chairman, University of California, San Francisco

“Farahany poses the critical questions that can guide us as we navigate the hope and hype around neurotechnology, revealing both the promise for patients and the challenge for society.
The Battle for Your Brain is a must-read.”
―Thomas Insel, M.D., author of Healing, former National Institute of Mental Health director, and codirector of President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative

“This highly original and timely book explains why we cannot surrender our ‘last bastion of freedom,’ even as we fight with politics and persuasion for access to the fruits of brain science. Farahany alerts us to a struggle for control over access to sensitive personal information that demands everyone’s attention.”
―Anita Allen, Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and professor of philosophy, University of Pennsylvania Law School

“Farahany sounds a timely warning concerning current uses of neurotechnology by corporations and governments for monitoring, recognizing that these uses will grow more powerful and insidious. However, she is no enemy of technology. She presents a balanced view of risks and benefits of its uses by individuals, and makes her arguments in the context of a sophisticated understanding of individual liberty and its potential limits in a free society.”
―Steven Hyman, M.D., Stanley Center of Psychiatric Research director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

“Nita Farahany persuasively demonstrates that rapidly approaching advances in neurotechnology will change politics, marketing, mental-health care, and dozens of other areas of daily life. The legal and ethical challenges she outlines are daunting, but
The Battle for Your Brain arms us with the knowledge needed to fight for a future that includes individual privacy and free will.”
―Jules Polonetsky, CEO, Future of Privacy Forum

“As a well-established thought-leader in ethics and artificial intelligence, Professor Farahany is neither alarmist nor resigned over current trends but offers a measured manifesto of how we can channel technological progress for the benefit of humanity. However, the message is clear: if we do not institute the necessary safeguards now, humanity as we know it is imperiled.”
―Ahmed Shaheed, University of Essex professor, author of the United Nations’ first-ever report on freedom of thought

“The author’s even-handed approach is a refreshing reprieve from the dystopian pessimism that often accompanies discussions of these technologies, and the eye-popping examples show that the future may be closer than many assume. Readers will be enthralled.”
Publishers Weekly

“An unsettling warning … [an] insightful report.”
―Kirkus

“Ms. Farahany’s call for ‘prudent vigilance and democratic deliberation’ is much needed. In a world where even our dreams can be mined for data, we need more guides like her to think through the challenges ahead.”
―Wall Street Journal

"
The Battle for Your Brain is a superb introduction to how rapidly advancing neurotech can either enhance or undermine free minds."
―Reason Magazine

"The book is valuable reading, not only for those interested in neuroscience but also for anyone genuinely concerned about the challenges humanity will face in the near future."
―Science

About the Author

Nita A. Farahany is the Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law & Philosophy at Duke University, and Founding Director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society. She is a frequent commentator for national media and radio and keynote speaker at events including TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the World Economic Forum, and judicial conferences worldwide. From 2010-2017, she served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. She is also co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences and on the Board of Advisors for Scientific American. Farahany holds an AB (Genetics) from Dartmouth College, an ALM (Biology) from Harvard University, and a JD, MA, and Ph.D. (Philosophy) from Duke University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press (March 14, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250272955
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250272959
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.55 x 0.95 x 9.55 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 103 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Nita Farahany
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Nita A. Farahany, a futurist and legal ethicist, is the Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law & Philosophy and founding director of the Initiative for Science & Society at Duke University.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
103 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2023
Surveillance neurotechnology isn't coming; it's already here. Devices already monitor thousands of truck drivers and Chinese high-speed rail operators for drowsiness. Some bosses are not just monitoring your productivity at work, but also your health and activity via Fitbits, cameras, and desktop software. Emotiv's MN8 earbuds "allow employers to monitor employees’ emotional and cognitive functions in real time." Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are only getting better, to the point of being able to read our thoughts. Are we ready for this?

In her supremely important new book, superstar legal scholar, ethicist and philosopher Nita Farahany argues that we are most definitely not — yet: "The same neuroscience that gives us intimate access to ourselves can allow companies, governments, and all kinds of actors who don’t necessarily have our best interests in mind access too. I find this terrifying as an Iranian American because nothing in the US Constitution, state and federal laws, or international treaties gives individuals even rudimentary sovereignty over their own brains. It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but we are rapidly heading toward a world of brain transparency, in which scientists, doctors, governments, and companies may peer into our brains and minds at will. And I worry that in this rapidly approaching future, we will voluntarily or involuntarily surrender our last bastion of freedom: our mental privacy."

Lest you think Farahany is some anti-tech Luddite, you should know that she is *for* brain-enhancement — a pro-Provigil, one might say. However, having worked on this topic for the past ten years, she urges caution around rapid, unprecedented neurotech progress: "I believe that we can and should embrace emerging neurotechnology, but only if we first update our concept of liberty to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of doing so."

In addition to proposing a legal framework around the new concept of cognitive liberty, Farahany provides a comprehensive, deftly drawn picture of the current landscape of extant and arising neurotech gizmos. They are supercool! And also concerning at times. Which is why I need to buy some of them. And why you need to get this book! It's both a microscope into the present and a telescope into the future about something we should all care about a lot: the contents of our cranium, and who has access to it.
-- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of 
The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible , the highest-rated dating book on Amazon, and  Should I Go to Medical School?: An Irreverent Guide to the Pros and Cons of a Career in Medicine
6 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2023
If you are interested in what our exploding knowledge of the human brain may do for, and to, our societies and ourselves, this is a must read.
I study and write about these topics and I am in awe of all the examples Professor Farahany has found, not just of potential uses of brain technologies to read, enhance, or control of brains, but of where it is already happening. I have to admit I've mainly been in the "maybe worry in a decade or two" camp. No longer. The chapter on employer uses alone is well worth the price of the book.
That's especially true because this is not a one-sided screed. Farahany recognizes that employers—and all of us—have an interest in avoiding, say, drowsy (or sleeping) truck drivers. She paints with more than black and white, which makes it both more accurate and, importantly, more useful.
Better still, Farahany maps out some legal and social strategies for encouraging good uses of these technologies and avoiding bad ones. Her analysis of the potential for an effective human right to cognitive liberty, encompassing, with differing power, mental privacy, freedom of thought, and self determination (three neatly distinguished concepts) is innovative, powerful, and just might work.
Best of all, it is written in clear, jargon-free, and thoroughly enjoyable English. We're in the same field, arguably we are competitors (though also friends). Part of me thinks I should be jealous, but, instead, I'm just impressed.
Buy this book!
7 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2023
I was fascinated to read about the current technology already in use both in the USA and elsewhere - particularly the level of adoption in China and the number of data points collected about each user by the PRC. Interesting ethical, moral and legal challenges raised, but the text is fairly dense and not very well written. I believe the authors points could have been made and supported in half the included text.
2 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2023
Farahany's book is the rare work of a rare academic--applied, prescient, and timely. This work will long be looked at as a first clarion call for the right to cognitive liberty and clearly setting the stage for one of the largest fights for the next decades--aptly titled The Battle for Your Brain.

A polymath herself, Farahany integrates peer-reviewed academia with popular culture, and philosophy with children's cartoons and video games, from the fringes of the Internet to the decisions before the halls of power. Her work breathlessly and seamlessly shifts from military, commercial, foreign policy, marketing, and academic impacts of the changing landscape of neuroscience. She does not dumb down the science but puts it in context with the lived world.

As a business leader, this book gives me pause. I run a company that employs over 300 pilots with a strong commitment to safety. This book rightly questions simple decisions I've considered--whether to adopt health and biometric tracking of our pilots to ensure even higher safety. After reading this book, the answer is much more complicated than I considered.

As a quantitative self-focused on my health, who tracks and uploads my biometrics daily, this book examines the benefits and pitfalls of expanding that tracking to my mind.

And as a concerned citizen, this work reinforces that policymakers must rapidly establish norms as larger tech companies race to not just control our clicks but our thoughts.
13 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2023
I bought this book after seeing the amazing write up in the Wall Street Journal. I think the reviewer had it exactly right. In this new digital era where corporations and governments are “are attempting to discover exactly what we’re thinking and why. The possibilities are both practical and utopian, thrilling and disturbing.” I found this book easy to read, but at the same time both fascinating and terrifying. Highly recommend for anyone who cares about “our bastion of freedom"
6 people found this helpful
Report

Top reviews from other countries

PaulM
5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone needs to know what's covered in this book.
Reviewed in Canada on September 29, 2023
As neurotech grows at an exponential rate, our understanding of our how it will affect our privacy, and what can be done about it, is essential for us all right now. I highly recommend everyone read this to fully understand what's about to be a huge part of our very near future.
Virginia M
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!
Reviewed in Belgium on April 10, 2024
Fantastic book, thought provoking and extremely well researched and argued. Truly a milestone in the emerging field of neurotechnology governance. I have just started a new job in this field and I feel like this book has given me a very good head start.