AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-28DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2530952
Dov Greenbaum
{"title":"Enhancing the Warfighter: Ethical, Legal, and Strategic Implications of Brain-Machine Interface-Enabled Military Exoskeletons.","authors":"Dov Greenbaum","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2530952","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2530952","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The integration of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) with military exoskeletons represents a significant development in human-machine interaction, raising complex ethical, legal, and strategic challenges. Unlike conventional human enhancement technologies, BMI-exoskeleton systems translate neural intent directly into mechanical movement, generating new concerns regarding agency, accountability, long-term health outcomes, and the governance of neuroadaptive changes. This paper offers a structured interdisciplinary analysis, developing taxonomies of current technologies, tracing the historical trajectory of military exoskeleton development, and critically assessing the emerging convergence between exoskeletal augmentation and neural interface systems. We argue that BMI-exoskeletons constitute a distinct category of augmentation that blurs traditional boundaries between operator and tool, requiring governance frameworks attentive to both operational effectiveness and the ethical implications for individual service members, military institutions, and broader society. Drawing on research in engineering, neuroscience, military studies, and bioethics, we outline a comprehensive ethical-legal framework designed to guide the entire lifecycle of human enhancement-from recruitment and informed consent processes through active service, operational deployment, and post-discharge reintegration. Particular attention is given to autonomy, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, distributive justice, gender equity, and the risks associated with de-enhancement and neuroplastic adaptation. Recognizing the preliminary and rapidly evolving nature of empirical evidence in this domain, we emphasize the need for anticipatory, adaptive policy approaches that safeguard the dignity, rights, and long-term welfare of enhanced warfighters while ensuring that technological innovation proceeds with responsible, ethically-informed oversight.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144733723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-22DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2519446
Mary Neal Vieten
{"title":"Reintegration Beyond the Medical Model: The Case of Warfighter Advance.","authors":"Mary Neal Vieten","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2519446","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2519446","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>All military members are \"enhanced\" relative to civilians counterparts roughly in three levels (original to author). Regardless of the level of enhancement, learning and cumulative experience permanently change in the individual warfighter creating specific challenges when faced with reintegration to garrison life, civilian communities, and their families. At this point, warfighters are encouraged to seek medical assistance, an approach that does not come without a high toll on the individual. Warfighter Advance was developed by a cohort of experienced warfighters who found the psychiatric paradigm of reintegration to be inadequate, reductionistic and doomed to fail on the individual level, with some aspects flatly unethical. Warfighter Advance is not an alternative treatment, but an alternative to treatment full stop. Warfighter Advance is an alternative to the medical model, and a normative blueprint for how the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and others should view and approach warfighter reintegration.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144691799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-22DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2530948
Vincent Guérin
{"title":"Veteran and Brain-Computer Interfaces: The Duty to Care.","authors":"Vincent Guérin","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2530948","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2530948","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Anticipated by science fiction, the enhanced soldier crystallized in the United States at the dawn of the 21st century within the Pentagon's scientific agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Fueled by the fear of being overtaken by the enemy, and then by its own technology, this agency's new vision produced a \"bifurcation\" within anthropotechnics: the modification of humans for war. The soldier is now at the heart of a process of radical innovation, with as yet unknown implications. Emblematic of this enhancement, the use of the brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) will not only expose the soldier to previously unknown psychocognitive and emotional effects, but also offer the enemy potential access to his/her inner self. By giving birth to a new kind of veteran, this hybridization will generate new responsibilities for military commanders and politicians, as well as a new type of care.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144691800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-18DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2530956
Łukasz Kamieński
{"title":"Soldiers or Weapons? The Ethical Dilemma and Consequences of the Status for Super Soldier Veterans.","authors":"Łukasz Kamieński","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2530956","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2530956","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The classification of biotechnologically enhanced super soldiers remains a topic of ongoing debate. One proposal suggests categorizing them as unconventional weapons to ensure they are subject to international humanitarian law regulations. This article critically examines the psychological and ethical implications of such a designation, emphasizing the potential long-term consequences for the reintegration of veterans into civilian life. Drawing on insights from psychology, sociology, military studies, and ethics, it analyzes the risks associated with objectification, dehumanization, identity crisis, and moral injury. The findings indicate that treating augmented warfighters as weapons could exacerbate existing challenges in veteran transition, resulting in psychological distress, identity fragmentation, and increased mental health risks. The article argues against the \"weaponization\" of bioengineered soldiers, advocating instead for their recognition as human beings whose identities are shaped by the embodied realities of their cyborg bioengineering, rather than being viewed as mere instruments of warfare.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-17DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2530951
Parker Crutchfield
{"title":"The Memory Remains: Reciprocity and Veteran Super Soldiers.","authors":"Parker Crutchfield","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2530951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2530951","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>By 2050, the United States' military anticipates being able to biomedically enhance the warfighting capacities of soldiers. These enhancements are highly invasive, and not only to the body. They are also highly invasive to the person. With these enhancements, super soldiers may lose control of their bodies and minds, sacrificing their autonomy. They could continue to sacrifice after discharge from the military. The memories of the experiences of being enhanced persist, which may continue to undermine the veteran super soldier's autonomy. This extraordinary sacrifice requires extraordinary reciprocity. I argue that one method of providing an appropriate reciprocal return is to provide veteran super soldiers with memory manipulating technologies (MMT). An antecedent requirement is thus that the military pursue research in optogenetic MMTs alongside other optogenetic research. There are numerous objections to the use of MMTs, but their administration to veteran super soldiers can evade and overcome these objections.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144650869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-17DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2530953
Ryo Uehara
{"title":"Neuroethical Significance and Practical Scope of Alternative Virtues in Japan.","authors":"Ryo Uehara","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2530953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2530953","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144650868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2519459
Aileen Van Gyseghem, Kris Dierickx, Andrew J Barnhart
{"title":"Consciousness and Human Brain Organoids: A Conceptual Mapping of Ethical and Philosophical Literature.","authors":"Aileen Van Gyseghem, Kris Dierickx, Andrew J Barnhart","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2519459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2519459","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human brain organoids (HBOs) are three-dimensional structures derived from human pluripotent stem cells that model aspects of fetal brain development. As HBO models grow more complex, ethical concerns arise, particularly around the potential for consciousness. Defining and detecting consciousness in HBOs remains unresolved, with existing theories offering conflicting predictions. This systematic review examines how consciousness is conceptualized in the ethical and philosophical literature concerning HBOs. We selected peer-reviewed publications written in English from 2013 onward that directly address consciousness regarding HBOs. After screening 51 sources, 24 were analysed in themes: Consciousness Terminology, Biological Limitations, Theories of Consciousness, Detecting Consciousness, Comparisons with Conscious Entities, and Special Entities. Uncertainty about consciousness in general complicates the conversation around HBOs. Clear communication is essential to avoid misconceptions, and future research may benefit from focusing on organoid intelligence as a more tractable concept.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144601833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2530954
Karolina Zhukoff
{"title":"Review of a Theory of the Super Soldier, the Morality of Capacity-Increasing Technologies in the Military, by Jean-François Caron.","authors":"Karolina Zhukoff","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2530954","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2530954","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144601834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2519457
Elise G Annett, John R Shook, James Giordano
{"title":"Super Soldiers or Social Burden? Ethical Exploration of the Benefits and Costs of Military Bioenhancement.","authors":"Elise G Annett, John R Shook, James Giordano","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2519457","DOIUrl":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2519457","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biotechnological enhancements for military personnel arouse scrutiny, beyond the ethics of experimental research and due care during operational service, to the eventual return to a civilian life. Reversal of enhancements-by withdrawal, extraction, deactivation, modification, destruction, etc.-will be just as experimental and consequential. Super soldiering may not smoothly transition to ordinary habilitation and lifestyle. Complete reversions of dramatic augmentations, such as prosthetics or brain-computer interfacing, could be more damaging to the person than the initial installation. Partial reversions would be just as perplexing, as discharged personnel retain workable technology to prevent disability while other careers next beckon for a suitably empowered individual. Either way, all such biotechnological enhancements must be treated as ethical and social experiments having both positive and negative potential outcomes. Life stages of technologically modified military personnel require special ethical consideration beyond the lifecycle of the technology itself. The post-enhancement veteran is a largely unexplored area, and we propose that these civilian \"supra-soldiers\" will become a cohort of increasing interest, requiring continued care and ethical support. To that end, we suggest a system of guidelines to ensure ethically sound support for those who serve, and have served, in national defense.</p>","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144585154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJOB NeurosciencePub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2025.2519435
Ricardo Diaz Milian, Ferenc Rabai
{"title":"Disorders of Consciousness Are Not Necessarily Disorders of Permanence: Reconsidering Risk-Making in a Dynamic Spectrum.","authors":"Ricardo Diaz Milian, Ferenc Rabai","doi":"10.1080/21507740.2025.2519435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2025.2519435","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39022,"journal":{"name":"AJOB Neuroscience","volume":"16 3","pages":"153-155"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144592556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}