{"id":23397,"date":"2018-05-29T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=23397"},"modified":"2018-05-29T03:22:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T07:22:23","slug":"virtuous-play-the-ethics-pleasures-and-burdens-of-brain-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2018\/05\/29\/virtuous-play-the-ethics-pleasures-and-burdens-of-brain-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtuous Play: The Ethics, Pleasures, and Burdens of Brain Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is based on the author’s article in the journal Science as Culture. Full text available\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 2016, Lumos Labs \u2013 creators of the popular brain training service Lumosity \u2013 settled against charges laid by the FTC, who concluded that the company unjustly \u2018preyed on consumers fears \u2026[but] simply did not have the science to back up its ads<\/a>\u2019. In addition to a substantial fine, the judgment stipulated<\/a> that \u2013 except in light of any rigorously derived scientific findings \u2013 Lumos Labs<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2026 are permanently restrained and enjoined from making any representation, expressly or by implication [that their product] \u2026 improves performance in school, at work \u2026 delays or protects against age-related decline in memory or other cognitive function, including mild cognitive impairment, dementia, or Alzheimer\u2019s disease\u2026. [or] reduces cognitive impairment caused by health conditions, including Turner syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke, or side effects of chemotherapy.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, by the time of the settlement, Lumosity\u2019s message was already out. Lumosity boasts \u201885 million registered users worldwide from 182 countries\u2019 and their seductive advertisements were seen by many millions more. Over three billion mini-games have been played on their platform, which \u2013 combined with personal data gleaned from their users \u2013 makes for an incredibly valuable data set. Lumosity kindled sparks of hope within those who suffered, or feared suffering from the above conditions, or who simply sought to better themselves for contemporary demands. In this way, the brain has become a site of both promise and peril. Today, ever more ethical injunctions are levied through calls for \u2018participatory biocitizenship<\/a>\u2019, the supposed \u2018empowerment of the individual, at any age, to self-monitor and self-manage health and wellness\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, this regime of self-care is not sold through oppressive demands, but the consumer-friendly promise of fun <\/em>(especially when it can be displayed to others).<\/em> These entanglements of hope, fear, duty, and pleasure coalesce into aspirations of \u2018virtuous play\u2019. Late capitalist modes of prosumption leverage our desires for realizing ideal selves through conspicuous consumption practices, proving ourselves as healthful, industrious, and always pleasure-seeking. Self-tracking technologies ably capture this turn to virtuous play, combining joyful game playing with diligent lifelogging. Brain training proves exemplary here, for through the potent combination of pop neuroscience, self-help rhetoric, normative role expectations, and haptic stimulation, we labour to enhance our cognitive capacities.<\/p>\n

Of course, \u2018brain training\u2019 in the typical form of tablet and smartphone-based games constitutes a rather mild intervention, relative to other neurotechnologies adopted for personal enhancement. Consider, for example, EEG-based devices enticing consumers with neuro-mapping and (cognitive) arousal-based life-logging, or gamification and smart-home integration (see Melissa Littlefield\u2019s new book for more on EEG devices<\/a>). Some concept videos for such applications are saccharine sweet:<\/p>\n