【中英双语】你能接受大脑被监控吗？

Neurotech at Work 
Welcome to the world of brain monitoring for employees
妮塔·法拉哈尼（Nita A. Farahany）| 文   

The era of brain surveillance has begun. Advances in neuroscience and artificial intelligence are converging to give us an affordable and soon-to-be widely available generation of consumer neurotech devices—a catchall term for gadgets that, with the help of dry electrodes, connect human brains to computers and the ever-more-sophisticated algorithms that analyze the brain-wave data.

大脑监控的时代已经开启。神经科学和人工智能的进步正合力为我们提供负担得起且即将广泛使用的一代消费型神经技术设备——这是对一些小工具的统称，这些小工具借助干电极，将人的大脑与计算机和分析脑电波数据的日益复杂的算法相连接。

Neuroscientists wrote off earlier iterations of consumer neurotech devices as little better than toys. But as both the hardware and the software have improved, neurotechnology has become more accurate and tougher to dismiss. Today, the global market for neurotech is growing at a compound annual rate of 12% and is expected to reach $21 billion by 2026. This is not a fad. It’s a new way of living and thinking about ourselves and our well-being—personally and professionally.

神经科学家们认为，早期迭代的消费型神经技术设备比玩具好不了多少。可是，随着硬件和软件的改进，神经技术变得更加准确，也更难让人不屑一顾。今天，神经技术的全球市场正以12%的复合年增长率增长，到2026年预计将达到210亿美元。这并非一种时尚。它是一种新的生活方式，也是对我们自己和我们的幸福感进行思考的新方式——从个人和职业的角度。

Brain sensors have a rapidly expanding range of personal applications. Using a simple, wearable device that measures electrical activity in the brain or at muscle junctions throughout the body, you can now get graphical, real-time displays of your brain activity and bioelectric changes in your muscles. You can use those displays to “see” your emotions, your arousal, and your alertness. You can learn if you’re wired to be conservative or liberal; whether your insomnia is as bad as you think; whether you’re in love or just in lust. You can track changes in neurological function over time, such as the slowing down of activity in certain brain regions associated with the onset of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and dementia. If you have epilepsy, you can get advance warning of a seizure so that you can prepare yourself for it. If you’re a football player, you’ll soon be able to wear a smart helmet that can diagnose concussions immediately after they occur.

大脑传感器的个人应用范围正在迅速扩大。通过使用一个简单的可穿戴设备来测量大脑或全身肌肉连接处的电活动，你现在可以得到用图形实时显示的大脑活动以及肌肉中的生物电变化。你可以利用这些图像来“看到”你的情绪、你的兴奋度和你的警觉度。你可以了解到自己天生是保守派还是自由派；你的失眠是否如你想象的那样严重；你是在恋爱还是仅仅心生欲望。你可以跟踪神经功能随时间的变化，比如与阿尔茨海默症、精神分裂症和痴呆症等疾病的发病有关的某些大脑区域活动减缓。如果你有癫痫，你可以提前得到癫痫发作的警告，这样你就可以让自己做好准备。如果你是一名橄榄球运动员，你很快就能戴上一顶智能头盔，它可以在脑震荡发生后立即诊断出来。

Neurotech devices also have a rapidly expanding range of commercial and managerial applications. Companies across the globe have started to integrate neural interfaces into watches, headphones, earbuds, hard hats, caps, and VR headsets for use in the workplace to monitor fatigue, track attention, boost productivity, enhance safety, decrease stress, and create a more responsive working environment. This is new and uncharted territory, full of promise and peril for employers and employees alike. Neurotech devices offer employers ways to improve the well-being and productivity of their employees and thus create healthier, more successful organizations.

神经技术设备在商业和管理上的应用范围也在迅速扩大。全球各地的企业已开始将神经接口集成到手表、耳机、耳塞、安全帽、帽子和VR头盔中，用其在工作场所监测疲劳、跟踪注意力、提高生产力、增强安全性、减少压力，并创造一个响应性更强的工作环境。这是一个新的未知领域，对雇主和员工均充满了希望和危险。神经技术设备为雇主提供了提升员工幸福感和生产力的方法，从而创建更健康、更成功的企业。

But they also give employers access to incidental information that can be used to discriminate against employees—for example, information about early cognitive decline. And if employers fail to be transparent about what data they’re collecting and why, the devices can undermine employee trust and morale.

可是，它们也让雇主有机会获得可用于歧视员工的附带信息——比如，关于认知能力提早下降的信息。如果雇主对自己在收集何种数据以及收集这些数据的原因未做到透明，这些设备可能会破坏员工的信任和士气。

Advances in neurotechnology certainly raise significant privacy concerns for employees. Will they know what brain data is being collected or how their employer will use it? Whatever is gained in workplace safety or productivity could be offset by the loss of employee trust, an essential ingredient of corporate success. Employees in high-trust organizations are more productive, have more energy, collaborate better, and are more loyal; employees in low-trust companies feel disempowered and become disengaged. And disengagement matters: It’s recently been estimated that corporations in the United States lose $450 billion to $550 billion each year because of it.

神经技术的进步当然会给员工带来重大的隐私问题。他们是否知道哪些大脑数据正在被收集，是否知道雇主会如何使用这些数据？在工作场所安全性或生产力方面获得的任何好处都可能因失去员工的信任而被抵消，而信任是企业成功的一个基本要素。在信任度高的企业中，员工的生产力更强，精力更旺盛，合作更好，忠诚度也更高；而在信任度低的企业中，员工感到权利被剥夺，变得不再敬业。不敬业的影响很大：据最近的估计，美国的企业每年因此蒙受的损失达4500亿至5500亿美元。

The dangers are real. But in some situations—for example, ensuring that the driver of a 40-ton truck is not falling asleep at the wheel—brain monitoring at work seems like a very good idea. It’s hard to argue that a driver’s right to mental privacy trumps public safety.

这些危险千真万确。可是，在某些情况下——比如，确保40吨卡车的司机不会在驾驶时睡着——工作中的大脑监测似乎是一个绝妙的主意。人们很难辩称司机的精神隐私权胜过公共安全。

To navigate this territory successfully, business leaders need guidance. I’ve been studying this subject for years. I’m a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University, where I specialize in the legal and ethical issues of emerging technologies, with a particular focus on neurotechnology. I’ve also served as president of the International Neuroethics Society and cochair of the Neuroethics Working Group for the NIH Brain Initiative, and I currently serve as a neuroethicist for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In this article, I’ll provide an overview of the neurotechnology landscape and offer some thoughts on how to balance the risks and benefits of using neurotech devices in the workplace.

为了成功驾驭这一领域，企业领导者需要指导。多年来我一直在研究这个主题。我是杜克大学的法学及哲学教授，在该大学专门研究新兴技术的法律和伦理问题，重点特别关注神经技术。我还担任过国际神经伦理学会（International Neuroethics Society）的主席和美国国立卫生研究院脑计划神经伦理学工作组（Neuroethics Working Group for the NIH Brain Initiative）的联合主席，目前我担任美国国家科学院、工程院和医学院的神经伦理学专家。在本文中，我会对神经技术领域进行概述，并就如何对工作场所使用神经技术设备带来的风险和益处加以权衡提出一些想法。

It’s early days yet, but tens of thousands of workers are already using early-stage devices, and Big Tech is investing heavily to replace peripherals such as the computer mouse and the keyboard with neural interfaces integrated into headsets, earbuds, and wrist-worn devices. So now is the time to start thinking in practical terms about how best to engage with the world that’s opening before us, in ways that thoughtfully consider the interests of employees, employers, and society.

现在尚属早期，但数以万计的员工已经在使用早期的设备，而且科技巨头正在大力投资，用集成在耳机、耳塞和腕戴设备中的神经接口取代电脑鼠标和键盘等外围设备。因此，现在是时候开始从实际出发，思考如何最好地与这个开启在我们面前的世界打交道，方式上要周全地考虑员工、雇主和社会的利益。

The Lay of the Land

当前形势

Let’s start by taking stock of three ways in which neurotechnology is already being used in the workplace: to track fatigue, to monitor attention and focus, and to adapt the work environment to workers’ brains.

让我们首先评估一下神经技术已在工作场所使用的三种方式：跟踪疲劳，监测注意力和关注点，以及让工作环境适应员工的大脑。

Tracking fatigue. In 2019, Tim Ekert, the CEO of SmartCap, made a bold proclamation. He announced that his company’s flagship tool—the LifeBand, a fatigue-tracking headband with embedded EEG sensors that can be worn alone or integrated into a hard hat or cap—would “transform the American trucking industry.”

跟踪疲劳。2019年，SmartCap的CEO蒂姆·埃克特（Tim Ekert）发表了一个大胆的声明。他宣布，他公司的旗舰工具——LifeBand，即一种跟踪疲劳的头带，装有嵌入式脑电图传感器，可以单独佩戴，也可以集成到安全帽或帽子中——将“改变美国卡车运输业”。

The LifeBand gathers brain-wave data and processes it through SmartCap’s LifeApp, which uses proprietary algorithms to assess wearers’ fatigue level on a scale from 1 (hyperalert) to 5 (involuntary sleep). When the system detects that a worker is becoming dangerously drowsy, it sends an early warning to both the employee and the manager.

LifeBand收集脑电波数据，并通过SmartCap的LifeApp进行处理，该应用程序使用专有算法对佩戴者的疲劳程度进行从1（超警醒）到5（不由自主睡眠）的评估。当系统检测到一名员工开始危险地昏昏欲睡时，它会同时向员工和管理者发出预警。

More than 5,000 companies worldwide, in industries such as mining, construction, trucking, and aviation, already use SmartCap to ensure that their employees are wide awake. SmartCap and similar EEG systems can be used in all sorts of employment settings where fatigue negatively affects safety—factory floors, air-traffic-control towers, operating rooms, laboratories, and so on. And safety isn’t the only concern: Fatigue also reduces motivation, concentration, and coordination. It slows reaction times, undermines judgment, and impairs workers’ ability to carry out even the simplest of mental and physical tasks. It causes some $136 billion in productivity losses a year.

全世界采矿、建筑、卡车运输和航空等行业的5000多家企业已使用SmartCap来确保员工完全清醒。SmartCap和类似的脑电图系统可用于各种工作环境，疲劳在这些环境中会对安全产生负面影响——工厂车间、空中交通管制塔、手术室、实验室等等。安全并不是唯一的问题：疲劳还会降低动力、专注力和协调性。它会减慢反应时间，削弱判断力，并损害员工执行哪怕最简单的脑力和体力任务的能力。它每年会造成约1360亿美元的生产力损失。

Fatigue also levies catastrophic costs on society. In Chicago, a transit authority train jumped its tracks entering a station at O’Hare International Airport after its driver fell asleep. The train careened onto an escalator, injuring 32 people. In New York, a sleep-deprived train engineer fell asleep while operating a commuter train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The train took a 30-mph curve at 82 mph and derailed, killing four people, injuring 70, and causing millions of dollars in damage. In Citra, Florida, an engineer fell asleep while operating a train that was pulling 100 railcars full of phosphate and crashed head-on into a coal train. Thirty-two cars left the tracks, spilling 1,346 tons of coal, 1,150 tons of phosphate, 7,400 gallons of diesel fuel, and 77 gallons of battery acid. Aviation accidents are much less common; however, during the past few decades at least 16 major plane crashes have been blamed on pilot fatigue.

疲劳还给社会带来了灾难性的损失。在芝加哥，一辆交通局的列车在进入奥黑尔国际机场（O’Hare International Airport）的一个车站时因司机睡着而脱轨。火车侧翻撞上了一个自动扶梯，造成32人受伤。在纽约，一名睡眠不足的火车工程师在操作一列从波基普西（Poughkeepsie）到曼哈顿中央车站的通勤列车时睡着了。该列火车以130公里的时速驶过一个限速每小时50公里的弯道并脱轨，造成4人死亡，70人受伤，并造成数百万美元的损失。在佛罗里达州的锡特拉，一名工程师在操作一列拉着100节装满磷酸盐的火车时睡着了，迎面撞上了一列运煤火车。32节车厢脱轨，洒落了1346吨煤、1150吨磷酸盐、7400加仑柴油和77加仑蓄电池酸液。航空事故要少得多；然而，在过去几十年中，至少有16起重大空难归咎于飞行员疲劳。

As neurotechnology and the algorithms for decoding brain activity continue to improve, neural interfaces will become the gold standard in monitoring fatigue in the workplace. Not just employers but society as a whole may soon decide that the gains in safety and productivity are well worth the costs in employee privacy. But how much we ultimately gain from workplace brain wearables depends largely on how employers use the technology. For example, will employees receive real-time feedback from the devices so that they can act on it themselves, or will managers directly monitor employee fatigue? If so, will they use that information to improve workplace conditions or to justify disciplinary actions, pay cuts, and terminations? The answers to those questions will shape the future of brain-wave monitoring.

随着神经技术和解码大脑活动的算法不断改进，神经接口将成为监测工作场所疲劳的黄金标准。不仅雇主，而且整个社会可能很快就会判定，在安全性和生产力方面的收益非常值得在员工隐私方面付出代价。可是，我们最终能从工作场所的大脑可穿戴设备中获得多少收益，在很大程度上取决于雇主如何使用该技术。比如，是员工会收到来自设备的实时反馈、以便根据反馈自行采取行动，还是说管理人员会直接监测员工的疲劳？如果是后者，管理人员是会利用这些信息来改善工作场所条件，还是会为纪律处分、扣减工资和解雇员工提供理由？这些问题的答案将会影响脑电波监测的未来。

Given the lack of societal norms and laws regarding tracking brain activity in general, for now companies are simply creating their own rules about fatigue monitoring. Some use SmartCap and similar technologies to optimize employees’ working conditions; others are likely to use the technologies punitively, because that’s typically how employers approach workplace surveillance. A recent study of companies that track how their employees use their computers found that 26% of employers had fired workers for misusing the internet, and 25% had fired them for misusing email. It’s not hard to imagine what might happen when firms are able to regularly monitor not just employees’ computers but also their brains.

鉴于有关追踪大脑活动的社会规范和法律总体缺失，目前企业只是在制定自己的疲劳监测规则。一些企业使用SmartCap和类似技术来优化员工的工作条件；另一些企业可能会惩罚性地使用这些技术，因为这就是雇主通常对待工作场所监控的方式。最近针对那些追踪员工如何使用电脑的公司开展的一项研究发现，26%的雇主曾以滥用互联网为由解雇过员工，25%的雇主曾以滥用电子邮件为由解雇过员工。不难想象，当企业不仅能够定期监控员工的电脑，而且还能监控他们的大脑时，可能会发生什么。

Monitoring attention and focus. Many of us lack the ability to focus for long stretches at a time. But Olivier Oullier, a former president of the bioinformatic company Emotiv, believes that neurotechnology can help.

监测注意力和专注力。我们中的许多人缺乏一次性长时间集中注意力的能力。但生物信息公司Emotiv的前总裁奥利维尔·乌利耶（Olivier Oullier）认为，神经技术可以提供帮助。

A few years ago, at the Fortune Global Tech Forum, Oullier unveiled the MN8, Emotiv’s enterprise solution for attention management. The MN8 looks like a set of standard earbuds (and can in fact be used to listen to music or participate in conference calls). But with just two electrodes, one in each ear, the device allows employers to monitor employees’ stress and attention levels in real time.

几年前，在“《财富》全球技术论坛”（Fortune Global Tech Forum）上，乌利耶公布了Emotiv的注意力管理企业解决方案MN8。MN8看起来像一副标准的耳塞（事实上可以用来听音乐或参加电话会议）。不过，这个设备仅用两个电极，每只耳朵里一个，就可以让雇主实时监测员工的压力和注意力水平。

Emotiv teamed up with the German software company SAP to create Focus UX, a system that monitors employees’ brain states and in real time shares personalized feedback with them and their managers. SAP predicts that this will create a more responsive workplace environment in which employees focus on what they are best “able to handle at that moment.”

Emotiv与德国软件公司SAP合作创建了Focus UX系统，该系统可以监测员工的大脑状态，并实时与他们和他们的上司分享个性化的反馈。SAP预测，这将创造一个响应性更强的工作环境，员工在此环境中专注于他们“在那一刻最能够处理”的事情。

To illustrate how the system works, Oullier described a hypothetical situation. A data scientist wearing the MN8 has spent several hours videoconferencing with her team and is now reviewing code. The system has used her alpha-brain-wave activity to index the attentive state in her brain. The proprietary algorithm sees that her attention is flagging, so it sends a message to her laptop: “Christina, it’s time for a break. Do you want to take a short walk or do a five-minute guided meditation to reset your focus?”

为了说明该系统是如何工作的，乌利耶描述了一种假设的情形。一位佩戴MN8的数据科学家花了几个小时与团队进行视频会议，现在正在审查代码。该系统已经使用她的阿尔法脑电波活动观察到她大脑的专注状态。专有的算法发现她的注意力正在下降，所以向她的笔记本电脑发送了一条信息：“克里斯蒂娜，该休息了。你是希望散散步还是做五分钟的冥想来恢复你的专注力？”

Focus UX data can be used to evaluate employees’ cognitive loads, compare individuals across the workforce, and make decisions about how to optimize the workforce for productivity. It can also help inform decisions about promotion, retention, and firing. Other companies offer similar technology. For example, Lockheed Martin’s CogC2 (short for Cognitive Command and Control) provides firms with real-time neurophysiological assessments of employees’ workloads so that they can “optimize their workforce for increased productivity and improved employee satisfaction.” It’s now even possible to use EEG to classify the type of activity an individual is engaged in, according to research funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Education. As pattern classification of brain-wave data becomes more sophisticated, employers will be able to tell not just whether you are alert or your mind is wandering but also whether you are surfing social media or writing code.

Focus UX数据可以用来评估员工的认知负荷，对员工队伍中的个体进行比较，并做出如何优化员工队伍、提高生产力的决策。它还可以帮助影响有关晋升、留人和解雇的决定。其他公司也提供类似的技术。比如，洛克希德马丁公司（Lockheed Martin）的CogC2（Cognitive Command and Control，认知指挥与控制）向企业提供对员工工作量的实时神经生理学评估，以便企业能够“优化员工队伍，提高生产力并提升员工满意度”。根据巴伐利亚州教育部资助的研究，现在甚至有可能使用脑电图来对个人所从事的活动类型进行分类。随着脑电波数据的图形分类变得愈加复杂，雇主将不仅能够分辨出你是精神警醒还是心不在焉，而且能够分辨你是在浏览社交媒体还是在写代码。

Employers might soon even be able to nudge employees back to work when their minds start to wander. The MIT Media Lab has developed a system called AttentivU, which measures a person’s engagement via EEG sensors embedded in a pair of glasses and a wearable scarf. The device provides haptic feedback (usually a form of vibration) whenever the wearer’s engagement declines. Researchers found that people who received haptic feedback logged higher alertness scores than those who didn’t. While the Media Lab is excited about the results, it acknowledges the risk for misuse, saying it hopes “no one will be forced to use this system, whether in work or school settings.”

雇主甚至可能很快就能在员工开始走神时提醒他们回到工作上来。麻省理工学院媒体实验室（MIT Media Lab）开发了一个名为AttentivU的系统，它通过嵌在一副眼镜和一条可穿戴围巾中的脑电图传感器来测量一个人的参与度。每当佩戴者的参与度下降时，该设备就会提供触觉反馈（通常是一种振动形式）。研究人员发现，收到触觉反馈的人比没有收到的人记录了更高的警醒度分数。虽然媒体实验室对这一结果兴奋不已，但它也承认存在滥用的风险，并表示，它希望“没有人会被迫使用这一系统，无论是在工作环境还是学校环境中”。

Some employees may volunteer to use such systems, which have the potential to improve their productivity while giving them control over their brain-activity data. This could allow them to reap the benefits of better time management without any sacrifice of autonomy. As with other neurofeedback approaches, self-monitoring for productivity could also help employees establish better work habits as they learn when and why they get distracted.

一些员工可能会自愿使用这种系统，这有可能提高他们的生产力，同时让他们掌控自己的大脑活动数据。这可以让他们在不牺牲自主性的情况下受益于更好的时间管理。与其他神经反馈方法一样，自我监测生产力也可以帮助员工建立更好的工作习惯，因为他们可以获知自己何时以及为何分心。

The problem is that some organizations may be tempted to impose brain-productivity technology on workers and make attention the currency of productivity measurement. A recent Brookings Institution report found that some companies are now using webcams to track eye movements, body position, and facial expressions as measures of attentiveness to tasks, and are reprimanding employees for inattentiveness on the basis of that data. While that kind of monitoring has become increasingly common, especially with the shift to remote work, using attentiveness as a yardstick for employee success may seriously backfire for employers. As Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton both acknowledged, creative ideas depend as much on minds wandering as staying on task. And research across 900 Boston Consulting Group teams in 30 countries has shown that mental downtime increases alertness, improves creativity, and leads to greater output quality. When workers know their attention is being monitored, they may attempt to minimize mental downtime—by doing things to actively bring their attention and focus back to the task at hand—out of a fear of appearing unproductive.

问题是，一些企业可能禁不住会将“大脑-生产力”技术强加给员工，使注意力成为衡量生产力的手段。布鲁金斯学会（Brookings Institution）最近的一份报告发现，一些企业现在正在使用网络摄像头来跟踪眼球运动、身体位置和面部表情，将其作为衡量任务专注度的标准，并根据这些数据指斥员工漫不经心。虽然这种监测已经变得日渐普遍，尤其是在人们转向远程工作之际，但把专注度当作衡量员工成功与否的尺度，对雇主来说可能会造成严重的适得其反的后果。正如阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦（Albert Einstein）和艾萨克·牛顿（IsaacNewton）都承认的那样，创造性的想法既仰赖思维的游移，也仰赖对任务的执著。对波士顿咨询集团（Boston Consulting Group）在30个国家的900个团队进行的研究表明，精神上的休息会提高警醒度，提升创造力，并导致更高的产出质量。员工知道自己的注意力受到监控时，可能会试图尽量减少精神休息时间——通过做一些事情来主动将注意力和专注焦点拽回到手头的任务上——因为他们担心自己会显得没有生产力。

It’s not just employees’ productivity that can suffer. It’s their health too. When employees lack mental downtime, they often experience serious job strain, which has been strongly linked to a variety of health problems: depression and anxiety, ulcers, cardiovascular trouble, and even suicidal thoughts.

可能受到影响的不仅仅是员工的生产力。他们的健康也可能蒙受损失。当员工缺乏精神休息时，他们通常会感受到严重的工作压力，这与各种健康问题密切相关：抑郁症和焦虑症、溃疡、心血管问题，甚至自杀的想法。

Workplace brain surveillance to monitor levels of attention, stress, and other cognitive and emotional functions has stark and significant downsides. It has potential benefits, too, including enhanced employee productivity. But at this point these benefits are purely speculative, so for now I’d recommend that employers steer clear of engaging in this type of brain surveillance.

工作场所的大脑监控旨在监测注意力、压力和其他认知与情感功能水平，它存在显而易见的缺点。它也具有潜在的好处，包括员工生产力的提高。不过，在这个时候，这些好处纯属推测，所以现在我要建议雇主避免从事这种类型的大脑监控。

Creating more-adaptive work environments. As neurotechnology, AI, and robotics continue to advance, we can expect a future in which brain-activity neural-interface devices are used to make the workplace more adaptive. Penn State researchers, for example, are experimenting with EEG headsets for employees that provide input to robots, which then calibrate their pace of work to the employees’ state of mind. In one experiment, participants wore EEG headsets that monitored their cognitive loads and detected signs of stress. Their robotic coworkers reacted to the data by slowing down, speeding up, or keeping a steady pace, giving the workers just the right amount of room to maximize their productivity without stressing them out.

创造更具适应性的工作环境。随着神经技术、人工智能和机器人技术的不断进步，我们可以期待，在未来，大脑活动的神经接口设备得以用来令工作场所更具适应性。比如，宾夕法尼亚州立大学的研究人员正在试验员工用的脑电图耳机，它可以向机器人提供信息，然后，机器人根据员工的精神状态校准其工作节奏。在一项实验中，参与者戴上了脑电图耳机，监测他们的认知负荷，并检测压力的迹象。他们的机器人同事会放慢、加快或保持稳定的工作节奏，以此来对这些数据做出反应，从而为员工提供恰到好处的空间，最大限度地提高他们的生产力，而不会使他们感到紧张。

Other researchers have found that EEG sensors could help monitor and address the greater cognitive load that assembly workers bear as automation becomes the norm in industrial settings and they are tasked with increasingly complex assembly procedures. In one recent study, researchers in Belgium had participants perform assembly tasks in a simulated factory setting while being subjected to varying levels of cognitive load (low, high, and overload). The researchers found that by tracking EEG activity and eye movements, they could differentiate between a high cognitive load and cognitive overload, which can produce errors, safety hazards, and detrimental health effects on workers. Smart manufacturing systems of the future could automatically adapt production levels to allow for higher cognitive loads while avoiding overload, ushering in a new era of “cognitive ergonomics.”

其他研究人员发现，随着自动化成为工业环境中的常态，而且装配工人承担的任务有着越来越复杂的装配程序，脑电图传感器可以帮助监测和解决他们承受的更大认知负荷。在最近的一项研究中，比利时的研究人员让参与者在模拟的工厂环境中执行装配任务，同时承受不同程度的认知负荷（低、高及超负荷）。研究人员发现，通过跟踪脑电图活动和眼球运动，他们可以区分高负荷认知和超负荷认知，超负荷认知可能会造成错误、安全隐患，并对员工的健康产生有害影响。未来的智能制造系统可以自动调整生产水平，以成就更高的认知负荷，同时避免超负荷，从而开创一个“认知工效学”的新时代。

Some companies are already implementing changes to the workplace in accordance with feedback from employees’ brains. Microsoft’s Human Factors team, for example, has helped the company adapt its office environments and products to be more responsive to workers’ brain health and functioning. Company researchers asked 13 teams of two employees to complete similar tasks together in person and remotely and found that remote collaboration led to greater stress levels in the brain. A second study of employees’ brains in back-to-back video meetings versus in-person meetings found that the former were more cognitively stressful.

一些企业根据员工大脑的反馈已经在落实工作场所的改变。比如，微软的“人性因素”（Human Factors）团队已经帮助该公司调整了办公环境和产品，使之更适应员工的大脑健康和功能运转。公司研究人员要求13个由两名员工组成的团队以当面和远程的方式一起完成类似的任务，结果发现，远程协作在大脑中产生的压力水平更高。员工在进行背对背视频会议与面对面会议时，对其大脑进行的第二项研究发现，前者的认知压力更大。

In response, Microsoft introduced Together mode, a feature in Teams that gives meeting participants a shared background to simulate a shared physical space while collaborating. Initial results are promising: Brain activity of participants in Together mode reflected a lower cognitive burden compared with that of participants using the traditional grid view of online meetings.

作为回应，微软推出了“共处”（Together）模式，这是Teams软件的一项功能，它为会议参与者提供了一个共享背景，以便模拟协作时的共享实体空间。初步结果让人看到了希望：与使用传统网格视图的在线会议参与者相比，在“共处”模式下，参与者的大脑活动表现出更低的认知负担。

The Human Factors team also discovered a simple yet powerful way to address meeting fatigue. By monitoring the brain-wave activity of employees who volunteered to participate, the team learned that people who took short breaks between meetings had lower levels of stress compared with people attending back-to-back meetings. Providing guided brain-wave-based meditation during the breaks also improved well-being and the ability to focus in subsequent meetings.

“人性因素”团队还发现了一个简单而强效的方法来解决会议疲劳。通过监测自愿参与的员工的脑电波活动，该团队了解到，与参加背对背会议的人相比，在会议之间短暂休息了一下的人压力水平更低。如果在休息期间提供了基于脑电波的指导性冥想，幸福感和在随后的会议中集中注意力的能力也提高了。

Cognitive ergonomics—making the workplace safer, more responsive, and more adaptive to employees’ well-being—represents one of the most promising new applications of neurotechnology. In my view, companies should embrace opportunities to experiment with it.

认知工效学——令工作场所更安全、反应更迅速、更有益于员工的幸福感——代表了神经技术最有前途的新应用之一。在我看来，企业应该抓住机会进行试验。

Using Brain Wearables Responsibly

负责任地使用脑部可穿戴设备

To reap the maximum benefits from brain wearables in the workplace while minimizing the risks, firms must adopt policies and practices that specify how and when they are used. To start, this will require action in five key areas.

为了从工作场所的脑部可穿戴设备中最大程度获益，同时将风险降至最低，企业必须采取一些政策和做法，规定这些设备如何以及何时使用。首先，这需要在五个关键领域采取行动。

1. Employee rights. Employees have a right to mental privacy. Governments should codify that as part of the international human right to privacy. A right to mental privacy would place the burden on corporations to identify a specific use for brain wearables that is limited in scope to legitimate purposes, such as monitoring fatigue in commercial drivers or tracking attention in air traffic controllers. A right to mental privacy would also prohibit unauthorized access to other brain-wave data that may be collected incidentally during legal monitoring. Even then, companies should be prohibited from using data for any purpose other than the one it was originally gathered for.

1.员工权利。员工拥有精神隐私权。各国政府应将其列为国际隐私权的一部分。精神隐私权将令企业肩负起责任，确定脑部可穿戴设备的具体用途，其范围仅限于合法目的，如监测商业司机的疲劳状况或跟踪空中交通管制员的注意力。精神隐私权还会禁止未经授权就访问在合法监测期间可能附带收集的其他脑电波数据。即便如此，企业也应该被禁止将数据用于任何非当初收集的目的。

2. Privacy laws and regulation. Employers should stay abreast of biometrics privacy laws and implement policies consistent with their requirements. The collection of brain-wave data is or soon will be subject to stringent privacy laws and regulatory requirements in some U.S. jurisdictions. The failure to obtain prior written consent and provide adequate disclosure to employees can have costly financial and reputational implications for employers. In October 2022, for example, employees in a class-action lawsuit that included nearly 45,000 people were awarded $228 million in a jury verdict against BNSF Railway, one of the largest freight railroad networks in North America, because it had collected and stored fingerprint data in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Given the unique liability risks associated with the collection of biometric brain data, companies planning to introduce neurotechnology in the workplace should carefully consider laws enacted in various U.S. states and in other countries, including the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe.

2.隐私法律和法规。雇主应该了解生物识别隐私法律的最新进展，并实施符合其要求的政策。在美国的一些司法管辖区，脑电波数据的收集现在或不久就会受到严格的隐私法律和监管要求的约束。如果不能事先获得书面同意并向员工提供充分的信息披露，这可能会给雇主带来代价高昂的财务和声誉影响。比如，2022年10月，在一起涉及近4.5万人的集体诉讼中，陪审团裁决，北美最大的货运铁路网之一的BNSF铁路公司向员工赔偿2.28亿美元，因为它违反了伊利诺伊州生物识别信息隐私法（Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act），收集并储存了指纹数据。鉴于收集大脑生物识别数据具有相关的独特责任风险，计划在工作场所引入神经技术的企业应该仔细考虑美国各州和其他国家颁布的法律，包括欧洲的《通用数据保护条例》（General Data Protection Regulation）。

3. Terms of use. When appropriate, employers should offer employees the opportunity to use brain wearables at work to monitor their own levels of stress, waning attention, or increasing cognitive load. Companies may also choose to offer guided meditation and other neurofeedback tools to employees who would like to improve their well-being. If employees elect to use those tools, firms should not access or mine the neural data collected, unless employees explicitly consent to its use for a specified purpose. Employees must have a right to obtain a copy of any neural data collected about them, along with any interpretations drawn from it. To use these tools without consent constitutes a breach of trust, undermining the value they would otherwise create. Giving employees the right to audit their own brain data can help build trust and ensure that only relevant and legitimate brain data is collected. It also provides a check on the quality of the data being collected and an opportunity for employees to challenge invalid interpretations.

3.使用条件。在合适的时候，雇主应该为员工提供在工作中使用脑部可穿戴设备的机会，以监测他们自己的压力水平、注意力减弱程度或认知负荷增加程度。企业也可以选择向希望提升幸福感的员工提供指导性的冥想和其他神经反馈工具。如果员工选择使用这些工具，企业不应访问或挖掘收集的神经数据，除非员工明确同意将其用于特定目的。对于收集到的任何神经数据，员工必须有权获得一份副本，以及由此得出的任何解释。未经同意使用这些工具会构成失信，从而破坏它们原本可以创造的价值。赋予员工审核自己大脑数据的权利有助于建立信任，并确保只有相关和合法的大脑数据才会被收集。它还对正在收集的数据提供了质检，并为员工提供了质疑无效解释的机会。

4. Disclosure. Regardless of biometric-data-collection laws or other regulations, employers should be transparent with employees about what data they’re collecting from brain wearable devices and how they intend to use that information. They should specify the purpose for which brain data is being collected and what actions they will take in response to insights drawn from it. They should also collect data from brain wearables only when the employee is working. If, for example, an employer issues headphones embedded with EEG sensors, and the employee is permitted to use those headphones not just for work but also for leisure activities, employers should not collect neural data during “off” hours.

4.信息披露。无论生物识别数据收集的法律或其他法规是否存在，雇主都应该向员工公开他们从脑部可穿戴设备中收集了哪些数据，以及他们打算如何使用这些信息。他们应该具体说明收集大脑数据的目的，以及他们将采取什么行动来回应从中得出的见解。他们还应该仅在员工工作时通过脑部可穿戴设备收集数据。比如，如果雇主发放嵌入脑电图传感器的耳机，并且员工获许不仅可以将这些耳机用于工作，而且可以用于休闲活动，那么雇主就不应该在 “非工作”时间收集神经数据。

5. Storing brain data. Employers should adopt best practices for data minimization and store brain data on employees’ own devices and not on servers of device manufacturers, software companies, or employers whenever possible. This is critical. People associate their sense of self most closely with the information in their own minds, which makes neural data particularly sensitive. As machine-learning algorithms improve, the ability to mine and interpret neural data will also improve, enabling firms to learn far more about what employees are feeling or thinking and about cognitive or affective changes to their brains over time. Employers should adopt security safeguards against the risk of unauthorized access, destruction, disclosure, or use of neural data. For example, companies should make sure that brain data is “overwritten” once its limited purpose has been served.

5.储存大脑数据。雇主应采用数据最小化的最佳做法，尽可能将大脑数据存储在员工自己的设备上，而不是存储在设备制造商、软件公司或雇主的服务器上。这一点至关重要。人们会将自己的自我意识与自己头脑中的信息最紧密地联系起来，这使得神经数据特别敏感。随着机器学习算法的改进，挖掘和解释神经数据的能力也会提升，从而让企业能够更多地了解员工的感受或想法，以及随着时间推移他们大脑的认知或情感的变化。雇主应采取安全保护措施，防止未经授权访问、破坏、披露或使用神经数据的风险。比如，企业应该确保大脑数据在其有限的目的达成之后被“覆盖”。

Neural interfaces will increasingly compete with existing peripheral devices to become one of the primary ways people interact with technology, offering firms powerful new insights into employees and their well-being, and revealing ways to make workplaces safer and more productive. To realize those benefits, employers must understand the unique risks this technology poses to mental privacy and adopt clear workplace policies that empower employees and earn the trust of the future workforce.

神经接口将越来越多地与现有的外围设备竞争，成为人们与技术互动的主要方式之一，为企业提供有关员工及其幸福感的强有力的新见解，并揭示出令工作场所更安全、更具生产力的方法。为了实现这些好处，雇主必须了解这种技术对精神隐私构成的独特风险，并采取明确的工作场所政策，赋予员工权力，赢得未来员工队伍的信任。

 永年 | 译   蒋荟蓉 | 校   时青靖 | 编辑

妮塔·法拉哈尼是杜克大学法学及哲学罗宾逊·埃弗里特特聘教授（Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor），也是研究新兴技术的伦理、法律和社会影响的学者。她著有《为你的大脑而战：在神经技术时代捍卫自由思考的权利》（The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology，圣马丁出版社，2023年）一书，本文改编自该著作。