At The Tech We Want for Our Brain Commons Online Summit (15 July 2026), researchers, developers, policymakers, journalists, civil society and industry representatives explored how openness can help shape a future in which neurotech is aligned with human rights.
Alternative links: Internet Archive | YouTube
In his keynote speech, Christoph Bublitz (University of Hamburg) explored “freedom of thought” as a lens for evaluating neurotechnology, building from historical and conceptual foundations of what it means to think and reason, before applying them to modern tech. He grounded the value of freedom of thought in two justifications: it’s a precondition for functioning democracy (which requires citizens who form their own judgments), and it’s central to human flourishing as thinking beings.
He then traced a history of “thinking with tools” showing how different stages of technology and communication (including use of Google and social media) have shifted the balance between augmenting and diminishing free thought. Turning to generative AI, he argues that LLMs could potentially make people better thinkers (as interlocutors, challengers of views, and knowledge sources) but also risk having people outsource their thinking entirely, as in “letting AI think for you” rather than “using AI to think better”.
Finally, Bublitz examines neurotechnology directly, distinguishing between brain-reading and brain-writing technologies that could impact or alter a person’s thoughts in ways that could dissolve the very idea of “thinking for oneself”. In a closing conversation with Renata Ávila (Open Knowledge Foundation), Bublitz discussed military and criminal-justice use cases, the ongoing legal debate over whether new “neurorights” are needed, and argued that data about thoughts should not be used commercially.
➕ Find a summary of more panels and keynotes
💬 Join the conversation in the Open Knowledge Forum
The Tech We Want is a collective conversation about new practical ways to build software that is useful, simple, long-lasting and focused on solving people’s real problems.
Since 2023, OKFN has been advocating together with the community of developers working on public-interest technologies for climate-friendly, accessible and sustainable approaches to technology. Understanding the potential ecological and societal impacts of various development decisions is the first step towards another stack with different metrics, community practices and guidelines.
