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 a keynote speech, Susie Alegre (International Human Rights Lawyer and Author) traces the right to freedom of thought from its historical roots to its modern legal structure.
She explains that freedom of thought has an absolute, unqualified “forum internum” (what happens purely inside our heads) and a limitable “manifestation” aspect (acting on or expressing those thoughts).
She breaks the forum internum into three protections: the right to keep thoughts private, the right not to have thoughts manipulated, and the right not to be penalised for thoughts alone.
She then applies this framework to modern technology. Some examples are Cambridge Analytica’s behavioural micro-targeting, how GPS reliance shrinks the hippocampus, YouTube’s recommendation engine funnelling users into flat-Earth conspiracies, and generative AI creating automation bias.
Turning to brain-computer interfaces, she cites the “red brain, blue brain” study that suggests political leanings can be inferred from brain scans, and cases where patients lost their sense of personal identity when BCI devices were withdrawn. She argues that BCIs aren’t inherently violations of freedom of thought, but require clear limits on what inferences and manipulations are permissible.
Alegre then calls for legal frameworks centred on human dignity, autonomy, and evolving identity, so people aren’t reduced to data sold on the open market. In a closing conversation with Burcu Kilic (Open Knowledge Foundation), she dives deeper into BCI consent frameworks, data protection versus human rights, and a discussion of “cognitive surrender” to data profiles generated by BCIs and AI.
➕ 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.
