Conference Report: The Nour Foundation Georgetown University & Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University Symposium Series Technology, Neuroscience & the Nature of Being: Considerations of Meaning, Morality and Transcendence Part I: The Paradox of Neurotechnology 8 May 2009

On May 8, 2009, The Nour Foundation, a public charitable organization and NGO in special consultative status to the United Nations, together with Georgetown University, Blackfriars Hall at Oxford University, and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' Center for Neurotechnology Studies, presented The Paradox of Neurotechnology, a thought-provoking symposium exploring the technologies of neuroscience and the ways in which these tools and methods can lead to a deeper understanding of the nature of being. The discussions brought together leaders in the field to address the pressing issues, questions, and potential dilemmas arising in and from the use of neurotechnologies, and how such progress prompts deeper neuroethical considerations. The symposium was the first in a three-part series, with subsequent meetings to be held at the University of Oxford on 22 July 2009, and the United Nations in New York on 11 September 2009. Further information regarding the symposium can be found on their website [1].The symposium began with an introduction and keynote by Prof. James Giordano, Professor of Neuroscience, Ethics, and Philosophy at the Institute for Psychological Sciences, Centre for Philosophical Psychology; Fellow, Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford; Director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies and Chair of Academic Programs at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Virginia; and former Samueli-Rockefeller Professor of Medicine and Neuroscience and Director of the Program for Brain, Mind and Healing Research at the Georgetown University Medical Center, where he maintains an adjunct professorship. Giordano set the tone by positing that as we approach the frontier realms of science, we encounter new and novel possibilities that require us to deal with the contingencies arising not only from what is yet unknown, but what may ultimately remain unknowable. He outlined the basic premises of a philosophy of science to address and unify domains of metaphysics, e