Tracing Responsibility and Neuroprosthesis-Mediated Speech

In this chapter, language is used as an example to explore situated cognition, and the focus is on investigating whether tracing back to a point where an antecedent action was taken, and there was relevant control, can adequately explain the attribution of responsibility in cases of neuroprosthesis-mediated speech. To explore this, tracing is introduced before an overview of a neuroprosthetic speech system. Then, using some illustrative examples, issues for responsibility and neuroprosthetically-mediated speech are developed. The neuroprosthesis case serves to highlight the importance of content in cases where responsibility for speech is at stake. Combined with its complex causal sequence, this showed some gaps in a tracing account of responsibility. As such, the case of neuroprosthetically mediated speech looks like a strong candidate case that ought to prompt evaluation from a situated cognition perspective. A rational relations account of responsibility may fare better than tracing in this instance as this type of account deals expressly with the content of speech, which is precisely what may be at stake in analysis of responsibility for speech.