A Multi-Criteria Framework for Transparency in the Design and Use of Brain-Computer Interfaces

Van Balen’s critique of naturalness in BCI design and use is timely and important in the ethics and phenomenology of current and future neurotechnology (van Balen 2026). His proposal to replace “naturalness” with “transparency” is conceptually sound, phenomenologically accurate, and ethically necessary, in particular for resisting technoableist assumptions that might privilege able-bodied perception as normative. However, van Balen explicitly acknowledges some methodological gaps that still need to be filled: once this theoretical consideration has been accepted, how should transparency be concretely assessed and operationalized? The commentary addresses this issue by demonstrating how integration criteria derived from 4E cognition and phenomenology can operationalize (i.e. define through measurable procedures) transparency.