Neu Opinion Bank
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Neu Opinion Bank came out of a year-long collaboration between IoNx and the Internet of Brains (IoB) science communication team, shaped by our shared interest in how people make decisions about emerging neurotechnologies. The format was inspired by the Opinion Bank exhibit at Miraikan, Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Kōtō City, Tokyo. We loved the potential to reach more participants through a survey-style kiosk or app, but we wanted the experience to feel more values-forward and grounded in everyday life, building on what we learned from earlier workshops.
Inspired by the Neuro Futures Cards and IoB’s Neu World program, where researchers and artists co-created possible neurotechnology futures, we set out to turn those visions into scenario-based questions. We then ran additional workshops with scientists, ethicists, developers, and creators, with discussion stimulated by updated NeuroFutures Cards. We asked: What ideas, impacts, and effects of neurotechnology are most important to explore through the survey questions? Those conversations surfaced a core theme of memory and helped us shape scenarios that felt both evocative and engaging.
With the workshop input, I added a wrap-around narrative to the survey, inviting audiences to step into the role of a “Chrononaut.” In that role, participants respond to scenario-based questions about how they would choose to use, limit, or react to future memory technologies. After making a set of choices, they read a short narrative from a possible future society and rate their agreement, which helps make tradeoffs, unintended consequences, and points of tension easier to notice and discuss. Behind the scenes, responses map to two axes of societal values, individual vs group benefit and bottom-up vs top-down decision-making, creating four distinct future directions a participant might land in based on their answers.
To make the futures more tangible, I paired scenarios with neutral “slice of life” portraits, created in collaboration with an illustrator and iterated with GenAI, and wrote short story vignettes for each quadrant to expand the scenario space without signaling a predetermined utopia or dystopia. I also used GenAI as a supporting tool to review response options for alignment to the two-axis structure and to keep the four quadrant outcomes balanced. With these assets in hand, we worked with Matt Lewandowski, whose thoughtful Unity development turned Neu Opinion Bank into a flexible, maintainable platform built for ongoing iteration and expansion.
Ultimately, Neu Opinion Bank turns public opinion into a reflective, discussion-ready experience, not a one-way data point. Our longer-term goal is to share these patterns and perspectives with researchers and policymakers as they consider future directions for neurotechnology. Together, IoNx and the IoB Science Communication team launched Neu Opinion Bank at EXPO 2025 OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN in August 2025. We continue to use it at neurotechnology public engagement events to spark dialogue and gather perspectives in Japan and the U.S.
Going further
- Discover the sci-fi works of the Neu World project ↗ from IoB
- Read more about the EXPO 2025 OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN ↗