The Manufactured Gate: External Neurotechnology as a Categorical Threat to Conscious Agency

This paper proposes that the ethics of neurotechnology cannot be derived from application, advertised function, or invasiveness — it must be derived from anatomical proximity to the thalamic reticular nucleus, the binary gating mechanism that decides which signal coalition becomes conscious reality. Three categorical thresholds are identified: cortical devices that compete with agency, relay nucleus devices that bypass the prefrontal veto entirely, and TRN-proximal devices that manufacture conscious experience rather than impair it. Transcranial focused ultrasound already crosses the second threshold non-invasively in healthy subjects with no implant required. Existing neurorights frameworks contain no stratification by anatomical proximity to the gate and address none of the tFUS vector. A regulatory architecture mapped to the three anatomical thresholds is proposed.