# Cognitive Liberty **Domain:** Neuroethics / Autonomy **Doc Type:** Governance Concept Node **Maturity:** Established Scholarly Concept, Emerging Policy Principle **Related:** [[Neurorights]], [[Mental Privacy]], [[Psychological Continuity]], [[Human-in-the-Loop BCI]] --- ## Definition **Cognitive liberty** is the freedom to control one's own mental processes, including protections against compelled access, manipulation, unwanted stimulation, coercive modification, or externally imposed cognitive states. It also raises questions about voluntary access to cognitive tools and enhancement. ## Interface relevance A neural interface must make control authority explicit: who may read, write, adapt, interrupt, update, or override the coupled system, and under what conditions consent can be withdrawn. ## Digital Afterlife Interface **Evidence / Concept Status:** Emerging rights concept; legal force varies by jurisdiction. For continuants, cognitive liberty would include protection against forced modification, compulsory restoration, unwanted optimization, or imposed phenomenology. That extension is a continuity claim, not an already universal legal rule. See [[wiki/Mental Integrity|Mental Integrity]], [[wiki/Digital Afterlife Rights and Personhood|Digital Afterlife Rights and Personhood]], and [[wiki/Continuity Constitutionalism|Continuity Constitutionalism]].