Tokyo 99 Declaration

by Mari Jibu Ph. D. and Tarcisio Della Senta Ph. D.

Good afternoon, our fellow scientists and philosophers.

We speak to you, and on your behalf, in a spirit of hope.

In the coming years, studies of the brain and the mind will advance our understanding of consciousness.

In this quest of knowledge, the hope is for improving human wellbeing and the conditions of life on Earth.

Since early ages, with the power of their brain, human beings have developed knowledge and tools for doing both good and bad.

Today, we have the intellectual, physical and financial resources to master the power of the brain itself, and to develop devices to touch the mind and even control or erase consciousness.

We wish to profess our hope that such a pursuit of knowledge serves peace and welfare.

But remember: twice in recent years we virtually failed to use brilliant scientific discoveries to serve such ends.

The competition for mastering nuclear power has not made the world safer, nor has the analyses and synthesis of DNA relieved concerns raised by genetic engineering.

The question of ethics is before us once again, at the dawn of new discoveries about the brain and consciousness.

This time, though, we are armed with the lessons of past failures, lessons that help us to meet the imperatives of hope.

Colleagues, let us take the first step.

Let us turn towards the brilliant scientific discoveries of the brain and consciousness, and seek a way towards peace and welfare, along which scientists and philosophers of the world may contribute to a good conscience of humanity and ethics.

Let us work for the wonders of science, instead of serving its dark powers.

Together, let us explore our brain and move towards a science of consciousness that will encourage arts, ethics and thinking.

This is, and will be, an endless quest, which will not be completed in a hundred days, nor in a thousand years, nor even perhaps in our life time on this planet.

But, let us begin.

Then, our fellow scientists and philosophers of the world: do not ask what you can establish with purely scientific interest only, but rather what you can do to serve human peace and welfare.

Let us erase the egocentric discipline-confined approach and join the collective effort to develop a science of consciousness.

And let us developed it for fundamental discoveries and for serving the hope of human welfare, never warfare.

Will you join in such a historic effort towards hope?

May the Twenty-Eighth, Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, at the United Nations University in Tokyo