At a laboratory in Germany, volunteers slide into an MRI machine and perform simple tasks, such as deciding whether to add or subtract two numbers, or choosing which of two buttons to press.
They have no inkling that scientists in the next room are trying to read their minds using a brain scan to figure out their intention before it is turned into action.
In the past, scientists had been able to detect decisions about making physical movements before those movements appeared. But researchers at Berlin's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience claim they have now identified people's decisions about how they would later do a high-level mental activity in this case, adding versus subtracting.
The techniques may eventually have wide-ranging implications for everything from criminal interrogations to airline security checks. And that alarms some ethicists who fear the technology could one day be abused by authorities, marketers, or employers.
Mallcity anyone?
3 comments:
Yes Paul, very Mallcity...
Whilst techno boffins and IT nerds will likely say 'but there's nothing wrong with it', aside from beneficial uses of this technology (such as designing physiotherapy programs to better manage the effects of traumatic brain injuries?) there are some obvious dubious avenues for abuse...firstly, it is not unlikely that at least some would like to see this technology used for interrogation and lie detection. As they say in Mallcity 14, 'Private thoughts are dangerous' and there are many who would like to know all your private thoughts, and on a wide range of issues. This is not mind reading we're talking about, but simply knowing what parts of the brain are responding to what stimuli, be it questions or marketing images etc. And that leads to the other issue...fine tuning advertising, looking for the 'right' emotional triggers.
Exactly!!! I knew you would know the right spin to put on this one. I am sitting here reading it and thinking OMG it is right down the center with what you predicted in MallCity and they are painting such rosy pictures of the uses! I am thinking to myself, now just name one piece of tech that has been adopted that does not have commercial applications? Answer NONE unless you look at the Armed Forces which is another kettle of fish.
Yes Paul, as you suggest, follow the (likely) money trail and then have a think about how rosy it might all be...I can see the positive applications, but it would be naive in the extreme not to look at both sides of that coin.
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