Brain Music - the Composer & the Composed

Writes the publicist for the American Department of HomeLand Security:

"Every brain has a soundtrack. Its tempo and tone will vary, depending on mood, frame of mind, and other features of the brain itself. When that soundtrack is recorded and played back -- to an emergency responder, or a firefighter -- it may sharpen their reflexes during a crisis, and calm their nerves afterward." 

Robert Burns of DHS' s Science & Technology Directorate is evaluating neurotraining or "Brain Music", using music created in advance from listeners' own brain waves. The concept is to use the frequency, amplitude, and duration of musical sounds to move the brain from an anxious state to a more relaxed state (or vice versa, though Burns is not too keen to write about THAT).  Here is a sample brain music track from DHS   said by them to trigger an 'alert' feeling.

While Emergency responders and firefighters may benefit by, or at least be obligated to take part in, this sort of brain muzakery, why would it stop there?   Prisons may become oases of tranquility, if each inmate has his own personal pacifying music playing at appropriate times.

How long before arrestees must give a 'brainprint" as well as a fingerprint? You may have the right to remain silent, but your brainwaves won't.

Control through Chaos

Armor(Assistant for Randomized Monitoring over Routes) is a Homeland Security-sponsored research project at University of Southern California that is already helping to tighten security at LAX airport in Los Angeles. It could soon be used across the country to "predict and minimize risk".

From the article:
"Here’s how it works: Computer software records the locations of routine, random vehicle checkpoints and canine searches at the airport. Police then provide data on possible terrorist targets and their relative importance. These data may change from one day to the next, or if there have been any security breaches or suspicious activity."

"The computer runs, and—voilà—police get a model of where to go, and when. The software comes up with random decisions that are based on calculated probabilities of a terrorist attack at those locations, using mathematical algorithms."

"The result: Security with airtight unpredictability. With the software, it’s extremely difficult to predict police operations."

“What the airport was doing before was not truly statistically random; it was simply mixing things up,” said computer science professor Milind Tambe. “What they have now is systematized, true randomization.”

But, wait: What if terrorists get hold of ARMOR and use the same information" Couldn’t they solve the predictability puzzle" Not really, Tambe said. “Even if they got the software and all the inputs, it’d be like rolling 50 different dice and expecting to correctly roll one combination of all 50 pairs.” Read the complete news release

ARMOR is reminiscent of Harlan Ellison's creation, the cyber overlord AM, isn't it?

image by Gary Larsen