Path: e420r-atl2.usenetserver.com!newsfeeds-atl2!news.webusenet.com!news-out.visi.com!hermes.visi.com!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!harp.news.atl.earthlink.net!not-for-mail From: "Allen L. Barker" Newsgroups: alt.mindcontrol,alt.politics.org.cia,alt.politics.org.covert,soc.rights.human Subject: Your brain may soon be used against you Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 17:37:06 -0500 Organization: No Dismay Lines: 83 Message-ID: <3DC05F12.E4467DF@datafilter.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: a5.f7.7c.20 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Server-Date: 30 Oct 2002 21:38:20 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.9-31 i686) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: usenetserver.com alt.mindcontrol:125276 alt.politics.org.cia:133824 alt.politics.org.covert:111684 soc.rights.human:152844 [An interesting article from the _Philadelphia Inquirer_. Seriously off on the timescale of *existing* technology, but it does address some of the important issues involved. Even if you don't know that the technology is here now, and already violating citizens' freedom of thought, everyone can see that it is at least coming soon in the *open* scientific world. For a much older article in the same vein, see http://www.datafilter.com/mc/machinesThatReadMinds.html, as well as the general links related to thought inference on the page http://www.datafilter.com/mc/thoughtInference.html.] http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/4391614.htm Posted on Tue, Oct. 29, 2002 Your brain may soon be used against you By Faye Flam Inquirer Staff Writer The last refuge of secrets and lies - the brain - may be about to reveal all. Scientists are finding ways to use the brain's activity to expose truths a person may try to hide. The techniques could revolutionize police work, improve national security, and threaten personal privacy. "It's the scariest thing around," said physicist Robert Park, an outspoken critic of old-fashioned, unreliable polygraph machines. "The only thing worse than a lie detector that doesn't work is one that does." Ruben Gur, a neuropsychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, says new kinds of brain scans can reveal when a person recognizes a familiar face, no matter how hard he or she tries to conceal it. The scanning machine, called a functional MRI, takes pictures that highlight specific parts of the brain activated during certain tasks. Telltale parts of your brain "light up," he said, when you are presented with a face you have seen before. It is easy to imagine such scanners being used in interrogation of criminal suspects or terrorists about their associates. Gur described just such possibilities for national security experts at a recent Penn workshop. "Everything we do, and everything an enemy does, starts in the brain," he said at the Penn meeting, sponsored by the newly formed Institute for Strategic Analysis and Response, which includes Penn epidemiologists, germ-warfare specialists, political scientists, and computer experts. Such scanning could also be used to pick up brain abnormalities that he says characterize those prone to violence. Another Penn scientist, Daniel Langleben, has found that a functional MRI can act as a lie detector. A handful of other scientists around the country are examining ways to read thoughts by examining the brain. "In the long term, I think we will have technologies powerful enough to understand what people are thinking in ways unimaginable now," Langleben said. "I think in 50 years we will have a way to essentially read minds." He said he was not particularly happy about that. Neither are others concerned about the unprecedented threat to humanity's most private realm. Gur acknowledges the concerns about brain scans eventually revealing private thoughts. The balance between security and privacy is something society will have to come to grips with in many areas, he said. [...] -- Mind Control: TT&P ==> http://www.datafilter.com/mc Allen Barker