Posted on 02/08/2007 5:24:10 PM PST by fanfan
A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person's brain and read their intentions before they act.
The team used high-resolution brain scans to identify patterns of activity before translating them into meaningful thoughts, revealing what a person planned to do in the near future. It is the first time scientists have succeeded in reading intentions in this way.
~snip~
The use of brain scanners to judge whether people are likely to commit crimes is a contentious issue that society should tackle now, according to Prof Haynes. "We see the danger that this might become compulsory one day, but we have to be aware that if we prohibit it, we are also denying people who aren't going to commit any crime the possibility of proving their innocence."
"A lot of neuroscientists in the field are very cautious and say we can't talk about reading individuals' minds, and right now that is very true, but we're moving ahead so rapidly, it's not going to be that long before we will be able to tell whether someone's making up a story, or whether someone intended to do a crime with a certain degree of certainty."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Your son's brain scan shows he will murder someone, someday, so we are terminating him.
Scanning my noggin will produce wildly contradictory results.
Simply because my skull runs down several thoughts at the same time, yet I am terrible at multi-tasking.
In 10 years there will be talk of use in the court room...
There is a science-fiction novel called "Little Fuzzy"...
The court room scene involves a sort of lie detector device that verifies the witness is giving truthful testimony..
A somewhat amusing moment is when a witness is seated for questioning, and the device goes bright red, indicating the witness is already "prevaricating" before he has been asked a single question..
A "true" polygraph would be invaluable in determining the truth in a court of law..
It could be subject to abuses, and there would be the necessity of controls and regulations..
Just like all technologies..
Sounds like ADHD.
Ernst Mallin shrank, as though trying to pull himself into himself, when he heard his name. He didn't want to testify. He had been dreading this moment for days. Now he would have to sit in that chair, and they would ask him questions, and he couldn't answer them truthfully and the globe over his head--
When the deputy marshal touched his shoulder and spoke to him, he didn't think, at first, that his legs would support him. It seemed miles, with all the staring faces on either side of him. Somehow, he reached the chair and sat down, and they fitted the helmet over his head and attached the electrodes. They used to make a witness take some kind of an oath to tell the truth. They didn't any more. They didn't need to.
As soon as the veridicator was on, he looked up at the big screen behind the three judges; the globe above his head was a glaring red. There was a titter of laughter. Nobody in the Courtroom knew better than he what was happening. He had screens in his laboratory that broke it all down into individual patterns--the steady pulsing waves from the cortex, the alpha and beta waves; beta-aleph and beta-beth and beta-gimel and beta-daleth. The thalamic waves. He thought of all of them, and of the electromagnetic events which accompanied brain activity. As he did, the red faded and the globe became blue. He was no longer suppressing statements and substituting other statements he knew to be false. If he could keep it that way. But, sooner or later, he knew, he wouldn't be able to.
The globe stayed blue while he named himself and stated his professional background. There was a brief flicker of red while he was listing his publication--that paper, entirely the work of one of his students, which he had published under his own name. He had forgotten about that, but his conscience hadn't.
"Dr. Mallin," the oldest of the three judges, who sat in the middle, began, "what, in your professional opinion, is the difference between sapient and nonsapient mentation?"
"The ability to think consciously," he stated. The globe stayed blue.
The "Little Fuzzy" series is an excellent read, and is generally suitable for children.. ( With the possible exception of some violent content concerning the murder of one of the characters.. The subject of the above trial.. )
This book is considered a science-fiction "classic" and has a great following..
Recommended reading..
I think our morays will stay in the sea where they belong...
Everyone should actually read the article rather than the headline. This is a non-story. Just another instance of people talking up their research for the sole purpose of garnering more funding.
From the article:
1. Brains are so unique that for any success with this scanning, the brain of an individual must be scanned ahead of time.
2. The experiment is limited to trying to predict the outcome between only two possibilities.
3. Success rate is 70%.
The fact is, in a binary prediction, if a RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR were used it would get a success rate of 50%. These folks have only managed 70%, despite personalizing the scan to the individual ahead of time.
Again, this is a non-story of researchers looking for funding.
LOL! As if you had never misspelled a word!
Not more than on 4-6 posts a day.
When an eel lunges out
and he bites off your snout
That's a moray...
Wish my spelling was that good! Thanks for being kind in your response; many would not be so inclined.
So.....can they determine that I'll end up wearing the open toed black shoes rather than the black boots or black pumps, or can they just determine that I'll change my mind a million times while Mr. HR paces and reminds me of what time are dinner reservations are for?
Because it it is the former, then this could be a big time (and marriage) saver.
doh!
are=our
I use spell check a LOT.
So do I. So give me a hint as to how to spell the word I’m looking for (moray, mories, morisesa). Good luck on the spell check thingy.
I very seldom submit anything on this site without running it through MSWord. Sometimes the word comes to mind, the spelling doesn’t . Hard to spell correctly if is a variation of the original or strongly foreign.
Thank you … mayhap missing the point, but thanks anyway. I shall store “Mores” for future reference.
I think I get the point. Sending a kid to the dictionary to look up how to spell something when he doesn't know how to spell it to find it is an exercise in frustration for all involved.
It sure was when I was the kid...
I still don't have a good answer for how to do that. I ended up reading a couple dictionaries cover-to-cover.
There has to be a better way!
When the fungi's a sponge
And it's covered with grunge
That's a morel
Wow, pretty creepy stuff. I second that motion!
ok...so this should clear everything up when murder suspects are interrogated and death row criminals claim they are innocent?
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