Brain "lie-detectors" for big brother

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Steven Cherry <s.cherry () ieee org>
Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2003 14:43:53 -0400
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Brain "lie-detectors" for big brother

> http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/06/07/lying.brain.ap/index.html
>
> New research aims to catch liars in the act


Dave,

As it happens, the current issue of IEEE Spectrum takes a look at the
ethical issues involved in brain fingerprinting and other biomedical
technologies.

<http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/jun03/bio.html>
NEUROTECHNOLOGY

Bioethics & The Brain

Microelectronics and medical imaging are bringing us closer to a
world where mind reading is possible and blindness banished-but we
may not want to live there

By Kenneth R. Foster, Paul Root Wolpe & Arthur L. Caplan

Nancy, an airline pilot, arrived promptly for a routine physical.
She'd had exams before, but this time was different. She was asked to
lie down and place her head in a large metallic torus, while a video
screen flashed a series of images before her eyes-the inside of a 747
cockpit, a view of a target seen through a rifle's scope, a chemical
formula for polyester, a photo of Bill Clinton. In an adjacent room,
a technician watched as colorful images of Nancy's brain appeared on
his computer screen, lighting up like brushfires with different hues
in response to the pictures. As the test ended, the technician
forwarded the results to Nancy's employer.

Reporting for work the next day, Nancy was confronted by her
supervisor and an official from the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration. They informed her that the brain images showed Nancy
might develop schizophrenia, and had a surprising familiarity with
assault rifles as well. The agency revoked her pilot's license. The
airline promptly fired her.

This scenario is fiction. But the basics of the technologies it
alludes to already exist. New ways of imaging the human brain and new
developments in microelectronics are providing unprecedented
capabilities for monitoring the brain in real time and even for
controlling brain function.

The technologies are novel, but some of the questions that they will
raise are not. Electrical activity in the brain can reveal the
contents of a person's memory. New imaging techniques might allow
physicians to detect devastating diseases long before those diseases
become clinically apparent. And researchers may one day find brain
activity that correlates with behavior patterns such as tendencies
toward alcoholism, aggression, pedophilia, or racism. But how
reliable will the information be, how should it be used, and what
will it do to our notion of privacy?  <etc.>

-- 

   Steven Cherry    <s.cherry () ieee org>
   Senior Associate Editor, IEEE Spectrum
--
                                                 <steven () panix com>
   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
   "Two things inspire me to awe--the starry heavens above
   and the moral universe within ."    Albert Einstein


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