what do you guys think of this?

Question

The brain scan that can read people's intentions

Call for ethical debate over possible use of new technology in interrogation

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday February 9, 2007
The Guardian

Using the technology is 'like shining a torch, looking for writing on a wall'. CT image: Charles O'Rear/Corbis
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 research breaks controversial new ground in scientists' ability to probe people's minds and eavesdrop on their thoughts, and raises serious ethical issues over how brain-reading technology may be used in the future.
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.
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"Using the scanner, we could look around the brain for this information and read out something that from the outside there's no way you could possibly tell is in there. It's like shining a torch around, looking for writing on a wall," said John-Dylan Haynes at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, who led the study with colleagues at University College London and Oxford University.
The research builds on a series of recent studies in which brain imaging has been used to identify tell-tale activity linked to lying, violent behaviour and racial prejudice.

The latest work reveals the dramatic pace at which neuroscience is progressing, prompting the researchers to call for an urgent debate into the ethical issues surrounding future uses for the technology. If brain-reading can be refined, it could quickly be adopted to assist interrogations of criminals and terrorists, and even usher in a "Minority Report" era

(as portrayed in the Steven Spielberg science fiction film of that name), where judgments are handed down before the law is broken on the strength of an incriminating brain scan.

"These techniques are emerging and we need an ethical debate about the implications, so that one day we're not surprised and overwhelmed and caught on the wrong foot by what they can do. These things are going to come to us in the next few years and we should really be prepared," Professor Haynes told the Guardian.

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."

During the study, the researchers asked volunteers to decide whether to add or subtract two numbers they were later shown o

on a screen.

Before the numbers flashed up, they were given a brain scan using a technique called functional magnetic imaging resonance. The researchers then used a software that had been designed to spot subtle differences in brain activity to predict the person's intentions with 70% accuracy.

Answer 1

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........ to long. Got bored half way through.

Answer 2

My first problem is that this mentions nothing about how accurate this is, nor how that accuracy can be verified.

My second is that thinking about committing a crime isn't the same as actually doing it, and so no one would have to prove themselves innocent of such thoughts. That's an utterly weak argument.

If it really does work, you can bet your life it will be misused. Name one piece of groundbreaking technology that hasn't been.

Answer 3

Just think how many budding Murder & Mistery authors could be 'removed' from society. And, all those 'stuntmen' from Hollywood etc could be dealt with ~ and we'd wouldn't have to watch films with the bloody, gore and those interminal MONSTER explosions ...which would help to bring down Global Warming at the same time too.

Then we could subject all politicians to screening, footballers (for their meaness) and their WAG's too, for their shopping ethics.

And, as for people who like getting behind the wheel of a car...! Well, they could be taxed 'for what they are about to do.' Bank customers for their honesty, and 'clients' of the Taxman....

WoW. Tomorrow's gonna be a wunnerful place to live in.

Sash.

Answer 4

It'd be way too vague. They could say 'You are planning to be violent later' and you would say 'No, I'm not' and how could they dispute that? I understand that certain behaviour is linked to activity in certain parts of the brain but I don't see how it could be interpreted with any accuracy. Maybe in the future... It sounds like the plot for a dodgy Jean Claude Van Damme film.

Answer 5

What if it's wrong. How can they be 100% sure that it will give the correct answers all the time? Can we expect future sales men knowing who to target and who not too? It's seems like an invitation to be taken advantage of outside of the interogation arena

Answer 6

1

Answer 7

Sounds like the thought police might realy exhist?

Answer 8

Yeah,every single person will behave better.
Welcome to Samaritania.
Every one will show his best colour.

Answer 9

All i can say is invasion of privacy. Thought are supposed to be thoughts.