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Manipulating the Brain with Magnets
hackwrench points to this Boston Globe story, writing "Some guy has figured out how to use magnets to disable or enhance part of the brain." And this is on a part of the science spectrum not occupied by Alex Chiu.
There is a related story about using an electromagnetic field to stun a portion of the brain to see how it affects congitive performance.
Scared the hell out of me.
Yes. I would be very skeptical to someone that has done so little, that he has absolutely nothing to hide. The fact of the matter is, I would be more skeptical to someone who accepted the "truth machine", if you couldn't even find one interesting thing there. I am not sure what kind of person that would be, but certainly not something I would call human.
I would also consider it unethical to force anyone to publicly be in a "truth machine" (well, with the possible exception of hideous crimes, etc...). While it might have it's use in some situations, those people listening and questioning should surely have taken a wow of silence. And if the information was used in e.g. a courtroom, huge steps should be taken to protect the vitnesses to limit the information gained this way to exposure by the public (e.g. only by consent of vitness and lawyer).
The Truth Machine is a fascinating book. I very much recommend it.
Briefly, the machine merely indicates whether the peson under examination is intending to lie or not, because the machine is in no position to actually determine truth.
The book explores the ramifications of such a machine on society and it's quite engaging. For instance, examination by truth machine became necessary for most licensing, and legislation was introduced granting amnesty for crimes committed before the truth machine was available.
Check it out.
Most interestingly enough though with this TMS procedure is the opportunity to simulate brain injury non-invasively. For the most part, studies particularly in neuroscience, for example neuro-linguistics, occur on post-trauma patients or split-brain patients. In these cases, injuries hardly ever are restricted to one area and problems or symptoms are compounded. From a research perspective thus, this may just offer new opportunities to understand how our brain works- defective so well as healthy functions.
One show on alien abducitons illustrated a doctor's theory that magnetic fields caused people to "experience" abductions. They sat some woman in a contraption designed to control the magnetic field in her brain. It wasn't the quick "zapping" described in this article, but was (I think) a continuous state of field applied to the brain.
It was kinda freaky. Depending on how the doctor had things set, the woman experienced floating, a feeling of paranoia and being watched, and unfocused fear.
Seemed like a plausible explanation of the adbuction experience. However, I am not convinced that such magnetic fields randomly wind up in people's bedrooms.
Method of processing duck feet
That's fine for internal policy... but when said politician is wheeling and dealing with other countries, do you actually want him 100% truthful?
Well, actually, we're more-or-less trying to just get ahead ourselves and don't give a sh*t about your insignificant little country. If you hadn't found a huge oil deposit then we wouldn't have noticed you at all.
Wired has had some stories about this. TMS has been used to create "out of body" and religious experiances.
I wonder how long before the Scientologists start using this......
I don't recall if those filaments were also found in humans, but I think so. Small Fe3O4 magnetized filaments. Similiar to those described in a famous article by Blakemore (i read a review in a journal from 1996). Could be the practical effect of strong magnetic fields acting on those strains.
Something on the magnetotactic bacteria is found at this page
reason defies logic
A previous Slashdot story "Where God Lives In Your Brain" covered most of his work on extremely low frequency electromagnetic field effects.
"I figure you're here 'cause you need some whacko who's willing to stick his finger in the fan. So who are we helping?
We got to play with one last week in my biopsych class. Pretty fun stuff. My primary motor cortex was stimulated, causing my hand to uncontrollably clench etc... It was only a single pulse TMS so there was no going deaf or anything. Some people can see phosphemes (round blueish-green bubble things) when their viual cortex is zapped though.