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Brain Scans to Identify Liars?
dotc writes "After a bunch of sci-fi stories and rumors, now it looks like the future has become a reality -- a reliable, unbiased test using functional MRI brain scan to detect lying. The article author details a first-person account of undergoing the MRI 'deception task'. And the test is available now - use it to prove your innocence." From the article: "Laken said he's aiming to offer the fMRI service for use in situations like libel, slander and fraud where it's one person's word against another, and perhaps in employee screening by government agencies. Attorneys suggest it would be more useful in civil than most criminal cases, he said."
This sounds like a setup to a Bush joke.
Now us Americans won't have a good excuse to torture people in secret prisons overseas anymore.
A 90% success rate implies that 1 in every 10 innocent people gets labeled guilty. Suppose you run an investigation and you've got a group of 50 people, and you're sure one of them did it. You scan them all. Then you end up with a group of some 4 to 8 people with a 90% probability that it includes the perpetrator.
So, yes, this system is a great solution, but not for the problem "who did it?". No, it is a great solution for the problem how we can fill our prisons as quickly and subjectively as possible.