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Brain Will Be Battlefield of the Future, Warns US
Anti-Globalism sends this except from the Guardian:
"In a report commissioned by the Defense Intelligence Agency, leading scientists were asked to examine how a greater understanding of the brain over the next 20 years is likely to drive the development of new medicines and technologies. They found several areas in which progress could have a profound impact, including behaviour-altering drugs, scanners that can interpret a person's state of mind and devices capable of boosting senses such as hearing and vision. ...The report highlights one electronic technique, called transcranial direct current stimulation, which involves using electrical pulses to interfere with the firing of neurons in the brain and has been shown to delay a person's ability to tell a lie."
So George Bush has lost that one already.
From the article:
> On the battlefield, bullets may be replaced with "pharmacological land mines" that release drugs to incapacitate soldiers on contact
How likely is that? Someone will invent a drug to make you immune to incapacitating drugs, and we'll go back to bullets and explosions.
> "The concept of torture could also be altered by products in this market. It is possible that some day there could be a technique developed to extract information from a prisoner that does not have any lasting side effects," the report states.
I hope not. I imagine the police could give you the stuff and ask you if you ever commited any crimes. It'll be a routine thing, just like taking your fingerprint and DNA and firstborn, when you are arrested.
> "In the intelligence community, there is an extremely small number of people who understand the science and without that it's going to be impossible to predict surprises. This is a black hole that needs to be filled with light," Green told the Guardian.
There's a dumb analogy if I ever saw one. Let's shine light on the black hole!
> The technologies will one day have applications in counter-terrorism and crime-fighting. The report says brain imaging will not improve sufficiently in the next 20 years to read peoples' intentions from afar and spot criminals before they act, but it might be good enough to help identify people at a checkpoint or counter who are afraid or anxious.
Do we really need a brainscan for that, though? People who are afraid or anxious are easy to spot, and being afraid or anxious hardly makes you a criminal.
> "We're not going to be reading minds at a distance, but that doesn't mean we can't detect gross changes in anxiety or fear, and then subsequently talk to those individuals to see what's upsetting them," Green said.
Will that talk involve one of those lie-detector brainscan-things?
> The development of advanced surveillance techniques, such as cameras that can spot fearful expressions on people's faces, could lead to some inventive ways to fool them, the report adds, such as Botox injections to relax facial muscles.
Dude, enough about anxious people alright. People are afraid and nervous all the time about all sorts of things, and the thought that some asshole security guy is going to detect that with some sort of remote brainscan and invite them to have a chat will only make that worse. How many of these people will turn out to be innocent? Many.
As someone recently diagnosed with a neurological condition, given drugs to treat it, given drugs to deal with the side effects, and now am on drugs to treat my psychological reaction to it, I've seen first hand how certain drugs can alter your mood and even change your perspective.
One drug they have me on makes it impossible for me to get upset about anything. If we could isolate what it is that makes the brain do that, put it into an airborne form and spray it over an enemy, then we could simply march in and say "We are taking your land, your government and your freedom", and their response would be (in a semi-zombie state) "Oh. Okay. I hope you enjoy it".
All without firing a shot.
The Internet is generally stupid
They will not be horrible. You will learn to like them.
So, in 20 years, we'll have various forms of mind control, so we can force immortal (available in 20 years) enemy soldiers to steal the (available in 20 years) fusion powered (available in 20 years) flying cars (available in 20 years) and attack the space elevator (available in 20 years) that supplies our permanent colonies on the moon (available in 20 years)?
The future's looking bright!
I think you mean Frank Luntz.
The sales demonstrations certainly would be fun. Hook up the sales rep and then start asking questions about the product. :)
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
According to the novel 1984, one of the ultimate goals of a dictatorship is devising a way to read people's minds. In the novel, this translates to entire scientific research sections dedicated to such projects, as well as the constant use of psychological techniques (illustrated in the book) for the surveillance and interrogation of the general populace.
This is not surprising. It derives from becoming paranoid and losing trust on your fellow human beings: "what if someone is secretly thinking of killing us? we ought to have a way to tell!". I hope no one ever gains such understanding, as it would be a serious threat to freedom.