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Fear Detector To Sniff Out Terrorists
Hugh Pickens writes "Evidence that the smell of fear is real was uncovered by US scientists last year who studied the underarm secretions of 20 terrified novice skydivers and found that people appear to respond unconsciously to the sweat smell of a frightened person. Now the Telegraph reports that researchers hope a 'fear detector' will make it possible to identify individuals at check points who are up to no good. 'The challenge lies in the characterization and identification of the specific chemical that gives away the signature of human fear, especially the fear in relation to criminal acts,' says Professor Tong Tun at City University London, who leads the team developing security sensor systems that can detect the human fear pheromone. The project will look at potential obstacles to the device, such as the effects of perfume and the variances in pheromone production and if the initial 18-month feasibility study is successful, the first detectors could be developed in the next two to three years. 'I do not see any particular reason why similar sensor techniques cannot be expanded to identify human smells by race, age or gender to build a profile of a criminal during or after an incident,' Tong added."
... or people who are afraid of being suspected of terrorism
What if the fear they detect in you is the fear of missing your flight while you're held up trying to convince security that you aren't a threat?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Luckily airports are only ever full of relaxed, calm people who have no fear of flying whatsoever.
And being dragged off to be interrogated as a terrorist in some darkened back-room by three of four rent-a-thugs can only serve to ease their fears of flying...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
If you have a true religious fanatic, who is looking forward to dying for a cause he believes in -- and is looking forward to eternity in the paradise-of-his-choice for his actions, would he* still show physiological signs of fear?
* (I think statistically, "he" is a fair generalization here.)
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
People that are afraid of flying (or more accurately, crashing) will not need to worry about being picked out of the line for 'smelling suspiscious'! Not at all...
Posting obviously for anonymous reasons.
You'll also get the whole set of seats to yourself.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I'd be more alarmed to find someone who wasn't afraid to pass a checkpoint like this. How can you defend yourself from the allegation of some machine saying that you exhibit fear, and therefore is a terrorist? Furthermore, sociopaths and psychopaths will have little trouble passing these checkpoints.
So you'll get plenty of false positives, and plenty of false negatives.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Now the Telegraph reports that researchers hope a 'fear detector'' will make it possible to identify individuals at check points who are up to no good.
What about us law abiding citizens who are only afraid that our governments checkpoint workers are up to no good?
It is already a very real possibility for one of those people to make up any type of claim they want and detail you without letting you speak to a lawyer nor involve any courts.
The reason given can be as ridiculous as 'He had terrorist looking hair' and still be valid. Plenty of legit reason to be afraid of those people.
Not to mention the fact I have no doubt at least a subset of these checkpoints will be at places where fear is natural (IE airports, fear of flying, or fear of falling out of the sky in a fireball)
Will deodorant and perfume be classified as a terrorist munition now?
The idea that there's a special chemical signal for "fear in relation to criminal acts" seems to come out of absolutely nowhere. Shouldn't there be some research into whether such a chemical signal exists before device development occurs? If it's not a magic detector of latent emotion or the cause of emotion so I'm not sure how much better it would be than noticing which people "look a bit afraid". It's going to be just as susceptible to picking up people who find flying difficult or are worried about being falsely accused of being a terrorist because they look funny.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
"And in the news today, hundreds of teenage boys were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They were later released after it turned out they were simply wearing Axe deodorant"
Summation 2
They decided people weren't taking FDR's warning seriously enough so they'd give us a damn good reason to fear fear itself.
Do scientist have nothing better to do nowadays. Fear is an emotiona that could be the result of hundreds of different causes. Fear from stress, fear of losing money, fear of an individual, fear of going to an intervew etc, etc. How do these scientist aim to differentiate fear of criminal activity from other causes. Waste of time.
1. Get a degree in chemistry
2. Create artificial "fear hormone"
3. Bottle hormone in spray-flask
4. Spray "on your car" outside airport (and wash car with a piece of cloth) - make sure to spray passers-by
5. ???
6. Profit!!!!
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
Great, just what we need, more profiling in place of real security. And just how is this supposed to work with psychopaths who do not experience the emotion of fear?
1: Develop System to detect when someone is "afraid"
2: Let citizens know that those who are "afraid" will be detected, detained and questioned for "citizen safety".
3: Citizens are now afraid to go through on the idea that maybe they will somehow set off the alarm.
Tons of false positives. After the first story of a false positive, some people become afraid of being a false positive as well. As more and more stories of false positives arise, more and more people become afraid and become more false positives.
Detect terrorists, that is.
Not while there are anti-anxiety drugs out there.
What you will detect is a bunch of false positives that will keep you busy "detecting" while trucks loaded with bags of ammonium-nitrate explosive merrily (but calmly) pass you by.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Isn't this a step towards thought crime?
"He's scared, arrest him!"
The officers would only pull Arab-looking dudes, and many of those dudes might produce fear signals not because of terrorism, but because they're afraid of being treated badly at US airports like many of their brethren are.
... fear is the mind killer, fear is the little death that brings airport security...
I have been suffering on anxiety disorder now for the last 15 years, does that mean I will get an anal search every time I cross the border now?
I really like the idea! Preferably it should be combined with US patent 6970105 (Passenger control system during a plane flying) http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6970105.html
So we fit all passengers with large collars containing big needles with sedatives. At the first smell of fear we inject a propper dose of sedatives in their necks. The problems with terrorism and fear of flying solved at the same time.
I really must run and patent this idea right now... And get the movie rights!
Time to lose my Karma I guess... A terrorist is going to be a LOT more afraid of getting on that plane and detonating a bomb on it, and possibly getting caught by security, than an average person is going to be afraid of flying or that his mom my discover his porn, or whatever other funny reasons you guys can come up with... Second, even if there are false positives, I think that's expected by the scientists, nothing is 100%, but if you can increase your odds of picking up a terrorist by some odd percent, and decrease false positives (because terrorists are a LOT more afraid I would think) then you have saved money, saved everyone's time, and increased safety. As far as pranksters with bio-chem degrees, well, when this thing starts picking up a lot of false positives, those pranksters will probably be caught and we won't see much of that. (i.e. all the fear scent 'sprayed' people say they were all in parking lot B, then the security checks the cameras, and finds the car that sprayed them and those idiots get arrested.) I think we should at least give it a chance before condemning the idea with condescending knee-jerkiness.
"...I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease." - Linus Torvalds
A number of false positives reported in the media, and everybody will fear that machine...
Almost everything.
It should stop the rogue unprepared school shooting type person.
Or cause them to shoot the guard manning it. I've never felt 'safer' in a building with a metal detector. I've certainly felt less free.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Like this guy. By the way, it's not illegal to cash $4700 in cash, nor do you have to answer nosy bastards questions about it, unless they obtain a warrant (signed by an impartial judge), or you are crossing an international border. This poor fellow just wanted to travel from St. Louis to Arlington Virgnia.
edited version- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMB6L487LHM
full recording- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEJpzVPmih0
I think I would have told these St. Louis police to read me my Miranda Rights, and then exercised my right to remain silent, rather than talk. Bunch of thugs. "It occurs to me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them." - Indiana Jones father, aka Sean Connery
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Being afraid isn't a crime, nor is it probable cause for a search.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I just noticed this: "Your subject has negative warrants for arrest and negative prior history. He does have a valid oil land(?) that expires 2014." What the frak? They have a central computer to track all our history, even in foreign states that are 1000 miles away from where we live? Dang.
Other annoyances:
- "Why do you have this money?"
- "What's your occupation?"
- "It's not a matter of the law." - The Constitution is the law. It specifically forbids this type of detainment unless a judge okays it.
- "You're acting like a child." - No he's acting like a liberated person. Slavery ended 150 years ago. Liberated people have no masters and have the right to remain silent.
- "I don't have to let you travel." - The U.S. government official is violating the inalienable right to travel freely across the Union of states. (See SCOTUS cases.)
- "We'll have to take him down to the station and let the DEA and FBI question him..... we'll find out if you stole this money." - Wow. He's carrying lots of money, so suddenly he's an expected drug dealer or user? We have to involve the DEA??? I guess it's not safe to go on vacation anymore.
"What's Campaign for Liberty?" - that's something that doesn't exist anymore
Like I said before rather than play games with these goose-stepping thugs, I'd simply exercise my Miranda rights and shut up. That's what I did when I was detained in Texas. They wanted to search the trunk of my car. I refused. They held me in the cold night air for an hour asking questions and demanding the trunk be opened, and I refused to talk. Finally let me go. It's bullshit that officers think they can detain a guy on vacation and search his trunk without a warrant. (SCOTUS has confirmed they can not.)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I dunno.. I'm sure those skydivers made up their mind how things are will happen.. and even knowing that they stand a very very very very little change of dying, they can still exhibit Fear.
Also, even if the person in question had completely made peace with the fact they are gonna blow themselves up, what about the fear of being caught -before- being able to do the act? If you rot away in prison and get shivved, you're not a martyr, so you 'wouldn't get your heavenly reward'.. assuming you believe such poppycock in the first place.
The points about anti-anxiety drugs and the fact there will be sooo many false-positives for terrorists means that although this is neat stuff ,they have a long way before being able to put it in airports for practical use as a security measure.
----- The internet has given everyone the ability to have their voice heard equally as loud.. even if they shouldn't be
This is why I drive a car almost everywhere I go. I haven't flown in an airplane since 9/11 - it was a hassle before and now it's even more so.
I recall when I had to make a business trip from Oklahoma City to Minneapolis. My coworkers thought I was nuts when I said I was taking my car, so we had a kind of race. We both left the office early in the morning, and arrived in Minneapolis at about 7 p.m. that night. There was only half an hour difference. Plus I got $700 reimbursement for "car wear-and-tear" whereas they got nothing. Plus I didn't have to deal with airport stress.
I've driven my car everywhere from Alaska to California to Florida to Nova Scotia.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Sufficiently organized malice is indistinguishable from incompetence.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
We have nothing to fear but [the smell of] fear itself.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I searched DropZone.com and found this link: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=2005174;page=2;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; which actually may not work for folks without an account on DZ.com.
As so many posters have mentioned the false positives which will be created by such a nutty idea will be huge. A huge percentage of people are terrified of flying. Even I hate it...unless I'm flying the plane or wearing a parachute.
One of the dumbest applications of physiological response knowledge I've ever read.
Where is my parachute? I want off this the planet.
In away your right, from what I understand suicide bombers aren't even remotely afraid or even consider what they are doing to be anything but gods holy work.
They are people, too. Humans who their religion, peer pressure, status in society (you don't see wealthy businessmen blowing themselves up), etc. has forced to do something horrible. While they are doing something really bad, they are still humans and have emotions.
What do you think that a person thinks before blowing himself up in the middle of a crowd? Among people, some of whom might remind them of their own familymembers, for example? Maybe they have doubts about whether what they are doing is right or not (they have been told that it is right, but is it...). Maybe they are thinking of those family members who the'll never see again but who will be financially provided by the terrorist organization. Maybe they are thinking about surrendering to the officials while knowing that they will be no doubt thrown to jail for the rest of their life (with no fair trial) even if they do so (and their families might starve then). Maybe they are thinking what will happen if they get caught, can't push the button and certainly will neither get to heaven or get their families provided with...
Religious or not, these are humans we are talking about. They might do horrible things when the circumstances force them to but even then, they do have emotions.