Those security cameras we see popping up everywhere from shopping center parking lots to schools to downtown public areas are turning into something more than simple video surveillance. Integrated with computer software that can analyze streaming video, brain monitoring devices will soon give security guards and police the ability to be instantly notified of any activity that is considered suspicious according user defined parameters.
Computer scientists are constantly striving to breach the next level of sophistication in any application and security is no exception. Providing police with the ability to detect a person who is particularly nervous, in possession if guilty knowledge or to detect a person thinking “Only one hour before the bomb explodes” could lead to either a more secure living environment where everyone feels vastly more secure or it could be the next evolutionary step towards realizing George Orwell’s Big Brother prediction.
Either way, we need to address the ethical and legal issues that this developing technology will present to our personal safety and civil liberties while our thoughts are still considered our own.
As the experts argue about the scientific limitations of remote brain detection, science fiction is becoming reality. In 2002, the Electronic Privacy Information Center reported that NASA was developing brain monitoring devices for airports and was seeking to use noninvasive sensors in passenger gates to collect the electronic signals emitted by passengers' brains. That same year, scientists at the University of Sussex in England adapted the same technology to detect heart rates at distances of up to 1 meter, or a little more than three feet, to remotely detect changes in the brain. Clearly the question is when, not if, these issues will be resolved.
Another remote brain-activity detector uses light beamed through the skull to measure changes in oxygen levels in the brain. Put enough faith in the accuracy of these advanced abilities coupled with the heightened paranoia that stems from the current atmosphere of terrorist activity and it is easy to see how any nervous person could be mistaken for a terrorist suspect.
Scientist are working toward understanding the relationship between mental states such as perception and intention. We already know that different EEG frequencies are associated with fear, anger, joy and sorrow and scientists can tell from brain images in the lab whether a test subject was envisioning a tool such as a hammer or a screwdriver or a dwelling, and to predict whether the subject intended to add or subtract numbers. Now they are conducting studies on decoding visual imagery in the brain to more accurately predict persons intentions.
It is not far fetched to believe that when you are scanned by one of those many security cameras, police will now have justification to interrogate you and then arrest you for intent based on their interpretation of your brain waves.
Each incident of violence, such as the student shootings last year at Virginia Tech or more recently at Northern Illinois University, persuades police and the general public that the pursuit of this technology is worthwhile. But there will always be the fear that the police will abuse the technology and that likelihood is not far fetched either.
This government has proven the lengths it will go to, legal or otherwise, in its pursuit of ferreting out any links to suspected terrorist activity. Is it unlikely that this technology will be used to control the masses?
A dangerous environment of increased paranoia toward police and individuals is taking shape. Perhaps the people with the tin-foil hats had it right all along.
I suppose it is human nature to want to improve upon any system we can devise. But is reaching into our minds and intercepting our thoughts really for the common good?
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