Check out this video on CNN.
Allegedly, this thing (not the thing in the pic, that's just a goofy photo I found on the Web) can sense unconcious feelings we have towards a subject which may be stronger than those we are aware of and/or what we tell other people. I think it was interesting that they were using the machine to gauge people's reactions to the candidates for the presidential election....don't you? There are so many things they could have used the machine for in order to show it working...like a lie detector test for law enforcement or something. Anyway, the current technology definitely takes our permission to work...right? You have to put on a big cap with electrodes and sit there while it measures your body's response. Imagine a future version, though, that could unobtrusively do the same thing....What ends could such technology be put towards? What are the ethical implications of such technology? Since it gauges unconscious thoughts, if it were put to law enforcement purposes it kind of reminds of me of that Tom Cruise movie Minority Report, where they'd catch you for a crime before you committed it.
Allegedly, this thing (not the thing in the pic, that's just a goofy photo I found on the Web) can sense unconcious feelings we have towards a subject which may be stronger than those we are aware of and/or what we tell other people. I think it was interesting that they were using the machine to gauge people's reactions to the candidates for the presidential election....don't you? There are so many things they could have used the machine for in order to show it working...like a lie detector test for law enforcement or something. Anyway, the current technology definitely takes our permission to work...right? You have to put on a big cap with electrodes and sit there while it measures your body's response. Imagine a future version, though, that could unobtrusively do the same thing....What ends could such technology be put towards? What are the ethical implications of such technology? Since it gauges unconscious thoughts, if it were put to law enforcement purposes it kind of reminds of me of that Tom Cruise movie Minority Report, where they'd catch you for a crime before you committed it.
13 comments:
Well this is quite interesting. It makes me quite nervous though. If they do come out with a new and improved version that can measure what you are thinking from a distance, or just without you knowing, it's a little scary. The moral objections to that type of technology will be very strong though. I can't even fathom the things this technology could be used for. Criminals and/or suspected terrorists can be put through this test to see if they are guilty or even if they intend to commit a crime. The machine may actually know before they do. Then again if a suspected terrorist just hates America in general the chart would show negative, but that doesn't really mean they are going to commit a crime or attack. It will be interesting to see where this technology will go in the next few years.
This is a pretty fascinating topic, but also a scary one. I don't know if I like the idea of mind reading when somebody else is doing it. There is something scary about being able to read someones mind before they can read their own. I don't think this kind of technology will ever be used, but I can see it having some role in law enforcement. It might be of good use then but I can already see the controversy from this. You are going to have people who will fight the ethic laws behind this until they get off of their crime. Interesting technology but really scary as well
This idea is kind of scary. I mean for a machine to know what I'm thinking, it really unnerves me. And like the idea that a machine could read my emotions and thoughts, and say catch me before I commit a crime, well...ehh...I don't know, it's just scary. I don't quite like the notion that a machine could know what my unconscious thoughts are. I mean it's bad enough with me in my head, let alone adding a computer.
i heard about this on cnn actually. the thing is, these are all subconscious brainwaves, and i doubt we will ever live in a dystopian society where the government reads our thoughts. i think this is just an instrument to show us more truth to our own opinions, and hopefully allow us to start to understand why we believe what we believe. i think that this new technology will ultimately help us as far as research, but the thing is that there are too many right wing conservatives in the country that a bill for the gov't to legally read people's minds will never pass. The patriot act was a violation of privacy, and people are starting to realize that. that was small compared to this, so if something like the patriot act can't survive in this "liberty-pure" world, i doubt anything beyond it can either.
This seems a little sketchy to me. I find it really interesting, but it also seems really weird. It could be good for getting confessions from criminals, but it could be dangerous if put int the wrong hands. Its kind of weird that it can know what you are going to do before you do it, and could be potentially dangerous to people who have thoughts that they will never pursue. They will still be punished or at least questioned if they have these thoughts. I feel as if it could also be not that acurate with your reactions.
I don't think that it is possible right now (or in the near future) for a machine to 'unobtrusively' read our emotions or body responses. For as far as I think my generation will see, people will have to be at least touching the machine to make it work.
As for ethical use, that's a tough one. This machine sounds like a good idea for a lie detector, but what if it's wrong? I know that they will say it can't be but what about that one girl in the video that was just shown the pictures of the candidates? Take her for example, she was simply shown pictures and the machine read that she 'liked' McCain the most, Clinton the least and Obama was in the middle. Even though the girl said she like Obama and Clinton the most (and the same). Could it simply have been that these were pictures that brought certain memories to mind? Or maybe, because it was just pictures, she finds McCain more physically appealing than the other candidates. Perhaps he reminds her of a friend or loved one. I think these all play a part in our big ol' brain in there and I think that the machine's company should take all of these little things into consideration.
This is very interesting and makes me think of technologies such as lie detector tests. Imagine a futuristic world much like "Minority Report" only every one was equipted with a form of lie detector and could see when other people were lying just in daily conversation. Imagine if people could regonize every single white lie you told throughout daily life. The future truely does hold some bizarre possibilities with technology and what it may be capable of doing.
There will always be advances in technology that worry people at first. The government will never let anything that could affect people as this item does get onto the market. It could be used against them.
This thing seems pretty cool. The future of technology can always be a scary thing to think of. This type of technology can be used for good or bad which can be scary. Think if sometime they make something that can control your thoughts and emotions that would be scary. This stuff is some freaky science.
To me some technology just seems a little to much. I've seen the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report and it just makes me think that technology isn't always right. So in a way it would make me think if it was working, I mean technology messes things up all the time and is definitely capable of messing up so it makes me wonder if we start using technology to do things like read people's thoughts or catching criminals before they commit a crime what are the possibilities of the technology messing up? What are the possibilities that it could be wrong and we weren't thinking that at all, it just seems like it would get a lot of people in trouble for things they didn't even know they were thinking.
I think that this idea scares most of us the way that it does because we simply cannot imagine ourselves putting our trust into a machine. Technology is advancing at an alarming speed, often making us feel as if were taking over us. And in a way, perhaps it is. As dependent as people are on technological advances and devices, it sure seems like we wouldnot be able to get far without it. Furthermore, to let a machine to penetrate a human's mind seems plain unnatural.
Well I guess this is just an easier form of a Polygraph test in the future. I mean we could subject everyone in the whole world to a polygraph every day or twice a day and find out if they even had the idea of killing or committing a crime and that would do the same thing but that's just not efficient and (not yet) legal so if they could get that going more power to them I probably won't be able to stop them even if i didnt agree with it so if you can't beat them join them.
First I would like to start off by saying how much I love the movie Minority Report; I love it a lot.
Second before you even got to the part about how this new technology reminded you of Minority Report I had thought the exact same thing and that is why I don't really like the idea of this machine. I have no idea what this technology could be used for. I don't like how for everyone that they talked to in the clip they said that their brains said the opposite of what they expressed. This has me torn, like maybe everybody in there is a liar, but then again that is not likely to me. Maybe everyone is just reading the machines wrong.
I think that this machine is nice to have and maybe brag about, but I don't think that it should be utilised anywhere for real.
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