Imagine a world of streets lined with video cameras that alert authorities to any suspicious activity. A world where police officers can read the minds of potential criminals and arrest them before they commit any crimes. A world in which a suspect who lies under questioning gets caught immediately because his brain has given him away.
Though that may sound a lot like the plot of the 2002 Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report," it's not science fiction: We're not so far away from that world. But does it sound like a very safe place, or a very scary one? It's a question we should be asking as the federal government invests millions of dollars in emerging technology aimed at detecting and decoding brain activity. Though government funding focuses on military uses for these new technologies, they can and do end up in the hands of civilian law enforcement and in commercial applications.
As spending continues and neurotechnology advances, that imagined world is no longer the stuff of science fiction or futuristic movies, and we postpone at our peril confronting the ethical and legal dilemmas it poses for a society that values not just personal safety but civil liberty. More...
See also: ‘Big Brother’ database for phones and e-mails...
And this: Microchips Everywhere: a Future Vision...
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