Brain Scanner Can Tell What You're Looking At

palegray.net writes "Wired News brings us an article about brain scanning systems that can accurately tell what you're looking at by analyzing your brain's electrical activity. Using a database constructed of readings taken on test subjects who were shown thousands of photographs, the system works in real time to decipher what you're seeing. Naturally, there are some ethical concerns over some potential applications for this technology. Definitely a new twist on "input devices.""

brains

[losethisurl]

It's amazing how far we've come to understand how our zombie food really works. Think about it, we can chemically alter it with a degree of precision, we can take minutely detailed images of it to determine any number of things, we can influence and stimulate it to any number of ends. Now we're on the verge of seeing each others dreams. I wonder what Tom Cruise has to say about this...

more than ever - Thought Privacy laws

[Bananatree3]

With all the technology in the realm of brain scans, etc., what's to stop some nefarious employer requiring mandatory scans for every employee?

With such powerful technologies, and with such rapid development there's going to be an everpressing need for privacy laws that protect our thoughts, literally.

Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws

[FST777]

what's to stop some nefarious employer requiring mandatory scans for every employee?

Legislation, I hope.

Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws

[ArsenneLupin]

Legislation, I hope.

And, if that fails: baseball bats, assault rifles, small nukes...

ethical concerns

[sm62704]

Naturally, there are some ethical concerns over some potential applications for this technology

Whose code of ethics are they following here? The legal profession's? The medical profession's? The psychiatric profession's? The military's? All these organizations have different codes of ethics. Who's concerned that this may be against their code of ethics?

There are certainly moral concerns.

Re:ethical issues? c'mon ...

[Rob T Firefly]

you're strapped into a machine the size of a room - we're not talking about someone suppreptitiously pointing a camera-sized device at you and reading your thoughts. Yes. that'll be an interesting idea, if and when it becomes a practical proposition.

It's all just a matter of time. Your mobile phone is more powerful than computers which filled several rooms a few decades ago. If we've learned anyhthing about new tech, it's that big bulky impractical stuff will be mobile and practical before we know it, so now we have precious time to consider the fact of such a device's existence and applications before we're presented with it as part of everyday life.

Mod 'im up!

[Anonymous Coward]

probably the only constructive use in the world for the goatse image, and you ignore him?

Dystopia

[Phoenix666]

The government will certainly misuse this technology too, no matter the legal protections. We have something called the Constitution that supposedly protects us against the government spying on us, but we're all seeing how much good that does.

So it's not out of luddism that I hope they belay this advance; rather, I want to wait until we've rebalanced our government and society to ensure our freedom and rights will not be abused.

In the meantime, why not cure cancer? That's an unambiguous good. Go work on that!

Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws

[Bloodoflethe]

IIRC, polygraph tests are illegal in most places of work because they don't work [wisegeek.com], not because of ethical concerns.

Re:I love it

[orielbean]

Or better yet, we work to turn the instruments on those same people. Transparency is key and requires just as much work as enforcing your privacy. Who watches the watchers?

Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws

[pnewhook]

Actually I'm hoping that this technology gets developped even more and is proven to be infallible.

Can you imagine the stinkin' lawyers we'd get rid of? Stick the guy in the brain scanner and ask 'did you rob the store and murder the clerk - yes or no?'. Done. No more blowing a quarter million dollars of my tax money on some trial for a lowlife criminal (or wrongly convicting the innocent).

Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws

[fuzzlost]

what's to stop some nefarious employer requiring mandatory scans for every employee?
Legislation, I hope.

Or common decency from our employers? Oh, right, I forgot I live in the U.S...

Re:Am I the only one who is thinking 1984

[Anonymous Coward]

Of a bigger concern to me would be psychiatric incarceration if you have more than X number of "bad" thoughts in a given period of time. Unlike jail, which has all sorts of rules regarding who goes in there and what they can legally do to get out, people can be commited to a mental institution with very little recourse or legal process.

If the tech was available now to monitor everyone's brain and tell what they were thinking (generally), how many random public shootings (VA tech, Columbine, etc) would it take for the general public to want it to be mandatory?

Re:more than ever - Thought Privacy laws

[DragonWriter]

Legislation, I hope.

Yeah, because workers usually have more clout than businesses when it comes to shaping legislation.

uh

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the proven infallible technology in Minority Report? Can't wait.

Re:And yet....

[Akardam]

And yet they invented it anyway. I guess you could use it to study how the brain processes images, but for the life of me I can't think of a truly beneficial, non-evil application.

Uh, how about research into artificial sight for the blind, or restoring visual comprehension to persons with brain damage? A tool is a tool, an object that is neither good or evil. It's how people use it that's the problem.