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Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Detector of Choice

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Sat Feb 04, 2006 at 11:48:40 PM EST
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If this ten page article in the New York Times Magazine on brain mapping as the future lie detector doesn't scare the daylights out of you, nothing will.

Someday the Government will try to introduce this in court, claiming it is more reliable than a polygraph. The defense will argue it's unreliable. A court will rule and the losing party will appeal. I wonder how Judge Alito will rule when it reaches the Supreme Court. That's an even scarier thought.

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    Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Detector of Choice | 5 comments (5 topical)
    Re: Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Det (none / 0) (#1)
    by ras on Sun Feb 05, 2006 at 02:51:04 AM EST
    Out of curiousity: the Rightie sites covered this same factoid almost a week ago. Why the Leftie delay?

    Re: Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Det (none / 0) (#2)
    by squeaky on Sun Feb 05, 2006 at 08:22:06 AM EST
    Why stop there? Think of all the money we could save with these nifty devices. We will no longer need relatively high paid judges, police and lawyers. Airport screeners could replace them all. Once a week all citizens, daily for non citizens, would have to go through the screening. All those with a guilty conscious would be culled from the population at large. We would finally be safe. Solomon's amazing lie detector goat may be a more effective and less expensive option.

    Re: Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Det (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 05, 2006 at 08:47:56 AM EST
    Didn't Tom Cruise do a movie about this? I don't remember its name, but in the end, the "moral of the story" was that even if the technology is there, it's too risky and isn't worth the risk to our civil liberties. It wasn't THAT deep, but the message was there...

    Re: Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Det (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 05, 2006 at 05:15:31 PM EST
    Of course someone will market a machine which exploits some of these findings before the science has solidified, and it will be adapted uncritically, just as the polygraph has been. On a side note, the connection of the brain response to sweating is interesting. I've been hearing a lot of mention of sweating as an indicator of suspicious activity, e.g. during the NY transit scare. It so happens that I suffer from hyperhidrosis, or exccessive sweating (http://www.excessive-sweating.net/). I am concerned that I will have more difficulty in the future due to unfounded suspicion.

    Re: Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Det (none / 0) (#5)
    by Edger on Sun Feb 05, 2006 at 06:31:41 PM EST
    All those with a guilty conscious would be culled from the population at large. But how till there is no one left to do the culling? Not very long, I think.

    Brain Mapping: The Government's Future Lie Detector of Choice | 5 comments (5 topical)