The Lie Detector That Scans Your Brain
The idea of monitoring brain waves isn't new. Scientists have long known that
certain recognizable waves occur when people are surprised, pleased or
frightened. But recently the technique has become much more precise. At Brain
Fingerprinting Laboratories, a company in Fairfield, Iowa, the chief
scientist, Lawrence Farwell, interrogates suspects by checking their EEG's for
''P300 waves.'' These waves are produced when the brain encounters words or
images that it recognizes; thus the police, Farwell claims, can present a
suspect with information that only a criminal would know and see if the brain
recognizes it.
Farwell's technique recently shot to prominence when he scanned Terry
Harrington, a convicted murderer trying to win a new trial. Harrington's brain
did not betray recognition images from the crime scene but did react to scenes
from his alibi - which suggested he was actually innocent. Still, the
technique remains controversial, and many have argued it could be as faulty as
the polygraph (though the judge in the Harrington case accepted the brain scan
as evidence, he turned down the appeal for a new trial). Farwell's strategy
also raises longstanding cognitive questions about the fickle nature of
memory. Just because someone doesn't remember crime-scene details doesn't mean
he or she is innocent.
Full text
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/09/magazine/09LIEDETECTOR.html
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Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment, malevolent AI,
non-sensory experience, SETI
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
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