These news about a mind reading device have raised quite a few comparisons with Minority Report. But while it does remind me of K. Dick’s novel, I have to say it is for a different reason: more than a critique on preventive policing, I think the book is mainly a defense of free will.
And just as the whole notion of pre-crime goes down the drain as soon as the subject of a prevision fails to commit his crime, I believe the debate over whether there is such a thing as free will or not would also be settled the moment someone does something different than predicted. Which is where something like this mind reading device could come in handy.
Privacy concerns? Don’t really bother me. If polygraphs can’t be used as proof for anything, I see no reason why this would. And you either prove that people don’t necessarily do what they’re thinking – in which case this thing would probably only be useful for psychiatrists -, or that people are predictable 100% of the time, in which case it wouldn’t seem that unjust to use it as a means of putting someone in jail.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.