[Toshi]

Ok, now this is ridiculous, invasive, a horrible idea, did I mention ridiculous? "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" indeed... because it might get you arrested.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020817-704732.htm

Excerpt:

 Space technology would be adapted to receive and analyze brain-wave and heartbeat patterns, then feed that data into computerized programs "to detect passengers who potentially might pose a threat," according to briefing documents obtained by The Washington Times.

Of course, seeing that I am involved in a study using eeg right now, I can safely say that NASA's goal is way off in the future -- the best we can do is to guess at what areas of the brain are activated, and that tells nothing about thoughts themselves. The concept is simply offensive to me.

EEG data over time from this study -- this is the state of the art :

 

[Tenaciousle0]

that's crazy loco

 

[LeatherFace]

Welcome to our "Brave New World." So I'm assuming that all of the passengers who are nervous to fly due to fear of flying, fear of terrorists, and fear of landing and meeting their future in-laws for the first time would also set this off?

 

[fourgivn1]

In all honesty, I'm not sure if they would.....when I read the story I got the impression that certain brain wave activity 'in line' with the thought processes of terrorists or criminals or such, was the type of activity they're looking for. They would have a whole LOT on their hands if they simply monitor for nervous/scared/afraid people, and slightly imbalanced (mentally) people.

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by fourgivn1
In all honesty, I'm not sure if they would.....when I read the story I got the impression that certain brain wave activity 'in line' with the thought processes of terrorists or criminals or such, was the type of activity they're looking for. They would have a whole LOT on their hands if they simply monitor for nervous/scared/afraid people, and slightly imbalanced (mentally) people.

Do you seriously believe that terrorists really "think different"? (With apologies to Apple's ad agency ) I find that concept ridiculous.

The reason that studies which monitor electrical activity work is that the right handed population is very consistent in its mapping of functions to brain regions. Unless individual thoughts could be discerned (ie, "the eagle will fall tonight" ), which is impossible as far as I can foresee, terrorists and "normals" will appear to think the same. What I imagine they'll be looking for -- shifty eyes, elevated heart rate -- will be common to people scared of flight and terrorists scared of discovery imo.

 

[fourgivn1]

Originally posted by Toshi


Do you seriously believe that terrorists really "think different"? (With apologies to Apple's ad agency ) I find that concept ridiculous.

The reason that studies which monitor electrical activity work is that the right handed population is very consistent in its mapping of functions to brain regions. Unless individual thoughts could be discerned (ie, "the eagle will fall tonight" ), which is impossible as far as I can foresee, terrorists and "normals" will appear to think the same. What I imagine they'll be looking for -- shifty eyes, elevated heart rate -- will be common to people scared of flight and terrorists scared of discovery imo.

I think you missed my point to a degree. To put this another way, yes, I DO think terrorists 'think' different, in some respects. I'm in total agreement with the fact that monitoring for such things as elevated heart rate, shifty eyes, and the like, would be a waste of time, because not just terrorists do those things. However, it's my thought that the majority of Americans, when getting on a flight, are not thinking 'the eagle will fall tonight' *LOL* or 'death to the Great Satan.' I'm of the same opinion as most of the people here - monitoring brain waves is a ludicrous idea.

 

[fourgivn1]

In a somewhat-related post, have you ever seen (and heard of) the 'ad' that the Church of Satan used on their webpage, and other places? The one with Anton LaVey holding an apple (I think) and at the bottom, it says "We think TOO different"? That cracked me up. Apple wasn't too pleased about that, if I remember.