
Mind reading and mind control technologies are coming - laurex
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/mind-reading-and-mind-control-technologies-are-coming/
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nullc
Many states have laws that protect employees from being subjected to polygraph
(e.g. CA LC 432.2 ).

It would be good to get these new technologies comprehensively covered by laws
like this before they're commercially viable (and thus have spending to oppose
laws against them).

In particular, I think it is really important to establish that fMRI/MEG
gathered evidence be barred by fifth amendment protections against self-
incrimination, and that their use for employment get treated like polygraph.

Beyond the obvious problems with mind reading working, the complexity of these
systems means that there is a considerable amount of non-transparency in their
operation. We have enough trouble making firmware for breathalyzers that won't
lead to wrongful convictions.

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causality0
It saddens me that modern medical researchers seem to fall into one of two
categories: those who will happily make ten thousand people shit out their
lungs in exchange for some seasonal allergy relief, and those who would rather
let ten thousand people die in hospital beds than risk a trial that may not
produce results.

In my opinion we desperately need to embrace the middle ground. The "move fast
and break things, so long as you have very well-informed consent" approach. I
have a lot of friends who would happily get an experimental needle in the
brain, because it's a lot better than having to fight not to put a shotgun in
their mouth.

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ColanR
Why should we assume the consent will be well-informed? If what you ask for
was accomplished tomorrow, then in 15 years you'd be back on this site
lamenting how patients were misled by their doctors into treatments that had
horrifying results, and that we need better regulation of what experimental
treatments doctors are allowed to administer. Maybe there'd be an anecdote
about a desperate low-income family with no other options.

And, by the way, we already have systems in place for experimental treatments.
There's a reason why it's hard to get in, and why it's hard for doctors to be
allowed to administer the treatments: because doctors (and the
megacorporations funding the research) aren't always moral. Sometimes they
"will happily make ten thousand people shit out their lungs in exchange for
some seasonal allergy relief" and sometimes they "would rather let ten
thousand people die in hospital beds than risk a trial that may not produce
results".

The "move fast and break things, so long as you have very well-informed
consent" approach is a great way to take advantage of desperate people.

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andai
Mary Lou Jepsen (One Laptop Per Child) is working on a hat-size device that
uses infrared holography to read and write the activation of individual
neurons.

It also doubles as a cheap, portable "MRI".

[https://www.ted.com/talks/mary_lou_jepsen_how_we_can_use_lig...](https://www.ted.com/talks/mary_lou_jepsen_how_we_can_use_light_to_see_deep_inside_our_bodies_and_brains)

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mistrial9
One Laptop Per Child fiasco -.. I fixed it

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friendlybus
Believing mind reading and mind control is possible can lead to bad behavior
and mental illness in some people. I'm all for the research of electrical data
in the brain, as described. The cutting out of the gut biome and liquid
signalling systems in the brain, among other influences that contribute to the
mind, means you do not see the full picture of what you are attempting to
control. Which is fine for progress and terrible for building beliefs about
the world.

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anonymous_fun
Wow, literally this comment made my stomach hurt. Now I am going to have to
meditate on happy thoughts and hope the mind control will be used to keep the
gut and mind happy.

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aaron-santos
From the article >We need to figure out the ethical implications before they
arrive

What are some example technologies where we figured out the ethical
implications before they arrived? I'm struggling to name even one.

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friendlybus
Robots? We are constantly bathed in robot killing the world fiction where
Isaac Asimov attempted to lay down laws of robotics, the terminator evolved
into not killing civilians. The military and industrial sector have been
discussing automated equipment for years before it arrived.

We have done the same with self driving cars, though it depends on where you
draw the line on implemented.

A lot of these ethical questions get tied up in institutional processes that
are not public.

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carapace
(See also José Delgado:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Manuel_Rodriguez_Del...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Manuel_Rodriguez_Delgado))

Who owns the mental models/processes once we can extract and implant them?
(...in light of patents on software.)

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zipwitch
Should we be calling this branch of science electrophrenology?

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EamonnMR
I think that the shocking thing will be how little is really going on in
there.

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willart4food
I know what you're thinking . . .

