

Brain scans predict which criminals are more likely to reoffend - ananyob
http://www.nature.com/news/brain-scans-predict-which-criminals-are-more-likely-to-reoffend-1.12672

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biggfoot
Quoting:

Wager adds that the part of the ACC examined in this study “is one of the most
frequently activated areas in the human brain across all kinds of tasks and
psychological states”. Low ACC activity could have a variety of causes —
impulsivity, caffeine use, vascular health, low motivation or better neural
efficiency — and not all of these are necessarily related to criminal
behaviour.

Something tells me this will be completely ignored in any future reports.

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qwertzlcoatl
The word 'likely' renders this technique useless.

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Aqueous
It is not in your best interest to be a criminal.

So why are people criminals?

We have to give up this silly notion of free will. The more we learn about the
brain the more it turns out to be a fantasy.

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mpyne
> We have to give up this silly notion of free will. The more we learn about
> the brain the more it turns out to be a fantasy.

If you're right, there's no possible way for us to "give up" this notion...
it's predestined to end up whichever way it ends up and we're just cogs in the
machine.

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Aqueous
Free will and self-awareness are different, but we seem to confuse them a lot.
We are a cognitive agent and can know many different kinds of facts. Our lack
of free will is just another fact that we might become aware of.

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mpyne
> Our lack of free will is just another fact that we might become aware of.

Sure, but even if it's a fact there's no use arguing about giving up the
notion of free will because it's not under "our" control whether we will or
won't, no matter how self-aware we might be.

Self awareness is the easy part. I can run lm_sensors on my box at home to let
the computer know about its own motherboard temperature and many other things,
but it's still not a cognitive machine.

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Aqueous
Right, I agree. It is not our decision when we collectively stop thinking we
have free will. It might not happen at all. When I say "We ought to" I really
only mean that facts point in one direction, and our beliefs point in another,
and whenever they become aligned we'll be better off.

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DamnYuppie
I agree with many of the quotes below in that this his findings only state
they are more "likely" to commit another crime.

I wonder if the lower activity in the ACC isn't a factor in them committing
another crime but in them being caught? To put it bluntly they don't have a
lot going on upstairs so they will do something very dumb, where as a criminal
with more cognitive capacity would likely take longer to slip up.

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ananyob
"In a twist that evokes the dystopian science fiction of writer Philip K.
Dick, neuroscientists have found a way to predict whether convicted felons are
likely to commit crimes again from looking at their brain scans. Convicts
showing low activity in a brain region associated with decision-making and
action are more likely to be arrested again, and sooner."

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liberte9
This reminds me of phrenology.

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illuminate
With enough investigation, I'm sure it'll be just as useful.

