[IP] Please place your brain on the ink pad and then roll it slowly to the right:

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Please place your brain on the ink pad and then roll it slowly to the right:
A new technology called "brain fingerprinting,"
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&amp;cid=594&amp;ncid=594&amp;e=2&amp
;u=/nm/20030211/hl_nm/brain_fingerprinting_dc>  which works by analyzing the
spikes in electrical activity in the brain when it responds to something it
recognizes, may someday become the next big thing in intelligence gathering.
"From a scientific perspective, we can definitively say that brain
fingerprinting could have substantial benefits in identifying terrorists or
in exonerating people accused of being terrorists," says Lawrence Farwell,
the neuroscientist who developed the technique. Brain fingerprinting has
already been used to help solve at least two murder cases. Still, skeptics
dismiss it as ineffective. "It's pure snake oil," Barry Steinhardt, who
directs a technology program for the American Civil Liberties Union, told
Reuters. "There's no evidence you can determine evil intent or anything else
from brain fingerprinting. It's the 21st century version of the lie detector
test, which also doesn't work very well." 

-------------------------------------
To unsubscribe or update your address, click
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/