Haynes conducted an experiment looking into the determination underlying free will. Participants were put in an fMRI machine and were told they would soon be shown the word ‘select,’ followed a few seconds later by two numbers. While viewing the select word they had to decide whether to add or subtract the numbers and then enter the result of their chosen calculation. A snapshot was taken right after the cue, when they were choosing which calculation to perform; the scans were then used by a computer to guess which action the subject would perform. It calculated correctly 71% of the time ().
In terms of the future, Haynes is thinking of computers that can respond to users thoughts but obviously the idea also has other implications. He expresses opposition it’s use for commercial purposes but think that there could be significant scope for its application in criminal investigations. He argues that opposition to it denies “the innocent people the ability to prove their innocence" and would "only protect the people who are guilty”. However, the moral arguments over such an application are far from as simple as Haynes makes out.
Proven innocence
Firstly, it is totally apparent that this technology would not be limited to mere detection and establishment of the facts. It would only be a matter of time before the argument would be put forward for the predictive aspect of the technology to be used and then there is a whole different argument again; about whether punishing ‘thought crime’ is desirable. By trying to rationalize free will and making it something that is measurable you are in fact gutting it of the essence of what the words are supposed to mean; its very nature means that free will is determined in one moment not predetermined in the previous one. If it was already determined then it would no longer be ‘free’ of constraints.
Article comments
1 - Mark Marks
mindreading technology This group is about the mind reading technology that is going on in schools and Laboratories around the world. This is for real mind reading research only. Not for fake post, but for real research only. This is real tech you may view the home pages of universities etc, cnn, etc if you don't believe the post.
This group is about Subvocal Speech, Brain FingerPinting, BrainGate Chip, FMRI research, and more.
2 - Donald H. Marks, MD PhD
Advances in use of functional MRI to determine issues of truth and deception during interrogation have transformed this technique into applied mind reading. Simple analysis of areas of brain activation alone though is not sufficient for optimum interpretation and extraction of all information from these brain scans. One company â€" Cognitive Engineering, LLC - is pushing the limit of fMRI, making it possible to identify recognition of individuals, specific objects, places and even emotional states. Application areas we can expect in the near future include criminal defense, national security and corporate background investigations. MRI is now being applied to neuroeonomic studies (buying decisions) and even to neuro-political analysis (thought analysis of voter decisions). As imaging power and data analysis methods improve, more specific and detailed information on thought processes including intents will become available. Hopefully, the scenario portrayed in the movie Minority Report will not become reality.
3 - Mikael Dewabrata
recently this kind of discussion made me interested. philip K Dick as a futurist fiction writer had already made assumptions about elements that would occur in future life. MRI is probably the new kind of name about it, the concept itself is beneath the human consciousness told over centuries. law itself is an instrument, a simple one, that social made to prevent everything based on human activity. MRI is the more complicated method to predict, and using psychology, neuroscience, sociology, bla bla.