The Minority Report scared the heck out of me. Not because of Tom Cruise, who does the job of freaking me out well enough on his own. But because of the sketching of a world where thought is monitored, future intention noted and pre-guilty persons sentenced before breakfast. If I’d known that our planet could look something like that within 10 years I would have had a complete melt-down for sure. Thank goodness 60 Minutes only covered a story on today’s echnological abilities to “read” our minds, this last Sunday.
According to the brightest minds today, neuroscience research internationally is being focused on what we once saw as science fiction. That is, the ability of machines to read how and what we’re thinking. They’re calling it “thought identification.” “Functional” MRI scans are already successful at reporting on brain activity and then relating it to thought ie. whether a person is thinking about one thing or another. This is all thanks to…yes, you guessed it, computer science and today’s technological ability to sort thorough massive amounts of data. Specialists are convinced that within 3-5 years we will be able to diagnose intention, which neuroscientists in Berlin are burning the midnight oil already to conquer. By asking subjects to make a decision between two options, such as to add or to subtract, and then measuring the changes in brain patterns, they believe they can already successfully read intent.
They’re also testing the ability to read from brain activity whether you have been somewhere before or seen something before. The opportunities to use this against our own will are endless. It’s also true that is could help us catch Al-Queda training camp graduates, as they point out. But mainly, it raises a question over ethics and who should have access to this kind of very personal information. Once the only property we could truly call our own, questions are being raised over whether we will have the right to keep our thoughts to ourselves in the not-too-distant future. The fifth amendment which protects us from having to testify against ourselves comes into the equation, and undoubtedly the Supreme Court will have to decide whether brain scans are considered testimonial or defined as DNA extractions, which are involuntary.
Next they will start to measure emotion. Whether we like someone or not, and whether we are having selfish or hypocritical thoughts is something neuroscientists back on US soil claim they have already uncovered via signatures in our brains.
This makes me feel both selfish and hypocritical at once.
And speaking of hypocrisy, is turns out that in India last summer a woman was convicted of murder after an EEG of 
her brain allegedly revealed that she was familiar with the circumstances surrounding the poisoning of her ex-fiancé. Now I am in a mad love affair with India. I love India more than just about any other country I have ever visited. But what struck me as jaw-dropping was how difficult it was to find a computer in a city like their capital, New Delhi. I was struck dumb, blind and stupid by how difficult a task it was to navigate their dial up internet, type on keyboards missing strategic keys (I dare you to attempt an email without an ”enter” key), and on most public computers searching for Skype software drew a flickering blank. India, the largest democracy in the world, is as Michael Woods so ademptly describes in The Story of India ( a documentary running on KQED this month); an incredible blend of a culture and traditions dating back to 70, 000 BCE and simultaneously, a rising economic giant. Now as well known across the globe for their mastery of the digital age as for their ”many-armed gods” and famous spiritual traditions. Now, in the era of globalization, India has again become a leading player on the world stage. Home to more than a billion people and a land of amazing contrasts. With both the high tech brilliance of Bangalore’s Silicon Valley and the ancient spiritual traditions of endless festivals and sacred bathings, India is possibly one of the last civilisations on our planet skidding at a high speed toward the third century while remaining firmly planted in an ancient past.
