22 Mar 2007 @ 01:23, by Unknown
Civil libertarians have expressed concern that mind-reading technology may fit into a trend of pre-emptive security measures in which authorities could take action against individuals before they commit a crime.
A scenario explored in the 2002 science fiction film Minority Report :
Like its literary source, Spielberg's foreboding, expressionistic film starts with an engaging plot premise – the social and personal repercussions when people can be convicted of murders before they commit them – and expands the concept into a political warning and ultimately a compelling meditation on the ancient question of whether human beings are predestined to execute certain acts or possess the free will to decide their own fates.
In the past, scientists had been able to detect decisions about making physical movements before those movements appeared. But researchers at Berlin's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience have taken this a step further as they claim they have now, for the first time, "read" people's decisions [as they were taking that decision], about how they would later do a high-level mental activity — in this case, adding versus subtracting.

More about this here and here.
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