Media Mindfulness

Some of you may have seen the film Minority Report (or read the PK Dick book it was based on) about the precog units that can predict future crime. It’s kinda like our foreign policy of preemptive war, except in the later case, it’s more about “bellyfeel” than science. In the article below there is an interesting debate on the ethics of current brain research that claims to predict intentions. There is some fear that this scientific capability is moving us closer to targeted ads that can “brandwash” us. It’s worth a gander, and a ponder.

The brain scan that can read people’s intentions | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited:

The latest work reveals the dramatic pace at which neuroscience is progressing, prompting the researchers to call for an urgent debate into the ethical issues surrounding future uses for the technology. If brain-reading can be refined, it could quickly be adopted to assist interrogations of criminals and terrorists, and even usher in a “Minority Report” era (as portrayed in the Steven Spielberg science fiction film of that name), where judgments are handed down before the law is broken on the strength of an incriminating brain scan.