Ever wonder what it would be like if the person who you are talking to could suddenly read your true thoughts? I know I have and have been very thankful that my thoughts were my own private treasure trove not open for public scrutiny. Well, that one private area of our lives that we have often thought untouchable by others may become a target of our war on terrorism.
One might wonder why this is necessary since it seems that Homeland Security has done a fairly good job, since 9/11, of securing our borders. In fact, it seems that our nation is employing an increasingly vigilant military personnel as well as private contractors equipped with the latest in cameras and sensors to actively watch our borders. Unfortunately, due to drug supply chains and human trafficking by “coyotes,” the current system is proving costly and often ineffective as sensors are often set off by desert animals. This makes it difficult for border agents to determine if they are going to encounter wildlife, trespassers, or terrorists.
To address this issue and to add an additional level of security for our patrol units, researchers have developed a new technology that relies on a person’s brainwaves. This technology has been designed to prevent the approximately 1,000 false alarms that agents respond to by making it easier to distinguish man from animal.
It has been reported that, in some sectors, sensors generate false reports every hour of the day and night, making it impossible to be vigilant enough to actually detect criminal entry over our borders. In fact, it is easy to see how sitting at a monitor with a view of the monotonous desert terrain would become so boring that an agent’s mind would drift to other things rather than what a particular camera angle was honing in on. Multiply this by mile on mile of border and one can see how providing security could become a huge problem. I know that I can easily see how an operator could miss an illegal entry event or terrorist activity.
This is why the new system has been developed to display images in quick succession along with showing monitored brainwave patterns. Apparently, when the display perceives a human brainwave pattern, the operator will be able to better concentrate on this area of the border, while being empowered to ignore the brainwave patterns associated with animals. In fact, in their studies, researchers have found that the new system eliminates over 90% of false alarms and is able to reliably distinguish human brainwaves from those of animals.
After reading about this new technology and how well it works, it made me wonder about other applications for the technology. On the positive side, I could see how the military could use the technology to locate enemy soldiers or snipers hiding inside of buildings or in rough terrain. I can even see how this technology could be used by police departments to locate suspects hiding in the area.
However, for the conspiracy theorists among us, I can already hear the outcries of Big Brother is watching (or, in this case, listening). In this instance, I can see how they could come to this conclusion, but at some point, one has to decide to trust those in power. In other words, do we want to see our nation, and therefore our borders, protected from terrorist entry, or are we willing to take the chance that a dangerous drug cartel or terrorist group will find a gaping security hole along our border defense? I know I wish that we didn’t find ourselves in this position, but the powers that be feel that the best way to protect us and those who serve us is by patrolling our long borders. As always, I am curious to hear your input, so please feel free to comment.
Source: NBC News FutureTech
CC licensed Flickr photo above shared by zigazou76
I would hope it would only read brain waves and not thoughts. If such technology came to pass which could decypher thoughts, our society as a whole would have to embrace public displays of some of the ripest forms of topics which might make others squeamish, such as sexual fantasies and fetishes, because most people can’t control what pops in their mind at a given moment. Sites and sounds we witness in our environment trigger certain thoughts. Those thoughts would be made public. A lot of patent secrets would be leaked before the inventor has the chance to write them down too. If someone has a brain storm, everyone would know about it. However such technology would really come in handy if used on election candidates.
Interesting article. I’m not even going to comment directly on the main topic:
“at some point, one has to decide to trust those in power” – well that gave me a laugh. Does that make me a “conspiracy theorist”? – in turn, would that make my observations irrelevant, or easy to brush off? Have you ever really thought about this stuff, or do you just blindly take all this abuse of the terrorist angle on board? Of course there are terrorists out there. OTOH the US has been making an extra effort to encourage their existence in the last 12 years – and meanwhile there is so much abuse going on of US citizens by your own government (you now have new rights like the ‘right’ to be assasinated by your government; erosion of your constitution; etc.). I dont consider myself a conspiracy theorist. But I sure dont believe the government