How Technology May Soon "Read" Your Mind

60 Minutes: Incredible Research Lets Scientists Get A Glimpse At Your Thoughts

(CBS)  "Can you through our legal system be forced to take one of these tests?" Stahl asked Paul Root Wolpe.

"It's a great question. And the legal system hasn't decided on this yet," he said.

"But we do have a Fifth Amendment. We don't have to incriminate ourselves," Stahl pointed out.

"Well here's where it gets very interesting, because the Fifth Amendment only prevents the courts from forcing us to testify against ourselves. But you can force me to give DNA or a hair sample or blood even if that would incriminate me. So here's the million dollar question: if you can brain image me and get information directly from my brain, is that testimony? Or is that like DNA, blood, semen and other things that you could take from me?" Wolpe asked.

"There will be a Supreme Court case about this," he predicted.

For now, it's impossible to force someone to have his or her brain scanned, because the subject has to lie still and cooperate, but that could change.

"There are some other technologies that are being developed that may be able to be used covertly and even remotely. So, for example, they're trying to develop now a beam of light that would be projected onto your forehead. It would go a couple of millimeters into your frontal cortex, and then receptors would get the reflection of that light. And there's some studies that suggest that we could use that as a lie detection device," Wolpe said.

He said we wouldn't know if our brains were being scanned. "If you were sitting there in the airport and being questioned, they could beam that on your forehead without your knowledge. We can't do that yet, but they're working on it."

Scary as that is, imagine a world where companies could read our minds too.

Light beams may be a bit far off, but fMRI scanning is already being used to try to figure out what we want to buy and how to sell it to us. It's a new field called "neuromarketing." One of its pioneers is neuroscientist Gemma Calvert, co-founder of a London company called Neurosense.

Asked if she has a lot of clients, Calvert told Stahl, "Yes, such as Unilever, Intel, McDonald's, Proctor & Gamble, MTV or Viacom."

And she says it's a growing field. "What we've seen is a sort of snowballing effect over the last few years. I think there are about 92 neuromarketing agencies worldwide."

[jbarber72001]

Paul Root Wople seems to know alot more about the state of the art then he's describing on this segment. The beam of light that he's refering to is quite real and there are potential negative side effects to these kinds of scans (like blood clots and severe migraines). The real harm here is the abuse of this technology in the hands of authorities who could care less about the sanctity of our thoughts or the preservation of our constituional rights (namely the Fourth Amendment). Wealthy individuals like Jerry Jones (the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and a principal investor in this technology) could care less about the implications of the technonolgy on our lives....he stands to make alot of money from the cellular revolution that is going to occur as a result of this!
John Barber
Denver, CO

[truthislife1]

A computer should never be the deciding factor for a jury to decide guilt or innocence. Too much information can be tampered with. It's purely speculation. There can be mis-readings and it not fair to the defending party. Interesting science though.

[azure13]

Just what we need, more ways for the rich and powerful to run our lives.

Unbelievable... So many better things for scientists to be working on.

[inachu1]

I love stories like this but each and every time these mind reading technologies come out then they go hidden or surpressed or something similar.

Even in the late 1970's or early 1980's There was a TV similar to Nimoy Lenoards tv show "IN SEARCH OF" and then a pbs NOVA report on the advancement of mind reading. The machine would pop up a picture of a cat even before the man said the word noting the machine recorded the signal for the word "cat"

Also it was stated that each humans electric signal for "cat" is different in effect that is like all our brains are different operating systems and each one is unique and you can not have one machine for all minds.

[dovestar]

Maybe we'll really know if liberals think out of the left side of their brains. We already know that liberals are not in their right mind.

[dovestar]

At last! Just what medical transcriptionists need to figure out doctors' dictation. Read his mind! They already know that a doctor's speech is as bad as his penmanship. Now we'll finally know if his brain is just as scrambled.

[dovestar]

Like all technologies this one comes with a mixed bag. Imagine being able to finally communicate with a loved one who is severely mentally retarded. Imagine being able to repair those areas in their brains which caused their retardation. This is something that this technology can lead to.

And that's not all. Imagine those who have been quadrapilegic all their lives. This technology could lead to their possibly leading normal lives like the rest of us. Pretty fascinating, huh?

But as usual, we think more about the sinister possibilities, such as government using this technology to scan our brains and "reprogram" us to the ruling party's way of thinking. Sort of like that device that lets us "see" beneath a person's clothes, now being used in some airports to discover hidden weapons.
The Fifth Amendment says that a person cannot be forced to be a witness against himself. Are you being so forced if you are forced to submit to such a brain scan? Legal scholars will be arguing this one for generations.
Bottom line: we don't trust our government or anyone else for that matter that would use such technology to manipulate us. And we'd better be on our guard, for as Pogo so eloquently said, "We have met the enemy and he is us".

[atlasbuggedbyspam]

Leslie Stahl brings us an important story, yes, but also openly parades her second-rate understanding of philosophy and politics. After regaling us with evidence of how a government might use the new tool - in America, perhaps to prove innocence, and in other nations, it could as well aid murderous repression - she then shrieks: "Scary as that is, imagine a world where companies could read our minds [for marketing purposes.]" Poor Leslie - merchandisers could find out what she wants and then...offer it to her. Oh, the horror!!

[smistretta]

Everyone is over reacting. There is no chance that scientists will ever be able to use FMRI or any other technology to read people's thoughts. The scientist in the story is a materialist and materialism has been refuted.
J. B. S. Haldane said: ?If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motion of atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true. They may be sound chemically, but that does not make them sound logically. And hence I have not reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms."

[apple2pie]

Nice for people who can't read non-verbal language.