The days of lies are numbered
Lie while you can, because technology may soon make lies untenable.
fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) will soon allow a scan on a person's brain, which can tell if they are lying. The areas of the brain related to emotion, conflict, and cognitive control, the amygdala, rostral cingulate, caudate, and thalamus, become highly active when lying, but remain relatively inactive when telling the truth. This difference can be measured during an fMRI brain scan and are visually evident in the resulting heat map of the brain.
As things stand right now, the technology is no doubt somewhat clumsy, hard to administer and expensive. But that will change in coming decades and generations.
Imagine this future, where fMRI declarations are as easy and cheap as an ATM transaction. The IRS just asks you to declare, under fMRI, that you've paid all the taxes you owe.
When there is a crime, the perpetrator is found easily by asking every suspect, under fMRI, if they did it. No one gets away with a crime for long if everyone is asked to declare annually, under fMRI, that they have not broken the law. A bit like filing one's annual tax return. Maybe it will just be added to the tax filing fMRI. "Did you declare all your income?" And by the way, "have you committed any crimes we don't know about?"
But forget past, this technology could allow societies to control the future through managing intentions. Individuals on probation could be regularly asked, under fMRI, "do you have any intention to commit a crime in the future?" If they reveal an intention they can be put back in jail.
With a future like this Americans must be especially happy to have the Fifth Amendment, protecting them from being asked to incriminate themselves.
The technology could change social and work interaction as well. Prospective employers could ask, "if we offered you less, would you still be willing to take this job?" "Did you do your best?" Partners could ask, "have you cheated on me?" "Do you love me?" "Do I look fat in this?"
Inevitably, this technology will not work on some people, either through disposition or intent. I can imagine Woody Allen types who are so neurotic, that they fail every questions, even when they are telling the truth. Others might deliberately game the system by always lying to some degree, so nothing can trusted as the truth. Always commit some petty crime that can't be pinned on you. Become devoutly Buddhist, kill an ant, and start to believe that is murder. Being a pathological lyer might become the ultimate social protest against The System.
See Also
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.01/lying.html.
NoLieMRI
Cephos
Comments