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I just read an article in the science section of the NTY that I found very provocative and disturbing- "Scientists Try to Predict Intentions".

The story is this: scientists at Berlin's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience have been studying the MRIs of people engaged in making decisions- at this stage of research the decisions are simple ones- whether to add or subtract two numbers, or which of two buttons to push. These neuroscientists were able to determine that the brain activity associated with decision-making is mostly localized to the prefrontal cortex region; further, by studying the MRI images associated with different intentions ("I will subtract" or "I will push the red button" they were able to identify what they called "thought signatures", patterns associated with addition, subtraction, etc. They claim to have "identified people's decisions about how they would later do a high-level mental activity".

At this point, their predictive accuracy rate is 71%, which is only 20% better than pure chance, but still, what astounding consequences this could have on our somewhat fragile civil liberties. Are the "thought police" far behind? In Britain, the article said, the powers-that-be are already keeping track of  known malcontents (who have not yet committed any crime)as potential future criminals. Throw in some really invasive technology that can identify intentions and you've got a sci-fi situation on your hands. Or a situation from our collective past- the witch trials of Europe or the McCarthy hearings in the US. Just add MRIs! Frightening stuff.

But, to be fair, the article also points out the fact that such resesearch and the technologies it may engender could proved enormpusly helpful for paralyzed people.