I recently read a fantastic article in The Economist: Put Your Thinking Cap On: Brain Waive Controllers.  As part of the quarterly technology report, The Economist details some of the amazing advances in devices that read your brain waves.  These technologies are empowering and fun today, but where will they be in 20 years and how will society use them?

In The Beginning

On the positive side, people with severe disabilities find a new degree of freedom through their thoughts.  While still in its infancy, software coupled with an EEG (see image) allows completely paralyzed victims to communicate at 10 characters per minute with thought alone.  A Star Wars toy lets kids become Jedi and float a ball using nothing but focus.  Another helps athletes by measuring their concentration while in the middle of critical moments, such as a golf swing.

Pandora’s Box

The use that has really opened up Pandora’s Box is used with prison inmates:

On a more serious note, earlier this year Myndplay games and interactive films were used as part of a scheme to reduce reoffending rates and anti-social behaviour among prison inmates aged 18 to 25. “We found it to be an excellent tool to show them how they can develop greater control over their thought processes,” says David Apparicio…

I agree that this is an excellent use for the technology.  Helping young inmates control negative emotions through realtime feedback sounds incredibly positive.  Now, don’t take this as a “slippery slope” argument (I hate those),but I find it interesting to imagine how such technology could find its way into other parts of the justice system especially in 10-20 years when images or memories could be interpreted…

Pleading the 5th

As a defendant in the US, you have the right to refuse to answer any question if you believe the answer may be incriminating.   A concept that dates back to the Magna Carta, this legal protection helps prevent abuse of power and ensure due process.  However, the amendment is facing some fresh challenges in a digital age already.  Many defendants are pleading the 5th when ordered by courts to disclose their passwords to decrypt files.  This NPR story highlights one recent case.  Prosecutors say it is the same as a physical key that defendants would be obligated to turn over today while defendants claim protection from self incrimination.

So how could more advanced mind reading technology play into this?  Consider a similar analogy: if you took a picture with your camera of the crime scene, that picture could most certainly be used as evidence.  What if that picture instead is extracted using software and an EEG from your brain?  Would this count as self-incrimination?  What if you refused to allow the brain scan or it was taken while you slept, almost like a wire tap?

Brain Search Warrants

With probable cause, the police may use search warrants and take evidence such as drugs, computers, or files to court.  They can tap your phones or read their email given proper authorization and cause. But what about the information in your head?  Your knowledge of a crime sits right there in the gray matter.  Could law enforcement be one day allowed to execute a search warrant on your brain?  Of course this sounds far-fetched, but so did enabling a paralyzed woman to communicate using nothing but thoughts 10 years ago.

Exonerated

DNA evidence has been instrumental in freeing hundreds of falsely imprisoned citizens.  Could brain scans do the same thing?  Something as emotional as murder will surely leave a big scar in your psyche.  So if that scar were missing, could you be set free?  While not likely to be an easy path to freedom, brain scans could help separate the innocents from the liars.

Your Ideas! There are many untold uses for brainwave readers in the next 10 or 20 years — these are just a few!  What ideas do you have?  I promise I won’t steal them ;)

Note: some of these musings may also have been marinating in my brain with this Wall Street article: Why Software is Eating the World.