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Roberto Garcia

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Device a system that can perform an electrical brain scan from a safe distance in search of electrical patterns that match pre-crime stres

Electrical activity in the human brain can be mapped with the use of certain existing technologies available in medical centers. What if we take this idea and make something that helps to develop an effective method to identify electrical patterns in the brain of an individual that is about to commit a crime or any other type of fault action?
What if a device or long range brain scanning system can be focused on an individual that is visually suspicious, and scan this individual for electrical brain activity that corresponds to a fault action?
Example: Lets imagine an individual enters a public place with an unlawful purpose. And a LRE scan is performed by the system and the readings indicate his/her brain electrical activity corresponds to that of someone that is going to do something wrong. The security personnel rapidly puts an extra eye on that individual. This individual may change mind or in the case he/she acts, authorities will be right there to minimize or totally prevent any damage.
Terminals, malls or any place that gathers people may use this as a tool to help fight outlaws.
Fact: Law offenders have the initiative most of the time. Actually there is no way to predict whether an individual, even with a previous criminal profile, will do something against the law or not.
So if we can identify the specific electrical brain patterns previous to an unlawful action on an individual that enters a store, terminal etc.? Security personnel would have a tool that may give them half or one step ahead of someone that wants to break the law.
This technology would have certain issues about privacy. But the system should be regulated to search for specific electrical brain patterns that correspond to pre-crime stress or any type of activity that indicates non good actions. Will also ease the work and save time for security personnel in airports and other type of terminals or places that gather high numbers of people.
What do you people think?

Topics: Focus on tech innovation future science social change technology
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    Walter Radtke

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    Sep 26 2011: I think a better lie detector would be less a threat to freedom and autonomy.
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    Mike Euverman

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    Sep 24 2011: A fault lies in mirror neurons. Where you experience what we are seeing. If you begin targeting people for considering a crime, then you'll arrest everyone who witnesses a crime as well. Would it end up being that everyone who watches an episode of CSI prior to going to the mail gets labeled a potential criminal?

    I believe our difference in opinion lies in how you feel that only a few people consider crime, while I believe that the vast majority do. Every police officer and anyone who combats crime, is required to consider how a crime occurs, in order to prevent it. You go into a mall, and think about how someone would rob a store, in order to think of ways to prevent that store from being robbed in that way. A scan of our brains wouldn't be able to tell the difference between our intentions.

    • Roberto Garcia

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      Sep 25 2011: Thanks for your comments and yes, you are right, thats why i say that there must be a way to identify a "pre-bad action stress" signal. And not to arrest anyone on that basis but to put an "extra" eye on the subject that shows that signal. Because i think there must be such kind of signal. Some people under certain levels of stress on job or everyday life, experience headaches while under pressure and some of this headaches are "localized" in certain areas. That takes me to the point that in that specific area there is an uncommon level of electrical activity. In the case of the plane hijackers of 9/11, since the moment this guys went out of home with their plan in mind. They were having an uncommon level, type, voltage, or whatever of stress. And if a way to identify such condition can be deviced. A higher number of incidents can be prevented or minimized.
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        Mike Euverman

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        Sep 25 2011: From the way you describe it, you're more likely to see it implemented in airports, rather then malls.

        Full body scans, now with an added feature of mind reading! ...The future scares me.

        Also, you act as if there is a difference been an arrest and an "extra eye", when there isn't. As a society, we judge prior to hearing any evidence. How will the mall cop react, if the brain scanning system picks up the parents of his children's friends? My child, going to a house occupied by people who I know have bad thoughts? Frankly, an arrest would make no difference in peoples minds, as the police require indisputable evidence.

        I've seen it first hand actually. My aunt used to be a 911 dispatcher, and she would not allow her children to hang out with certain other children, as she knew that their parents were dealing drugs out of the house. Yes, it's being done for the protection of our children... but if the brain scan isn't enough evidence to arrest someone, then why would it be considered enough evidence to condemn them.

  • Nicholas Thompson

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    Sep 24 2011: 20 years from now? Maybe. But our limited understanding of the brain right now means that there is no way we could distinguish thoughts or intentions from something like an EEG with any degree of accuracy.
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