Cognitive Liberty & control technology
Recent
advances in nanotechnology, psychopharmacology, brain-wave monitoring
and entrainment, brain implants, and subliminal messaging, offer
examples of technological developments that will impact, for better
and/or for worse, cognitive liberty on both an individual and a larger
social scale. Additionally, current methods of technological
surveillance have moved beyond monitoring the physical self, toward
weaving a more complete web of personal information about both the
exteriors and interiors of us all.
While
networked information technologies can mediate social relations in
positive ways, the trend towards technological convergence in
surveillance applications carries grave consequences for individual
liberties. Understandably, the hostile assaults on the World
Trade Center and Pentagon raise serious security concerns. Alarmingly, however, an ABC News poll on the day after the
attacks (September 12, 2001), found that sixty-six percent of those
polled would be willing to give up civil liberties in order to crack
down on terrorism.
Also, on
the first day of US market trading following the sad human losses of
9/11, stock in face recognition technologies (Viisage Technologies and
Visionics to name a few) went up dramatically while other stocks
plummeted, indicating the favorable push towards more surveillance, more
technologies of control. Just how far will these “security” measures
go?
Eye pupils have long been used by
authorities to determine whether a suspect is, or is not, under the
influence of a drug, but now the eyes can be used to track and determine
identity. If the eyes are the window to the soul, then iris scans could
be said to mark the next stage of invasive oppression into our psyche,
our spirit. Likewise, the face is a window to one’s inner thoughts and
emotions, a window that face recognition technologies threatens to
exploit via a technological (inter)face. And “brain fingerprinting,”
well, its name says everything. To the extent that a barrage of new
technical devices affect thinking and perception, these technologies
can, and should, be considered in terms of their promise as well as
menace to freedom of thought.
See
Also
Brain
Fingerprinting
Mental
Surveillance
Neuroethics
Resources:
Technology vs. Torture
By Harvey Rishikof and Michael Schrage, Slate, Aug. 18, 2004
"Psychopharmaceuticals and brain imaging could make prisoner
interrogation more humane. Should we use them?"
2004 CCLE Policy Report:
Pharmacotherapy & the Future of the Drug
War
Brain
Fingerprinting: Databodies to Databrains
by
Wrye Sententia. Journal of Cognitive Liberties.
Vol. 2, No. 3 pages 31-46
Face
It, They’re Watching You
by
nessie. Journal
of Cognitive Liberties. Vol. 2, No. 3 pages 47-54.
On
the use and Proliferation of Advanced Surveillance Systems
by Patrick Gunkle
Journal
of Cognitive Liberties. Vol. 2, No. 3 pages 55-67.
Cop-Tech.
Journal of Cognitive Liberties. Vol. 2, No. 3 pages 69-82.
Supreme Court Limits Police Surveillance
by
Richard Glen Boire. Journal of Cognitive Liberties. Vol. 2, No. 3
pages 93-108
