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Cognitive
Liberty & Mental Surveillance
The principle of
mental sovereignty and cognitive
liberty is predicated on the idea that one’s thoughts are
one’s own, that the surreptitious control or outright manipulation of an
individual’s mind marks an unacceptable invasion of mental privacy, and
necessarily cramps freedom of thought by discouraging the production of
new ideas via coercive psychological threat. Much in the same way that
employee drug testing acts to control employee behavior, surveillance in
general, affects the way people act. With mental surveillance, the
question becomes how your thoughts do or don’t “behave” and how
thinking is indirectly controlled under the auspices of surveillance.
Presently, cognitive liberty is threatened by one important new
technology that makes possible mental monitoring:
 Brain Fingerprinting
"Brain
Fingerprinting," a computer-based method of memory detection, and its
use in a small number of criminal cases, have significant implications for
cognitive liberty. In the aftermath of 9/11, Brain Fingerprinting
has received fresh billing from its advocates and endorsements by
researchers, politicians and the media as a potential anti-terrorist
screening measure. Bandwagon endorsements of Brain Fingerprinting ignore
the potential threat to freedom of thought posed by requiring a
person to have his or her memories "read" by such a device.
According to its
developer, Brain Fingerprinting is designed to determine whether an
individual recognizes specific information related to an event or activity
by measuring electrical brain wave responses to words, phrases, or
pictures presented on a computer screen. The technique can be
applied only in situations where investigators have a sufficient amount of
specific information about an event or activity that would be known only
to the perpetrator and investigator. In this respect, Brain
Fingerprinting is considered a type of Guilty Knowledge Test, where the
"guilty" party is expected to react strongly to the relevant
details of the event or activity.
Existing (polygraph) procedures for assessing the validity of a suspect's
"guilty" knowledge rely on measurement of autonomic arousal
(e.g., palm sweating and heart rate), while Brain Fingerprinting measures
electrical brain activity via a fitted headband containing special
sensors. Brain Fingerprinting is said to be more accurate in
detecting "guilty" knowledge distinct from the false positives
of traditional polygraph methods, but this is hotly disputed by
specialized researchers.
Brain Fingerprinting Website
http://www.Brainwavescience.com
Identifying Terrorists Using Brain
Fingerprinting
http://www.skirsch.com/politics/plane/ultimate.htm
After
September 11th’s sad events, national security measures that
would effectively identify would be terrorists and that might prevent
similar attacks in the future are gaining attention. Most visibly, among
the various measures being put forward are the use of devices that check a
person's identity by monitoring biometric identifiers as fingerprints,
retina, or facial patterns.
Steve Kirsch goes
one step further in regards to airport security, and argues for the use of
Brain Fingerprinting in combination with biometric information databases
to establish each passenger’s identity and identify potential terrorists
before boarding planes.
Kirsh is actively raising money to persuade the FBI to build a test
version of such a system.
Brain Fingerprinting as
Counter-Terrorist System
http://www.brainwavescience.com/counter-terrorism
Brain
Fingerprinting as a counter-terrorist system that could be used to
determine whether a person has "critical information regarding
terrorist organizations, training, and plans that an innocent person does
not have."
Decoding Minds and Information Injection
http://cartome.org/brainmap.htm
Brain
Fingerprinting as a viable method of mind reading, one that should be
available to military and law enforcement in order to ascertain probable
cause, not to investigate cases where probable cause is already
established. Also, addresses the possibilities of hostile enemy
"information injection" and the need for US "knowledge
warfare protection systems."
The CCLE is
opposed to compulsory Brain Fingerprinting because it threatens cognitive liberty and
violates the sanctity of the mind. Compelled
Brain Fingerprinting intrudes on the individual's right to mental privacy,
it should not be
mandated by courts, governments, corporations, or any other institution.
US General
Accounting Office Report (October 2001)
This federal
report looks at the viability of brain fingerprinting for application in a
number of government agencies. The consensus among those interviewed
for the report is that brain fingerprinting has limited applicability and
usefulness in agency screening matters.
European Parliament Report on
Interception Capabilities 2000
http://www.iptvreports.mcmail.com/interception_capabilities_2000.htm
A
year 2000 report on the worldwide development of surveillance technology
and risk of abuse of economic information.
Society for Neuroscience on Brain Wave
Deception Research 2001
http://web.sfn.org/content/Publications/BrainWaves/PastIssues/2002spring/index.html
In this report, scientists using the brain imaging technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI), detected a difference in brain blood flow activity during intentionally deceptive and truthful
statements.
Brainwave Sciences' Amicus brief
in Support of Terry Harrington
Brief by inventor of brain fingerprinting arguing that results of test
were reliable, and support Harrington's murder alibi.
PBS
"Innovations" Brain Fingerprinting Episode
Episode 8 of the PBS series "Innovations" takes balanced view of brain
fingerprinting. Focused mostly on the science, with minimal consideration
of the freedom of thought implications.
NASA Teams up
with Northwestern
After two years, the public has finally learned that Northwest Airlines
did indeed give the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
sensitive consumer data for use in a bizarre research program that
combined data-mining and "brain-monitoring" technology.
Brain Fingerprinting Fails First Court Test
in Iowa: Evidence admitted but Does not Convince.
From Forensic-Evidence.com
The Deceit
Detector
Scientist develops infrared-based brain imaging device. MIT Technology
Review (June 2003)
The
guilty mind What if a brain scan could catch a murderer?: 'Brain
fingerprinting' measures neural response to images from a crime scene.
Ethicists fear it as a new tool of social control
Brad Evenson, National Post, February 08, 2003
John Norseen: Reading your mind
- and injecting smart thoughts
"Buck Rogers, meet John Norseen. Like the comic-strip hero, a 20th
century man stuck in the 25th century, Norseen feels he’s not quite in the
right time. His brain-research ideas are simply too futuristic. And he
admits his current obsession seems to have been lifted from a Rogers saga.
The Lockheed Martin neuroengineer hopes to turn the “electrohypnomentalophone,”
a mind-reading machine invented by one of Buck’s buddies, from science
fiction into science fact."
Would You
Mind If We Fingerprint Your Brain?
By Dave McGowan
Biology of Deception
New York Times, July 9, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/09/science/sciencespecial/0709LIE.html?tntemail0
Can Computers Read Your Mind?
Tech TV, May 30, 2002
http://www.techtv.com/news/computing/story/0,24195,3386341,00.html
Medical Detection of False Witness
http://insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=163049
Decoding Minds and Information Injection
http://cartome.org/brainmap.htm
Identifying Terrorists Using Brain
Fingerprinting
http://www.skirsch.com/politics/plane/ultimate.htm
Brainwave Sensor Touted as Tool in
Counter-Terrorism
http://www.neurotechreports.com/pages/brainfingerprinting.html
Brain fingerprinting: What you thought,
what I meant
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2816429,00.html
Brain-scans can defeat terrorism,
InfoSeek founder claims
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/22020.html
Brain's Telltale Chart (Science & Technology Section)
http://www.worldpress.org/0202toc.htm
Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC)
http://www.epic.org
Privacy Foundation
http://www.privacy.org
The Cato Institute
http://www.cato.org/tech
The Rubber Hose
http://www.rubberhose.org
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