I’ll be worried when they get this to reliably work at a distance. Imagine flashing a sign that says, “Did you commit a crime?” then being scanned by a device that detects you subconscious answer before cops swoop in to grab you for the wrong answer. Or worse, “Are you going to commit a crime today?” Precrime, indeed.

India’s use of brain scans in courts dismays critics

The new technology is, to its critics, Orwellian. Others view it as a silver bullet against terrorism that could render waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods obsolete. Some scientists predict the end of lying as we know it.

Now, well before any consensus on the technology’s readiness, India has become the first country to convict someone of a crime relying on evidence from this controversial machine: a brain scanner that produces images of the human mind in action and is said to reveal signs that a suspect remembers details of the crime in question.

For years, scientists have peered into the brain and sought to identify deception. They have shot infrared beams through liars’ heads, placed them in giant magnetic resonance imaging machines and used scanners to track their eyeballs. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has plowed money into brain-based lie detection in the hope of producing more fruitful counterterrorism investigations.

The technologies, generally regarded as promising but unproved, have yet to be widely accepted as evidence — except in India, where in recent years judges have begun to admit brain scans. But it was only in June, in a murder case in Pune, in Maharashtra State, that a judge explicitly cited a scan as proof that the suspect’s brain held “experiential knowledge” about the crime that only the killer could possess, sentencing her to life in prison.




  1. Thinker says:

    Oh, yah…No way this doesn’t end badly. Where does one begin??? Shall we use the bumps on her head for independant verification???

  2. JimD says:

    “Some scientists predict the end of lying as we know it.” – THEY ARE LYING !!!

  3. bobbo says:

    And we still even today have trouble with politicians not releasing their tax returns.

    #1&#2==you can tell you are a luddite when you . . . . .

  4. Mike D says:

    The next step is to impose artificial programming on a subject (unwilling or not, who cares). After all we must have a safe and secure country. Our government will do what is best for us. All we need do is give our blind obedience.

    Gee . . . I love this world . . . NOT!

  5. The Monster's Lawyer says:

    If you wear a tin foil hat this stuff won’t happen. Having shoes made of baggies doesn’t hurt either.

  6. Springheel Jack says:

    “Gee…I love this world…NOT!”

    Is there an alternative?

  7. Ah_Yea says:

    I just use my crystal ball. It always gives the answer I want and is just as good as any brain scan…

    And if I can’t find my crystal ball, my Magic 8 Ball will do just fine.

  8. Paddy-O says:

    “and the resulting brain images are processed using software built in Bangalore.”

    Good for finding people who hold up 7-11’s. LOL

  9. edwinrogers says:

    I heard an American court accepts evidence produced by simulated drowning and electrical torture. This renews my faith in good old fashioned Indian justice.

  10. Nimby says:

    # 2 JimD said: “Some scientists predict the end of lying as we know it.” – THEY ARE LYING !!!

    Of course, they are. But not in the way we know.


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