[Reader-list] What after MNIC? The MIND, the final frontier.

[Vivek Narayanan]

Dear Kshemendra,

You talk of Sunita Narain being ill-informed and having a superficial 
intellect, and then this--which suggests, to me, how easy it is to pull 
a fast one on you! 

Do you believe this project, in the way it's being promoted in this 
article, has any concrete scientific basis at all?  How close do you 
think our brave scientists are to developing a mind-reading technology?  
And how exactly would they go about telling a non-terrorist brain from a 
terrorist one? 

Perhaps you think that in a couple of years time, Indian scientists will 
be able to plug a couple of electrodes into a suspected terrorist and 
have the story of his life play for them on a screen, like a hollywood 
movie?

Go and investigate what and how much qualified neuroscientists today 
actually understand about the brain and get back to me on this one. 

And I do hope, when they've cracked it, that they don't look into your 
brain and find-- despite your protests-- that you have a little 
terrorist hiding inside.

Thanks
vivek

Kshmendra Kaul wrote:
>  
>
> India developing technology to read terrorist's mind
> Agencies Posted: Apr 07, 2009 at 1255 hrs
>  
> Bangalore In what could help building better strategy for anti-terror mechanism in the country, the Department of Science and Technology is facilitating a group of bright scientists to develop a complex human cognitive technology which would allow reading the mind of a terrorist. 
>  
> At the same time, scientists are also developing sensors that would detect hidden devices. As many as 30 groups are involved in the initiative, part of homeland security, said Secretary in the Department of Science and Technology, T Ramasami. 
>  
> The idea is to integrate the technology and sensors to nail down terrorists, he said. 
> The Department is funding the programme, which has been taken up on a consortium model, Ramasami said, adding, he is requesting Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to lead the teams. 
>  
> "People who understand language, linguistics and people who look at nuclear magnetic resonance...they have come together to really understand the human cognition associated with the linguistic language processes in the mind," he said. 
>  
> "This would really involve people from highly different disciplines including social sciences and humanities to people who understand physics in this mechanism." 
>  
> http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/India-developing-technology-to-read-terrorists-mind/444166/
>  
>
>
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