[extropy-chat] truth machine

[Anders Sandberg]

Jeff Davis wrote:
> So I'm wondering -- assuming really -- is the CIA is using this tech
> in its interrogation protocol?

My guess is that they are funding research and maybe testing it. But it is
not part of standard protocols because 1) MRI equipment is expensive and
requires particular facilities with staff. Not even the Firm has the
budget to put it everywhere, and bussing suspects around to such sites is
troublesome. 2) the method is rather experimental. You really want to know
everything about what it can and cannot do before trusting its results. It
is very similar to the P300 brain fingerprinting idea: without a good
questioning methodology it is pretty useless for finding truth. Of course,
it would not be the first time big agencies spend money and effort on
useless methods that everybody then claims work wonderfully. And as the
various torture scandals have shown, inefficient truth-finding methods are
indeed used.

A far more likely explanation IMHO is that the suspect could tell yet
another Abu Graib/Quran in toilet/whatever embarrasment.

But give them a few years to work. Maybe it is time to get those magnet
implants - or learn to control your anterior cingulate gyrus by
biofeedback.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University