Comments on: Future Crimes Can Be Predicted Perfectly, Scientists Say

By: whodat

whodat — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:33:17 +0000

i love pinball
and don’t much appreciate the association of one of my favorite hobbies with such speculative nonsense

hey you kids get offa my lawn, etc.
grrr

By: Swuava

Swuava — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:55:29 +0000

Surely the terrorist just wouldn’t talk…

By: JayKay

JayKay — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:36:22 +0000

EXACTLY!

@Edd says:

Brilliant, except that it’s not guilty knowledge – as demonstrated by the 100% of participants who DIDN”T GO ON TO COMMIT ANY CRIME

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:10:17 +0000

It is open to abuse, of course, and would definitely be abused by those whose job it is to keep us under control.
You only have to whisper the plans into the suspect’s ear before they are scanned.
Unfortunately it is a potential money-earner and some rather unscrupulous types are probably already planning how to sell ‘crime detection and prevention services’ using ‘state-of-the-art scanning technology’ to ‘Protect the hard-working people of the US’ from all the scummy low life peeps and perps that they fear are surrounding them.

A large proportion of crime is a result of economic inequality and environmental factors.

It is blind luck that us fortunates were born in a supportive environment.

Shall we damn them twice?

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:03:00 +0000

While I am not one to defend Fox News (far from it) I believe the article did not say that it could detect whether someone was guilty of something, nor whether they felt guilty about it.
It claimed that it could detect whether the subject had prior knowledge of something they were being shown while in a brain scanner.
For example, a person denies any knowledge of a plot to assassinate Derren, but the police have a set of maps and plans with dates and times.
You plug the perp (hee hee) into the fascist Fox Scanner TM and ask them about a specific detail, for example “have you heard of Mr Magoo’s Chinese Tea Shop and Hardware Store?”. If the suspect knows the place, the scanner would reveal that they are being asked about something they already know.

By: Eric Clyne

Eric Clyne — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:32:11 +0000

Can this system be used by Palestinians to detect when some Israelis are going to come along and steal their home?

By: Walton

Walton — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:25:50 +0000

Have to agree with Eddd. The machine catches people who have not committed a crime with 100% accuracy! That’s great for cleaning the streets of people who haven’t done anything wrong. Then you know everyone else is a criminal! This would need to be tested on people who have actually done something wrong, I would think.

The Fox article does go on to say that they did a second test where researchers had no knowledge of the crime, but apparently in all cases they knew the suspects were guilty. It would also be good to see how it works when some people are innocent. Also, what if I have just cheated on my wife, but am suspected of terrorism? How does that affect guilty waves.

By: roz

roz — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:32:22 +0000

thought crimes, eh> how orwellian.

By: Trevor Doull

Trevor Doull — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:01:02 +0000

“The researchers, who also knew about the mock terrorist plans”

Doesn’t this make it a bit easy to be 100% accurate? Besides that, would the test be able to distinguish between someone planning to blow stuff up and someone planning to cheat on their spouse? Which of those are you more likely to come across when scanning the brain of your average air traveller?

As for the Minority Report comments? That was based on psychics and this isn’t. Psychics don’t exist, and even if we were to credit the Minority Report with any kind of scientific basis, why the hell would the machine etch names on a ball? It would just send an email like every other piece of IT equipment in the world!

By: Ethan Caine

Ethan Caine — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:46:11 +0000

Of course this would be invented in America.