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posted by
CoolHand
on Monday May 15 2017, @01:58PM
from the you-didnt-just-think-at-me-did-you dept.
from the you-didnt-just-think-at-me-did-you dept.
"Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind," wrote the playwright John Milton in 1634.
But, nearly 400 years later, technological advances in machines that can read our thoughts mean the privacy of our brain is under threat.
Now two biomedical ethicists are calling for the creation of new human rights laws to ensure people are protected, including "the right to cognitive liberty" and "the right to mental integrity".
Scientists have already developed devices capable of telling whether people are politically right-wing or left-wing. In one experiment, researchers were able to read people's minds to tell with 70 per cent accuracy whether they planned to add or subtract two numbers.
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Experts Warn New Computers Could Delete Thoughts Without Your Knowledge
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The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @02:24PM (11 children)
WTF is this shit? Delete thoughts? Get me my Matrix plug first, then I'll worry about computers deleting my thoughts.
Or hell, if a computer could erase my memories of the first 20 years of my life, I'd pay money for the service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @02:50PM
You already have your Matrix plug in. It's just that any memory of it has been removed. :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @02:52PM (7 children)
Seriously though, first twent years is the entire basis of ones personality and experience engine. How would you have learned anything by erasing the entire boot record. For sure i get some peple might need some memories supressed, or even new information implanted, buying a new language would be nice. However wholesale blocks would have to be nothing more than a lobotomy.
Not that 1sigma accuracy is much of a worry, alitle longer til the matrix methinks.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @03:39PM (4 children)
My ex-parents were Christian fundamentalist-extremist assholes who thought Jesus the 5 Star General and Supreme Commander of the Army of the Apocalypse was going to return after the Jews implemented in the New World Order after Y2K (or someshit, I've tried my best to forget without the help of this exciting new technology) and lead a jihad to purge the Earth of infidels.
EF and my folks would probably get along pretty well. Actually not, on second thought. EF is more toned down and culturally sensitive to Judaism than my ex-parents were. Or at least I should say EF's theories about "them Jews!" (a catchphrase of one shortwave radio host) are more rational and actually have a shred of reality in them instead of just being batshit WTF Neon Genesis Evangelion caliber insanity.
THAT is why I want to erase memories of the first 20 years of my life. The only thing those memories have given me is PTSD and a severe hatred of Christianity.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday May 15 2017, @04:12PM (1 child)
Is that you, Brian Flemming [wikipedia.org]?
If not, you might appreciate this [youtube.com]. Here's more information [wikipedia.org] in case you are skeptical about giving up an hour of your life for a YouTube video
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @04:29PM
Thanks for the links. I'm always up for that kind of stuff. I'm an atheist more or less, but the Christian insanity lurks in the dark corners of the mind. I doubt it'll ever be eradicated without that Matrix plug I want.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @04:56PM (1 child)
What or who is "EF"?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @06:14PM
What or who is "EF"?
Just a guess, but I'd say it was our favorite scumbag, Ethanol-fueled [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Monday May 15 2017, @03:54PM (1 child)
The system can still run without the boot record once it's up. The problem only happens when you try to reboot.
(Score: 2) by ticho on Monday May 15 2017, @06:39PM
We all just PXE-boot off our parents anyway, boot sectors are a waste of space. :)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday May 15 2017, @03:27PM (1 child)
then I'll worry about computers deleting my thoughts.
Its not really going to be computers deleting thoughts its going to be wikipedia deletionist style people. Scum of the earth griefers. And thats the good ones in that group.
Also you have to be realistic about this stuff. Much like cryptography there are a lot of people ranting barely off the paranoid end of the spectrum about how every man, woman, child, and the other 43 genders all require 4268017129876 bit public key crypto because we're all in rebellion against the government all the time or we all have secrets that need to be secure for 4320523 years against alien SETI quantum computers whereas mostly what we need to keep secret is that one night stand with a fat chick 25 years ago or that time experimenting with alcohol when I drank about 15 beers then promptly threw up in a urinal. Not the same day BTW. Unsurprisingly after you've experimented with this stuff and had the experience, both beer and 300 pound women lose their appeal. Thank god I grew up before smartphones and antisocial networking, we really knew how to party back then.
Likewise the tinfoil hats are worried that someone will delete their conspiracy theory about Russian Hackers Stealing The Election (and where are they hiding something so large? a backpack? A rather large USB drive? Tupperware?). The reality is most people have to fear capitalism deleting their memories of bell bottom pants, shag rugs, and how much disco sucked because a lot of money can be made off repeating that dumb stuff. Just think of how much money could be made by the right people by deleting all memory of the dotcom bubble so as to do it again. Hey fellow internet kids, I have a sock puppet and a domain name, can I haz $100M?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 15 2017, @03:42PM
Its not really going to be computers deleting thoughts its going to be wikipedia deletionist style people.
Well, crap. So it's just yet another clickbait article meant to troll for a good flamewar about "fake news," then.