Suvudu Universe

It's a nice Fall evening in 2047 and you're planning on meeting a friend for dinner. You're on your way to the restaurant in a bustling part of town where you'll meet her, when a stranger approaches you on the street, asking if you'll give money to a charity they're collecting for. They start with a little guilt trip about how you probably live a life with some discretionary income and luxury, while some children in this world are still starving. You're not sure how you feel about this. Sure, they have a point, but are you supposed to give everything extra you have to charity? Are you really sure this guy is representing a charity like he claims? When suddenly you feel your thoughts shifting; your guilt becomes more pronounced. You find yourself fixated on what he said about starving children, while your biggest personal concerns now seem utterly trivial by comparison. Suddenly you realize there's only one right choice, you get out your phone and hand it to the man so he can access your debit app. You tell the man to take a pretty hefty donation.

Later you're at the restaurant, you meet your friend at the table she's sitting at and after you sit down you began telling her about this encounter. You tell her you're not sure why you had suddenly felt such a compulsion to give, something just overtook you. She asks if you feel like you're sure the guy really was representing a charity because she's heard of a new scam: a person claiming they're with a charity isn't, and actually has a small device on their personage that literally reads the mind of the person they are talking to and shoots magnetic energy at it to get that mind in a highly guilt-conscious framework.

 

As I wrote about in Part 1 of this blog post, the technology for machines to read the brain may not be some far off idea, purely in the realm of science fiction. In fact the technology to read the mind very precisely may exist in just a few decades. While this technology could have wonderful uses like clinical treatments for those with mental disorders, it could also have many dark implications that come to mind. Even more insidious than the progression toward technology to read the mind could be the technology to change the mind. Don't take my word for it, see this video from PBS's fascinating NOVA series. 

This video presents the technology in a lighthearted way, but the implications are both seriously promising and terrifying. As explained in the video, electricity and magnetism are really just two different forms of the same thing, therefore a powerful magnet in proximity to your head can 'effect the electrical signals in your brain.' And as neurologist Mark George explains in the video 'electricity is the currency of the brain, all thoughts, all beliefs, all actions are just electrical impulses.' Therefore using a process called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), where a small machine is held up to someone and sends electro-magnetic waves at their brain, scientists can 'get in there and...turn a part of the brain up or down or temporarily turn it off.'

The video also explains experiments that were done by neuroscientists Alvaro Pasquale-Leon of Harvard and Rebecca Saxe of MIT, that used TMS on subjects to manipulate the part of the brain thought to control the moral judgments people make. In these experiments TMS was successfully used on the heads of a group of subjects to, temporarily, significantly tone down how morally judgmental they would think compared to people in a control group. These researchers had purposefully, invisibly and non-invasively changed what some other people's thoughts were, and on something as profound, abstract, and personal as moral judgment.

 

This video is from a few years ago, and in science and technology terms a few years can be a long time, and a few decades can allow for quantum leaps. This technology may become far more sophisticated and exact in the future in the ways in which it could be used to manipulate someone's brain. Scientists' knowledge of the brain is bound to become more complete as so much work is done to expand brain-science, in promising and well funded efforts. (See Part 1) Much of that same understanding thought will be an aid to malevolent as well as noble goals. 

If the idea of future-con-artists forcing your brain to feel guilt seems far fetched, consider that the experimenters mentioned above already know a way to dial down moral judgment. How far is that from being able to dial UP moral judgment? How far is that from making someone feel more guilty? If scientists know about the relevant part or parts of the brain for any emotion they may be able to readily use machines to control those emotions. You may take some comfort in the fact that today such machines are fairly expensive, obscure and immobile. Yet as with other technology, tomorrow's versions may be fairly cheap, attainable and portable. Even concealable.

In the future these sorts of misuses of the technology may not be something that is happening constantly. Maybe laws will be passed and this will only be legal for the Federal Government to do, and only with a court order. But what about overseas? And even in the US, does that mean a CIA Agent won't be tempted to use the technology without a court order at times? Does that mean a corporate boss won't be tempted to use it on another corporate boss, say to get them to end a hostile takeover effort? Does that mean a con artist won't use it on a recent lottery-winner? What do you think? And be glad that for now you know for sure it's really you doing the thinking.