Happy New Year 2009

fMRI can now "read your thoughts." fMRI brain scan patterns have been identified for objects, emotions, and locations, including specific room locations and landmarks. The patterns are similar from person to person; similar enough that characteristic patterns identified by scanning 20 brains can be identified in a previously untested subject who remains mute but whose brain patterns show that the subject is familiar with, say, a crime scene or a terrorist training camp location. Large multinational corporations are now attempting to determine subjects' brain pattern responses to certain foods, clothing, shopping experiences or new tech gadgets. A woman in India was convicted of murder in part because fMRI showed that her brain "identified" the events surrounding the murder. Science fiction is becoming increasingly more like real life. The sophistication of this testing is improving rapidly; increasingly more complex patterns are identifiable. Scanning resolution doubles at least every 12-18 months (something analogous to Moore's Law applies here, too), and with it, smaller clusters of brain cell activity can be identified and categorized. The question is this: will the law allow scanning of an accused person in Europe and the U.S., like it now allows blood tests and genetic testing, or will it be regarded in the U.S. as an encroachment on the fifth amendment against self-incrimination? What do you think?