Bye-Bye Privacy

May be, you have seen a movie called Minority Report in the movie the iris of people are scanned and they are presented with personalized advertising.
Advancement in neuroscience (A science that explores the exquisite complexity of the human brain’s chemical, physical and electrical structure) will make neuromarketing possible in that discipline fMRI (brain imagining) is used to identify the taste of a potential customer or at least his reaction when presented with products , colors , etc….

Today, there are researches focusing on exploring personality, thought processes and mindset by studying and analysing individual “brain prints.” The findings from these studies may reveal information regarding unconscious biases, and preferences of which the subjects had been unaware.

There is also research to use fMRI in lie detection something people working in counter terrorism could be interested. As these technologies are growing concerns about the legal implication of neuroscience applied in marketing and laws start to appear.

Arthur Caplan , Director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Ethics and a prominent bioethicist, has expressed his concerns in these words “[i]t is very likely that advances in our ability to ‘read’ the brain will be exploited . . . for such purposes as screening job applicants, diagnosing and treating disease, determining who qualifies for disability benefits. . . .”

Welcome to neuro-discrimination other people are concerned that the brain fingerprint or brainome will be used against them, Donald Kennedy, neurobiologist and editor-in-chief of Science, has stated “I already don’t want my employer or my insurance company to know my genome. As to my brainome, I don’t want anyone to know it for any purpose whatsoever. It is . . . my most intimate identity.

In a society taking individual liberties and privacy away from people at light speed the concerns about the misuse of neuroscience and also genetic information is genuine. According to a recent study Great Britain is the worst country in western Europe for respect of privacy, The DNA of around 700,000 children has already been recorded by police, a figure that includes 24,000 people still under the age of 18 who have been arrested by police but never convicted of a crime.
However, the Home Office has now admitted that their original estimate of “innocent” children on the database did not include an extra 27,000 people who are now adults but whose details were entered on to the database when they were children.

So in the future , what can a Super-state can do with advanced genetic information and brain information about its population ? probably control it better and finally make the population shut up and obey. It is really an Orweillian scenario.
brain information is considered potentially predictive not only of disease but also of behaviour.

Immature states will be able to jail people they think will commit sexual abuse even before they do anything. I don’t know what to think about all of this, I believe that we will go through many societal changes in the coming years not only because of technologies but also because of spirituality, I prefer wait and see.

Technorati Tags: neuroscience, fmri, neuroprivacy, brainome, genetic, information

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