Brain Imaging Tech Opens Up New Door to Predicting BehaviorNicholas West The ongoing investment in the field of neuroscience has opened up many pathways to theoretically making direct remote mind control possible, as well as mapping the brain for other social engineering applications. We are now beginning to enter an era where new findings are starting to become openly actionable. The following snapshot of articles highlights this trend, as does the latest press release from MIT (posted in full below), which shows how this technology is expanding beyond mere terrorism and other serious criminality. In chronological order: Press Release: Brain imaging may help predict future behavior (My emphasis and comments added) Noninvasive brain scans, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, have led to basic science discoveries about the human brain, but theyve had only limited impacts on peoples day-to-day lives. A review article published in the January 7 issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron, however, highlights a number of recent studies showing that brain imaging can help predict an individuals future learning, criminality, health-related behaviors, and response to drug or behavioral treatments. The technology may offer opportunities to personalize educational and clinical practices. (Predictive health applications, including mental health, are embedded in Obamacare and are slated to be rolled out; please read this essential article by Jon Rappoport Obamacare: watch out, here comes predictive modeling' N.W.) Dr. John Gabrieli of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and his colleagues describe the predictive power of brain imaging across a variety of different future behaviors, including infants later performance in reading, students later performance in math, criminals likelihood of becoming repeat offenders, adolescents future drug and alcohol use, and addicts likelihood of relapse. Presently, we often wait for failure, in school or in mental health, to prompt attempts to help, but by then a lot of harm has occurred, says Dr. Gabrieli. If we can use neuroimaging to identify individuals at high risk for future failure, we may be able to help those individuals avoid such failure altogether. The authors also point to the clear ethical and societal issues that are raised by studies attempting to predict individuals behavior. We will need to make sure that knowledge of future behavior is used to personalize educational and medical practices, and not be used to limit support for individuals at higher risk of failure, says Dr. Gabrieli. For example, rather than simply identifying individuals to be more or less likely to succeed in a program of education, such information could be used to promote differentiated education for those less likely to succeed with the standard education program. *** One could easily imagine that the above interest in predictive behavior creating a differentiated (think tiered) learning and health system, combined with modern-day genetics research, is leading us quickly down the path that will make fiction like Gattaca a day-to-day reality. As Ive stated many times, ethical concerns are clearly an afterthought to the experimentation itself Just read Biotech Seeking Ways to Make People Suffer Eternally for a striking example of who is at the forefront of ethics proving that those involved in this research are ill-equipped to provide their own oversight. The precautionary principle is routinely abandoned in favor of scientific tinkering and the release of unforeseen consequences. Except, in this case, DARPA has foreseen the consequences of predictive behavior technology, and is all too eager to ensure its full-spectrum rollout. Related selfnews Post Article: 