A New Machine That Reads & Analyzes Human Emotions — An EReader
If a set of sensors and an AI program can tell how I feel about a TV commercial, why can’t it discover if I’m feeling guilty when I’m shown a picture of a murder I’m suspected of committing?
By David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
A U.S. Device That Identifies And Scores A Person’s Emotions In Real Time
Here is an excerpt from The Hustle’s email news summary of August 10, 2018. There was also an article on TechCrunch here.
“Spark (an acronym for ‘Scientific Persuasive Artistic Research-Driven Knowledge’) monitors brain waves, eye movements, facial expressions, and skin reactions of viewers as they watch ads, trailers, or movies.
“Using the 6k data points gathered per second, the system measures attention and emotion levels on a 1–10 scale. Then, advertisers/producers can use that data to understand how successful their content was.”
A Chinese System That Reads & Identifies A Person’s Emotions In Real Time
In an update to my column, Breakthrough Chinese Program Enables Hugely Effective State Control Of Everyone I referenced a story in the South China Morning Post which reported:
“[Chinese] Government-backed surveillance projects are deploying brain-reading technology to detect changes in emotional states in employees on the production line, the military and at the helm of high-speed trains. One of the main centres of the research in China is Neuro Cap, a central government-funded brain surveillance project at Ningbo University. The programme has been implemented in more than a dozen factories and businesses.”
Lets consider an amalgamation of the Chinese Neuro Cap AI emotion-reading technology and the SPARK emotion-reading technology. Let’s call that combined tech “Emotion Reading” or EReading and the resulting device an EReader.
Now, for a few seconds let’s just think about this combined technology in the hands of the CIA, FSA, or, in fact, any police agency.
Using An EReader To Unmask A Spy
Every organization that deals with sensitive information wants to discover spies, moles, thieves and the like. Short of an actual, honest-to-God mind reader, what could be a more effective tool in unmasking these people than an EReader?
If I were running Internal Security at the CIA, I would cycle my senior staff through an EReader session every six months. The subject would be strapped into a comfortable chair. The EReader sensors would be put in place. Eyelids would be taped open, and buds would be inserted into their ears.
In front of them would be a large TV screen.
The subject would be forced to watch and listen to various images and sounds which would be chosen to elicit an emotional response that would be different from a mole/spy/traitor than it would be from a loyal, patriotic employee.
How is the subject reacting to Taliban images, images of traitors, images of people being caught in a lie or taking a bribe?
Of course the images, videos, texts, and sounds would have to be chosen after months of research and testing, but there is no doubt that a suite of sounds, images and video could be developed that would elicit involuntary emotional responses from compromised employees that were materially different than those from honest ones.
Using An EReader To Find Whistle Blowers & Leakers
Naturally, private industry would want to be able to do this too. Except in private industry they don’t call the targets “moles.” They call them “whistle blowers,” and in the Executive Branch they call them “leakers.”
Wouldn’t He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named love to be able to run his staff through “find-the-leaker” EReader sessions on a weekly basis?
Who Did It? The EReader Knows
Suppose you’re heading a police task force that’s searching for the person who kidnapped, raped and murdered an eleven-year-old child. You have ten suspects.
You put together a video of the child, her home, the location where the body was discovered, and other relevant images, videos and sounds, then you connect each of the persons of interest to an EReader and let the machine analyze their emotional reactions with a view to identifying the killer.
This sort of thing used to be a total science-fiction pipe dream but apparently no longer.
Why would we expect this technology to be limited to only figuring out which commercial more strongly resonated with the subject or which employee was experiencing high levels of anxiety or rage when, with carefully chosen sounds, images and videos, we could do so much more?
Find The Psychopath
Why couldn’t the EReader use involuntary emotional reactions to separate pedophiles, psychopaths, rapists, racists, liars, cheats and thieves from “normal” people?
If I were the CIA or the FSB or the FBI I would be begging Spark Neuro, Inc. for a beta-test unit. Hell, I’d probably just buy the whole company and go from there.
These two projects, the Chinese government’s Neuro Cap initiative, and the SPARK tech, plus the ability to process and refine the data using ever more powerful AI models, have to make you think.
Instead of guessing if a criminal defendant did it or is telling the truth when he denies he’s guilty, why couldn’t he/she waive his 5th Amendment rights and volunteer for an EReader scan? Sure, polygraphs are not reliable enough to be admissible in court. But maybe an EReader scan would be.
And even if the result wasn’t admissible, just knowing who did it would put you on the right track to finding the evidence you would need.
Find The Terrorist Before He Can Plant The Bomb
Wouldn’t national security and the pressing need to stop terrorists trump the 5th Amendment?
Suppose Congress said that the government could force suspected terrorists to submit to an EReader scan. Sure, the results might not be admissible in court but who cares? There are lots of ways to deal with terrorists and not all of them involve trials.
And lots of countries don’t have a 5th Amendment.
Wouldn’t that be an interesting development?
Let’s all think about that.
— David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
