A Victim of Soicumstance

Curly may have been ahead of his time. I’m not referring to the noise effects he made as the youngest member of the Three Stooges (even though nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!, woo-woo-woo!, and Ruff! Ruff! were the memes of his era). I mean what could be his most famous proclamation: I’m tryin’ to think but nothing happens. It turns out that strategy could be our best defense as new technologies come for our minds and threaten to criminalize people’s innermost thoughts. Could this stuff of SciFi lore really be coming to a brain near you? As Curly might have said, “Soitenly!” NYT (Gift Article): U.N. Warns Against Technology Used to Read Citizens’ Minds. “The scenarios sound like science fiction: Police officers accessing data contained in suspects’ brains to forcefully extract information, or to predict if offenders might plan to commit future crimes. But the secretary general of the United Nations warned on Thursday for the first time that neurotechnologies are advancing so rapidly that governments’ ability to access and manipulate people’s brains could one day pose a threat to fundamental human rights.” As with many technologies, we’re racing forward before we consider the ramifications. Curly predicted this, too. “I shoot an arrow in the air, where it lands I do not care … I get my arrows wholesale.”