hang on there a second...
there was a most interesting abc online science news article today about changes in brain structure in people who are pathological liars. (as an aside, this seems like a challenging study to recruit subjects for: Q: "So, are you a pathological liar then?" A: "No."). anyway, the last sentence in the article rather put a bee in my bonnet:
"[This analysis] could also help in criminal justice settings by helping police determine if a suspect is lying, and in pre-employment screening."
Hello! All of a sudden we've jumped from a quite interesting investigation into something we all do quite a lot of the time, way way into gattaca land.
firstly, being able to choose to lie is one of the things that makes us human. probably being a pathological liar isn't all that fun, and all power to research into helping people there. but, and somewhat prematurely, to remove the power of choice puts us on a very slippery slope.
but mainly what gets to me is the complete lack of hesitation in declaring that this could be used in pre-employment screening. no discussion, no questioning, no subltety. it is a very small step from could to can to did. if we want this sort of thing, then that's all well and good, but we should absolutely not let ourselves just roll on in to it.
hmmph. a little bit better now. did anyone get the rose thing yet?
"[This analysis] could also help in criminal justice settings by helping police determine if a suspect is lying, and in pre-employment screening."
Hello! All of a sudden we've jumped from a quite interesting investigation into something we all do quite a lot of the time, way way into gattaca land.
firstly, being able to choose to lie is one of the things that makes us human. probably being a pathological liar isn't all that fun, and all power to research into helping people there. but, and somewhat prematurely, to remove the power of choice puts us on a very slippery slope.
but mainly what gets to me is the complete lack of hesitation in declaring that this could be used in pre-employment screening. no discussion, no questioning, no subltety. it is a very small step from could to can to did. if we want this sort of thing, then that's all well and good, but we should absolutely not let ourselves just roll on in to it.
hmmph. a little bit better now. did anyone get the rose thing yet?
posted by benjamin at 10:26 pm
1 Comments:
Yeah, I got the Rose thing, but that's only really because I've seen it before :P.
I strongly suggest you play Mornington Crescent, a brilliantly designed puzzle/strategy game as a follow-up to the rose teaser.
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