Homework answers / question archive / Consider the following excerpt:   Minority Report, a science-fiction movie starring Tom Cruise, put forward the provocative notion that a combination of dazzling technology and "pre-cogs" (humans with super clairvoyant abilities) could read people's minds and their criminal intentions before they actually took action

Consider the following excerpt:   Minority Report, a science-fiction movie starring Tom Cruise, put forward the provocative notion that a combination of dazzling technology and "pre-cogs" (humans with super clairvoyant abilities) could read people's minds and their criminal intentions before they actually took action

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Consider the following excerpt:

 

Minority Report, a science-fiction movie starring Tom Cruise, put forward the provocative notion that a combination of dazzling technology and "pre-cogs" (humans with super clairvoyant abilities) could read people's minds and their criminal intentions before they actually took action. The long arm of the law would swoop in and arrest them before they committed their intended crime-no need to interview anyone or detect deception.

Now the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is hoping to implement something similar to this by using a wide variety of high-tech sensors to replace human detectors. They see it as a replacement for the current SPOT (Screening Passengers through Observation Techniques) program, which is being utilized at selected airports by the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). SPOT relies on trained human observers who attempt to note micro-expressions and other suspicious nonverbal behaviors among the millions of passengers who pass through major airports daily. Newly trained Behavior Detection Officers scan the crowds looking for signs of fear or disgust in people's micro-expressions or for other suspicious conduct. If someone's nonverbal verbal behavior seems amiss, the TSA agents will detain the person for further questioning and may tum him or her over to law enforcement. In a nine-month period at Dulles International Airport, of the roughly seven million people who flew out of that airport, "several hundred" were referred for intense screening, and "about 50" were turned over to law enforcement for follow-up questioning.

 

Enter Project Hostile Intent (PHI). Instead of depending on human observers, PHI will use an array of lasers, sensors, cameras, microphones, and other remote sensing devices. It aims to identify facial expressions, gait, blood pressure, pulse, and perspiration rates that are characteristic of hostility or the desire to deceive. With this technology, the DHS is hoping to auto­mate the SPOT program, so that computers, not humans, search for micro-expressions, and at the same time beef up the range of bodily signs that can be investigated. Machines will not just look for micro-expressions, they will also attempt to sense whether someone is hiding something. For this they might use a remote-­controlled, noncontact version of the polygraph, bouncing lasers or microwaves off a person's skin.

Many researchers (not to mention journalists; see Patti Davis's commentary at Global Research here: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6576  are already skeptical of detecting danger from facial expressions. Emotional expressions of terrorists, for instance, are likely to be highly complex, ranging from excitement about their impending violent act, fear of being caught before they can act, sadness about being killed, contempt for authorities who might detain them, or-in the case of Islamic jihadists-joy about heading to paradise. And innocent passengers are bound to show a full gamut of expressions-stress over delayed flights and long lines, irritation with crying children, boredom-that could be mistaken for hostile emotions. Even a smile can be mis­leading. People who are emotionally dis­tressed often smile, especially if they are male and the stress is intense. Thus, whether this program will actually be ready for deployment by its target date of 2012 or will face public resistance as an Orwellian assault on privacy remains to be seen.

 

Make an initial post with yur opinion on what some of the possible downsides of this approach may be. Do yu see any ethical issues arising? Privacy concerns? Please also consider the complexity of the intercultural element