AND THIS HAS WHAT TO DO WITH SPACE EXPLORATION? The Washington Times is reporting that NASA plans to read terrorist’s minds at airports.
The proposed system is described as a “super lie-detector”, which can read tiny signals put out by the heart and brain, and determine (apparently) who is “suspicious” based on nervousness, etc.
Which is just plain stupid, as one commentator points out:
Mihir Kshirsagar of the Electronic Privacy Information Center says such technology would only add to airport-security chaos. “A lot of people’s fear of flying would send those meters off the chart. Are they going to pull all those people aside?”
Well, boo-hoo. Unfortunately, this “inconvenience” argument totally misses the point that those opposed to the proposal should be making: it’s intrusive and violates the right to privacy. It’s hard to make a convincing argument for the proposed screening technology if you argue from principles, but just arguing that it will cause delays gives those in favor of it the “out” of simply making it unobtrusive — the screening system still violates your privacy, but now you’re unaware of it. That’s not a good tradeoff.