This is topic Another Interesting Interview on Newscientist.com in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
I didn't know that the drugs and some of the technologies discussed in this interview on neurotechnologies existed. How fascinating, potentially beneficial, and troubling, all at once.
 
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
quote:
Some of these drugs are available now. Take a drug like propranolol, a beta blocker used to control high blood pressure. It was found that people who take this drug within six hours or so of a traumatic event have a reduced recall of that event. People are talking about giving propranolol to emergency response teams before they go into horrific scenes such as plane crashes
Well, then, how the heck would we later testify at court cases about what we found/saw?

[Grumble]

Farmgirl
 
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Exactly, FarmGirl, exactly. And if the authorities didn't *want* people to remember the incident...
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
Ew. Very ew.
 
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
 
I think I might have taken these after seeing Star Wars Episode 1.
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
quote:
The CCLE has no problem with brain fingerprinting so long as it's voluntary, as in the Slaughter case. Our concern is that law enforcement agents will seek to use it coercively. Such compelled use ought to be forbidden, because it would pierce one of the most private and intimate human spheres: our own memory.
Reminds me of Minority Report, in a backwards sort of way.
 
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
 
Slash: [ROFL]

Hobbes [Smile]
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
But I'm not sure that just because it's memory, it should be inaccessible for prosecution reasons. I'd suspect that just like everything else under the sun, the use of "brain fingerprinting" should be held to the same standards as blood evidence or any other -- is it relevant? how substantive is it? was it collected and presented appropriately?

That being said, I occasionally slip into unfounded nostalgia for the days of the Pony Express.
 
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
 
I get nostalgic for the days when everyone carried a sword, and you were allowed to stab someone for insulting you.

Politeness was a survival skill that has been bred out of us.
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
Tell me about it.

I wish I could live in the little mouse huts I drew as a child. The ones made out of mushrooms, with the deep intricate layers of passageways underneath, and with the sun always peeking out of the corner of the paper. Life was much more straightforward then.

I don't like this world so much, Slash. Fix it.

[Smile]
 
Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
 
Sorry.

My solution has been to ignore the larger problems, and just create my own little insulated corner of it.
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
I know, I do it too.

But around this time every year, I wax nostalgic for how good I was at being five years old, and this just makes me depressed. I think my peak years were five to twelve, and after that, life went to hell in a handbasket.

Say, anyone want to hire me out as a precocious yet engaging young woman, very helpful in the kitchen, great at being seen and not heard, without many irritating character flaws (yet)?

Darn, didn't think so. [Frown]

(Slash, it just struck me that my post above could've come across as being a mockery of your wanting the world to be more straightforward. It wasn't. I have just been stricken with nostalgia and longing, that's all. It will pass. [Smile] )
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
[I was really, really good at being five, y'know. I made exquisite woven potholders, and I stayed out of trouble, except for the planting moss in the yard part. And though I couldn't sing, I amused myself quite nicely. *sigh ]
 
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
CT, I have a 4-, 7-, and 10-year-old -- no 5.

Want the gig?
 
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
[Big Grin]

That would like, so rock. Even if I have to find another gig when your youngest catches up. (Or, could we be twins? [Wink] )
 
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
She would totally LOVE having a twin, I think.

No, my only concern is the fact that you've already accepted the position as their honorary aunt -- this seems a tad incestuous. Or maybe more like I'm-my-own-granddad.
 


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