Show and Tell: Brain Print

On Tuesday I did a show-and-tell presentation about the brain print, a new technology that scans your brain activity to identify you.  I thought this was not only interesting, but ties into our class discussions since we talk so much about new technology.  It also ties into our discussions of taking technology too far, leading to scenarios like The Circle.  The brain print seems, to me, rather unnecessary.  It looks like some type of technology that we could perfect and use for fun, but at the moment doesn't have much of a purpose.  We seem to be pretty good at identifying people, and I know I don't know how much security is needed for someplace like the Pentagon, as mentioned in the video, but the whole idea of a brain print seems a little extravagant.  It looks like technology for the sake of technology, and just because we can create something doesn't mean we should.

A few interesting points were brought up in class, the first of which being what happens if your opinions change, or what happens when you grow up, seeing as we change as we grow older.  In the video they said they were measuring reactions in our brain that are unconscious--we can't control them.  This confuses me because I don't know why they would need to show us a bunch of random pictures if they're not looking at our opinions, but something deeper.  As the brain print is a fairly new idea, there isn't a lot of information out about it yet.  The second concern was that, if the technology is perfected, it could be used on us without our knowledge, identifying us before we even know what's going on.  This reminds me of The Circle in that so much information is kept about people, information they're not even aware of.  Having your brain scanned without your permission, even to identify you, seems like an invasion of of privacy.  This relates to the ending of The Circle, where Mae realizes that she wants to know what is going on inside Annie's head and actually feels as though she has a right to know.  In the book, the one safe place Mae had was her own brain, and this is a perfect example of the slippery slope, where one idea just spirals out of control.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oe9bZuZOJc