Pre-crime detector coming along
US HOMELAND SECURITY is developing a system to detect " hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places.
This means Airport Security can shoot you before you commit a terrorist atrocity and thus save all the time and money cleaning up the mess at ground zero.
New Scientist said that 'Project Hostile Intent' aims to help security staff choose who to pull over for a 'gently probing' interview. We assume this is one where latex gloves are not used.
It uses sensors that can spot people up to no good from their pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, or furtive facial expressions.
Pundits were up in arms over what looks like something from the film Minority Report.
To fix this problem Homeland Security has changed the name of the project to the less threatening Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) programme. Thus making the world a much safer place.
The DHS paid volunteers walked through a pair of trailers kitted out with a battery of FAST sensors, including cameras, infrared heat sensors and an eyesafe laser radar, called a Bio-Lidar, that measures pulse and breathing rate from a distance.
Some subjects were told to act shifty, be evasive, deceptive and hostile. And many were detected. The DHS did not say if they shot anyone.
However, it strikes us as strange that 'acting' hostile can set off the censors. What will that mean for the poor people who arrive at some US airport and have to queue for ages and submit to backward, stupid and paranoid questioning. After going through that process Mother Theresa, if she were living, and the Dalai Lama would be a bit hostile and labelled a terrorist.
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So Homeland Security are going to test Voigt-Kampf machines on real humans not 'skin-Jobs'.
talk about life immitating art, but i suppose its one way of detecting those furtive international criminal persons carrying 'naughty'music into the US in laptops & MP3 players.
I can imagine people saying that a lot in future at border control.
Especially in bothering innocent people for no good reason.
Just watch all those parents of three get caught up after four hours of waiting in a crowded airport terminal whilst trying to keep from strangling their turbulent offspring.
And God help you if you have a beard and a permanent tan, right ?
So the key is to not "act shifty" ?
So a terrorist at peace with his imminent demise, calmly gliding through at a serene pace, secure in his knowledge that nothing can stop the impending doom he carries, confident that he will soon die in a blaze of glory, he'll never get caught, will he ?
Man I almost wish there was a terrorist to prove them wrong - if only he could blow up an empty plane and cause no deaths or injuries (apart from his own, obviously), I'd be ecstatic.
A system like that is bound to keep the fear of terrorists in people's minds, plus, as the author states misfire all the time.

Imagine an exceptionally stressy day. How are they gonna cope with all the "hostiles"?
Shoot them all, or hire another ~200-300 per airfield to question people and make us feel like Stasiland2009?

It's one step too far, this system. Or well, one step further than the already taken quazillion steps too far...
Probably the Americans are the only ones who still consider they live in a democracy. And probably I'd rather visit Russia first then maybe US.
The difference between Russia and America is the fact that Russians know they are not free but Americans think they still are.

It sure looks like America as a free democracy/superpower is quickly approaching a precipice from which there may be no return. In so many ways we are in decline. The justice system is a joke. A rather poor one if one finds oneself on the wrong end of it. Some time long ago it quit being about justice and now is in most cases only about money. Or some hot shot D.A. that wants to come up in the world. Never mind the small detail of charging the right person with the crime.

The schools are in shambles because of the dearth of incompetent teachers, consisting largely of women and minorities. The workplace is in much the same mess due to the same cause.

Our once proud car industry can't make a profit and look to be on the verge of bankruptcy. GM is said to pin it's hopes of survival on the volt. One car model.

Our military which with the help of our allies won WWII, fighting against the combined might of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan, can't even whip a poor third world country.

And Wall Street just went down the tubes due to "bad investments." I wonder how many of those loans were "sweet hearts?" Do you hear that sound folks. That is the sound of your retirement going away. While the C.E.O.'s retire to their multi million dollar estates.

And to top it all off in airports we must endure the unwelcome attentions of "big brother" in the form of cop suited clowns with room temperature I.Q.'s that have the right to go on fishing expeditions through our laptops and phones. All in the name of national security. National security. The age old cry of the oppressor.

Well folks it's our own damn fault. We let the politicians do it to us. We sat with our fingers up our ass while our freedom was taken from us. Now this is what we have. Welcome to the 21st century.


It sounds like even the smallest amount of self-awareness and conscious relaxation will get you through this thing if you are a terrorist. Next thing they'll be teaching in terrosit training camps is meditation to avoid the stress sensors.

The problem is, as more technology comes on line, the more we trust it and not our own eyes/brains. If the machine says you're ok then you must be, so please let me help you carry your AK-47 to the plane.
Oh great, now if you're stressed because you're late for your flight you'll miss the plane while you get anally probed.
I refer you to the ancient Welsh martial art of Llap Goch in one of the Monty Python books in the 1970s http://www.llapgoch.org.uk/
This is really very disturbing. I strongly recommend you spend the 20 minutes looking at this Twilight Zone episode about the thought police.

http://www.fancast.com/tv/The-Twilight-Zone/97525/626446465/The-Twilight-Zone-(12-hr)-Penny-for-Your-Thoughts/videos [fancast.com]
The U.S.A. is a representative republic not a democracy as is commonly thought of by the uninformed. If every wacko in the world was not trying to kill us we wouldn't have to go through such extremes, and the funniest thing" Or saddist" is that the people that holler the most about this stuff are the ones that would be stoned in the street by the wackos.
In a perfect world, where no one is running late, and things function perfectly, great idea.

So, anyone with anxiety disorders, high blood pressure, people running late that are jogging to make it on time or "speed walking"....anyone who isn't a "metric" is detainable?

Gibberish. As a Canadian, I'd rather take a vacation to anywhere else, this is just too much.
"'acting' hostile can set off the censors." We should all put these at our borders to detect Americans.
What a joke.
... you have 10 seconds to comply...
... you have 5 seconds to comply...

[dual machine guns firing]

This is probably going to make people "feel" safer, but with British Airways suspending all flights to Pakistan do you feel safe?

Did any of those 1940-1950 "how the future will be" tv shows ever mention global terrorism due to oil wars, or global recessions caused by lax banking rules and enforcement?

I wonder if in 50 years time there will be even more terrorism, financial problems, more global problems?
Without FAST sensors, how could a Terminator / Skynet decide our fate in a microsecond? FAST is the first step towards artificial senses of the neural net architecture. A human brain could never process such a high amount of real time sensory information. Soon world plus dog will discover, that there IS NO WAY TO BREAKFAST in America. It's just as well, since 'The Full English Fry-up's blood runs hot.