Mind Control

[CptSternn]

There are multiple threads in the NEWS and even here that deal with mind control. I thought setting up a thread specifically addressing it would be nice, with this article that came out today...

The Weird Russian Mind-Control Research Behind a DHS Contract

http://www.wired.com/politics/securi...9/mind_reading

MOSCOW -- The future of U.S. anti-terrorism technology could lie near the end of a Moscow subway line in a circular dungeon-like room with a single door and no windows. Here, at the Psychotechnology Research Institute, human subjects submit to experiments aimed at manipulating their subconscious minds.

Elena Rusalkina, the silver-haired woman who runs the institute, gestured to the center of the claustrophobic room, where what looked like a dentist's chair sits in front of a glowing computer monitor. "We've had volunteers, a lot of them," she said, the thick concrete walls muffling the noise from the college campus outside. "We worked out a program with (a psychiatric facility) to study criminals. There's no way to falsify the results. There's no subjectivism."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gone to many strange places in its search for ways to identify terrorists before they attack, but perhaps none stranger than this lab on the outskirts of Russia's capital. The institute has for years served as the center of an obscure field of human behavior study -- dubbed psychoecology -- that traces it roots back to Soviet-era mind control research.

What's gotten DHS' attention is the institute's work on a system called Semantic Stimuli Response Measurements Technology, or SSRM Tek, a software-based mind reader that supposedly tests a subject's involuntary response to subliminal messages.

SSRM Tek is presented to a subject as an innocent computer game that flashes subliminal images across the screen -- like pictures of Osama bin Laden or the World Trade Center. The "player" -- a traveler at an airport screening line, for example -- presses a button in response to the images, without consciously registering what he or she is looking at. The terrorist's response to the scrambled image involuntarily differs from the innocent person's, according to the theory.


The whole article is worth a read, but the bottom line is this - this cold-war era mind control device from Russia is getting large amounts of funding from the DHS.

This opens up a whole new set of questions. Like - why does the Department of Homeland Security want a mind control device? They claim for 'airport security', but this device as they explain in the article has other nefarious purposes.

There is a CIA mind control thread here that also goes into the funding they are putting into other mind control devices.

Does it bother anyone else that the American government is spending so much money trying to perfect mind control? What does it say about a nation that is actively trying to not only read minds, but control the minds of the citizens there and abroad?

Whether you believe in the technology or not, thats not important, the DHS does to the point they are investing in it. That speaks volumes considering the level of proof they must need to get funding for such a product. If they feel that it is a viable technology enough to invest in, the question is then what exactly do they plan on doing with it?

The device in this article is being used to 'read' minds, not to control them (although they claim the technology can do that as well). Either way, what about the 4th Ammendment - unreasonable search and seizure - wouldn't using a device to read the minds of citizens be an unreasonable search?

I can't help thinking about the film Minority Report...

[delicti]

I don't know whether to laugh that money is being thrown at this, or to be mortified that they managed to convince somebody that this was within the scope of their operations.

I mean, brainwashing tech is basically in the same scientific realm as the gay bomb:

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_159222541.html

That being said, I've never like DHS. It's an unconstitutional extension of the executive branch, and it's bad enough that that branch has armed non-military personnel under its control already.

When will we realize that unless an armed group is controlled by Congress, we have no control over them? Given those stakes, wouldn't we want at least some?

[LadyLucretia]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

The device in this article is being used to 'read' minds, not to control them (although they claim the technology can do that as well). Either way, what about the 4th Ammendment - unreasonable search and seizure - wouldn't using a device to read the minds of citizens be an unreasonable search?

I can't help thinking about the film Minority Report...

Short of implanting electrodes in the actual brain (i.e. deep brain stimulation, used to treat extreme cases of Parkinson's and other neurological disorders), there is no proven way to affect or control brain activity.

What this experiment seems to be doing is reading affect - an instinctive, subcortical response to stimuli that basically labels things "good/bad." It's been found that people can accurately assess images as "good/bad" before they have conscious awareness of perceiving them (i.e. a photo flashed for milliseconds on a screen). Presumably, most people would see a picture of Osama bin Laden and their affective response would be "BAD!" However, a terrorist might be like, "GOOD!" and that would give them away.

This doesn't allow for the fact that people have complicated reasons for how they feel about things, and might respond "inappropriately" to stimuli for reasons other than being a terrorist. I.E. if 9/11 was the wedding anniversary of a couple that was married for 50 years, the association with that date might still be positive because the anniversary is more salient for them than the terrorist attacks.

I think that if they are getting consistent and accurate results, it's because they're working with a limited sample. I think that if implemented, there would be too many "false positives" or inconclusive results and it simply wouldn't be efficient enough to be useful.

[MaguMan]

A Russian mind experiment being applied here in the United States? Oh yeah, I believe Nintendo marketed this a few decades ago.

[CptSternn]

Whether its effective or not is not the topic here. It obviously is effective enough for the US government to invest in it. THAT'S what speaks volumes here.

[Empress Enoc]

The only thing I have to say is that mind control is evident in our society. Sheeps will always depend on the decisions of their leaders. Which I think is fucking great !

[Utael]

This is freaking hilarious, we have people who are starving in the us and they are investing in mind controll... which isnt even proven works... lol oh well, but still why would any sane human being throw money at something like that unless they had other intentions with it other than "airport security" personally i think they are using the "Airport Security" card way too much these days like in how ex. We need to be able to torcher prisoners. What for says the media. For airport security, or Why are people being held back and even in some cases missing there flights "Airport Security. but hey w/e floats there boat. but seriously guys mind controll? wouldnt placing more security officers better cost effecient than "Mind Controll"?

[Renatus]

The Government already has an extremely potent form of mind control: Hollywood. Without Hollywood millions of Americans wouldn't be fat because of McDonald's, and people wouldn't have a Hollywood image to think of as the norm and try to fit into it.

[LadyLucretia]

Originally Posted by Renatus

The Government already has an extremely potent form of mind control: Hollywood. Without Hollywood millions of Americans wouldn't be fat because of McDonald's, and people wouldn't have a Hollywood image to think of as the norm and try to fit into it.

I know! Hollywood kicked my cat and killed my grandma.

The media is influential, but calling it mind control is just being sensationalist (much like...the media).

[CptSternn]

Where are you at?

MLK.

RUN! The media is there!

</Chris Rock Voice>