Mind reading

Mind reading is now not confined to folklore and science fiction; rather it is a reality approaching to us. Mind reading brings human beings benefits. For example, scientists will use this technology in the study of autism, disorders of thought and semantic dementias. Furthermore, it will be probably used by the security service to prevent potential spies and terrorists. As we all know, every technology is a sword of two sides, and the same goes for mind reading. Certainly, it also will trigger unethical problems. Firstly, this technology is likely to be spread and abused in detecting terrorists and criminals. It is true that by using it the police will probably quickly and successfully catch the targeted terrorists or criminals. However, concerned about its error rate, the police cannot totally rely on the information it provides. Moreover, during the process, mind reading will violate suspects’ privacy and trigger problems. Secondly, mind reading will probably be popular in employers. Employers may use this technology frequently to determine employees’ working attitudes, which will violate employees’ privacy greatly. Lastly, children are likely suffering a lot from this technology. Parents will try to match their children’s brain scans to those of scientists, artists or authors. Parents will use scans to find out their children’s aptitude in terms of science, art, business and so on, before developing their children’s potential. All these behaviors using mind reading will raise unethical problems. To minimize and prevent these unethical abuses, society should set up standards and rules. These standards and rules should specify who are eligible to use mind reading, to what extent mind reading is reliable and under what conditions it can be used. Furthermore, we had better strictly limit it to scientific researches and government services.