The Department of Homeland Security has been testing new technology that allegedly can "predict" whether or not you're about to commit a crime.
This dystopian project is called Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST). Using special cameras and sensors, FAST measures your heart rate, breathing, body temperature, eye movement, fidgeting and other physiological phenomena, then processes the information with a computer algorithm (just like an Internet search engine) to decide whether or not you are a threat.
Seriously, can it get any creepier?
Terrorist 'pre-crime' detector field tested in United States
Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programme designed to spot people who are intending to commit a terrorist act, has in the past few months completed its first round of field tests at an undisclosed location in the northeast, Nature has learned.
The tactic has drawn comparisons with the science-fiction concept of 'pre-crime', popularized by the film Minority Report, in which security services can detect someone's intention to commit a crime. Unlike the system in the film, FAST does not rely on a trio of human mutants who can see the future. But the programme has attracted copious criticism from researchers who question the science behind it.
In lab tests, the DHS has claimed accuracy rates of around 70%, but it remains unclear whether the system will perform better or worse in field trials. "The results are still being analysed, so we cannot yet comment on performance," says John Verrico, a spokesman for the DHS. "Since this is an ongoing scientific study, tests will continue throughout coming months."
Some scientists question whether there really are unique signatures for 'malintent' — the agency's term for the intention to cause harm — that can be differentiated from the normal anxieties of travel. "Even having an iris scan or fingerprint read at immigration is enough to raise the heart rate of most legitimate travellers," says Ormerod.
As for where precisely FAST is being tested, that for now remains a closely guarded secret. The DHS says that although the first round was completed at the end of March, more testing is in the works, and the agency is concerned that letting people know where the tests are taking place could affect the outcome. "I can tell you that it is not an airport, but it is a large venue that is a suitable substitute for an operational setting," says Verrico.
Homeland security deploys mind-reading hardware
The US Department of Homeland Security has begun field testing new technology which it thinks can identify people who intend to commit a terrorist act, just by looking at them.
The gear apparently uses uses remote sensors to measure physiological properties, such as heart rate and eye movement.
It has been in development since 2008 and it apparently can tell your intent to cause harm.
It is all based on a form of witchdoctor psychology called behavioural science. These boffins have the cunning theory that someone with malintent may act strangely, show mannerisms out of the norm, or experience extreme physiological reactions based on the extent, time, and consequences of the event.
Homeland Security's FAST technology design so that coppers can basically arrest anyone who looks them funny. So no change there then.
The DHS claimed the machine was accurate 70 percent of the time the other 30 percent will probably get out of Guantanamo Bay in a couple of years.
Big sis pre-crime system to scan Americans for 'Malintent'
Chilling technology straight out of Minority Report that would subject Americans to pre-crime interrogations and physiological scans to detect "malintent" at sports stadiums, malls, airports and other public places has moved closer to being implemented after Homeland Security's FAST program passed its first round of testing.
Of course, the mere sight of TSA goons conducting grope-downs, radiation-firing body scanners, iris-scanning devices and the routine stresses of travel are all likely to raise heart rates and cause anxiousness in people, so the program will undoubtedly snag innocent travelers. The well-trained, cool and composed terrorist will slip right through, rendering the entire exercise obsolete.
Creepy. Freaky. Tyrannical.
[A] new Homeland Security program would subject Americans to pre-crime interrogations and physiological scans to ... at sports stadiums, malls, airports and other public places has moved closer to being implemented after the FAST program passed its first round of testing at an undisclosed location in northeast US.
Reading through the comments on the above post above, I noticed that many people seem to think this Orwellian FAST system is the exclusive evil design of the Obama administration, Democrats, and Progressives. Well, that simply isn't true.
Just like the DHS reports labeling pro-life, pro-Constitution, and other rightwing Americans as "homegrown terrorists," FAST was born under George W. Bush's Republican regime.
It's time to wake-up people! Washington Democrats and Republicans are two of the same thing, and neither one of them is on your side.
An Incomplete History of Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST):
- Can a government remotely detect a terrorist's thoughts?
- 'Pre-crime' detector shows promise
- Future Attribute Screening Technologies Precrime Detector
- Homeland Security Detects Terrorist Threats by Reading Your Mind
- New FAST Airport Security Screening Technology: Innovative or Invasive?
- Will airports screen for body signals? Researchers hope so
- Machine That Predicts Terrorists Intent Showing Progress
- 'Pre-Crime' Technology Raises Privacy Concerns
- Real Life 'Pre-Crime' Technology
- Google, CIA Invest in 'Future' of Web Monitoring
Department of Homeland Security ‘Pre-Crime’ Scan for ‘Malintent’ is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog