Technocreep

by Thomas P. Keenan

  Radcliffe’s hypothetical attack on his insulin pump could have been thwarted, or at least made more challenging, by the use of encryption to protect the data going into and out of the device. However, encryption uses processing power that shortens battery life. The good intention of giving the user the longest period between replacements works against the goal of enhanced security. As technology moves deeper into our bodies, we will need to make decisions about trade-offs like this.

  Barnaby Jack, a noted security researcher whose ideas about hacking cardiac pacemakers inspired a plot twist in the TV series Homeland, planned to present ground-breaking research about medical device vulnerabilities at the Black Hat 2013 conference. He was scheduled to tell thousands of people how to use “a common bedside transmitter to scan for, and interrogate individual medical implants.”210 Days before his scheduled presentation, Jack was found dead in his San Francisco apartment, in a death ruled as accidental due to “acute mixed drug intoxication.”211 Conspiracy theorists continue to suggest that he was murdered for what he knew, and was about to reveal.212

  Formerly the domain of advanced researchers with well-funded labs, a product based on the NeuroSky biosensor now can be ordered by anyone on the Internet.213 Billed as a research-grade EEG (electroencephalogram), the brainwave analyzer connects to your head with no drilling or other unpleasantness, and allows you to track your Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Theta waves using a “non-invasive single dry sensor that reads brainwave impulses (not thoughts).”

  The Mindwave comes with applications to help you focus, meditate, and do math in your head. Hobbyists have already had a field day with this device, rigging up brain-controlled robots, computers, and the ever-popular mind-controlled garage door opener. More adventurous types are using it to track lucid dreaming, where, as blogger Brian Benchoff put it, “you take control of your dreams and become a god.”214 One practitioner of this art claims he can communicate from inside his dreams by blinking in Morse code.

  An even more powerful product is Myndplay, which allows users to engage with video and actually affect the outcome. The creators envision a movie theater full of people wearing their sensors; their hive mind will alter the plot in real time. In a promotional video for this product, a narrator with a British accent assures us that the audience will finally have power over creative works: “they choose the direction, they decide the outcome, whether they want to or not. Their minds will determine what happens.”215

  If you just want the world to know something about your state of mental arousal, you can purchase some Necomimi Brainwave Controlled cat ears. They stand up when you concentrate and lie down when you relax. And sometimes they just wiggle ­suggestively. This is what happens when a girl in the promotional video spies an attractive young man. He ignores her, and the ears flop down.216

  Devices like these can certainly provide insights into what is going on inside our heads. However, we generally assume that what got into our minds is the result of real things we have experienced and real thoughts we have had. That assumption is starting to develop cracks.

  There are some needlessly frightened mice running around at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics. Researchers there have made the rodents afraid of getting an electric shock. However, they had never actually experienced the shock. It was put there by interfering with cells in the hippocampus.

  This study sheds light into how we build up memories in groups of neurons, called engram-bearing cells, and how easily they can be tampered with. As the researchers, led by Steve Ramirez, reported, “Our data demonstrate that it is possible to generate an internally represented and behaviorally expressed fear memory via artificial means.”217

  According to a press release accompanying the study, such research is vitally important because “almost three-quarters of the first 250 people to be exonerated by DNA evidence in the U.S. were victims of faulty eyewitness testimony.”

  It is also important because DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects folks who gave us the Internet, are keenly interested in false memory, under the euphemism of “narrative networks.”218 It fits well with what appears to be DARPA’s somewhat creepy new slogan, expressed on its home page: “Creating and Preventing Strategic Surprise.”

  Has this federal agency suddenly decided to study Harry Potter or Fifty Shades of Grey? Actually, they are much more interested in how people become convinced to join terrorist cells. They awarded a research contract worth about $7 million to a group led by Charles River Analytics of Cambridge, MA. In a news release, Charles River noted that as part of this project, they will be developing a piece of software poetically named “SONNET, or Studies to Operationalize Neuro-Narratology for Effective Tools.”219

  They also noted that “Charles River will conduct neurological studies to understand what makes a story compelling, and develop tools to sense and forecast people’s reactions,” echoing a previous DARPA project where the brains of college students were monitored with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to try to predict what they would find funny in a TV sitcom.

  Reading somebody’s fMRI is still a somewhat cumbersome and invasive process, and not likely to be done at a distance any time soon, though conspiracy theorists claim the CIA does it all the time. A brain pattern called P300 is a lot easier to capture, and is definitely being used in military and intelligence settings. P300 is a ­measurable electronic event, called an “evoked potential” that occurs about 300 milliseconds after a stimulus, and is associated with recognizing this stimulus. The U.S. military believes that determining evoked potential will be very useful in helping soldiers rapidly recognize ­dangerous situations. They are using this approach in a set of smart binoculars called Sentinel (SystEm for Notification of Threats Inspired by Neurally Enabled Learning). Through what is being called a “brain-machine interface,” these “cognito-neuro” binoculars tap into the unconscious ability of the soldier to identify threats, and appears to speed up the process by about thirty percent.220

  The Jasons, a group of top scientists that advises the U.S. military on technology matters, has expressed some concern about this type of technology, noting “potential for abuses in carrying out such research, as well as serious concerns about where remediation leaves off and changing natural humanity begins.”221 And of course, if militarized brain technology falls into the wrong hands, as it certainly will, it can be used against us.

  On a more peaceful front, investigators at Glasgow University have been able to use fMRI technology to decode the brainwaves of people who viewed images of “happy and fearful faces,” looking for differences. They learned what every portrait artist knows, that the eyes and mouth are important indicators. Despite the early stages of this work, the end goal is to form a “scientific” opinion about what someone is thinking.222 Some have suggested that in the future people may leave their memories, transferred onto suitable media, for their heirs or for researchers. Your estate might even get a tax receipt. The tax deduction might even be determined by how interesting your life has been. There’s a “profession of the future”—digital life appraiser.

  We already have a good if creepy idea what your physical body is worth. A science blogger with too much time on his hands recently quantified the amounts of various chemicals in the average human body and linked them to market prices. He claims that a typical result for your component chemicals is approximately $1985.77.

  To allow for fluctuations in the value of your 140 grams of potassium and 780 grams of phosphorous, he has posted his Excel spreadsheet online so you can calculate your own value. This of course assumes you could extract and purify all the elements in your body and sell them at market rates.223

  There is also a “Cadaver Calculator” that asks you twenty questions then tells you how much you are worth to medical science, for instance: “Congratulations, Your Dead Body is Worth $4165.”224

  But why bother doing those when the market already sets a price for a human body?


  A report from Hyderabad, India, claims that “500 unclaimed or unidentified dead bodies were sold from the Osmania mortuary in the past two years.”225 This article also gives a rough price list with “Rs 20,000 (about $325 US) to Rs 30,000 for bodies of those who died in accidents and Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 for bodies of those who died of natural causes.” It also notes that bodies of younger persons are more in demand.

  The probable destination for these cadavers is private medical colleges in India. North Americans are much more discreet about this process, though their medical schools need cadavers too. Instead of relying on dedicated alumni to pass away and leave their bodies to their alma mater, many schools use the service of a “fee-based service organization” called ScienceCare.226 From their website, it seems that many of the donated bodies wind up in pieces, used to test medical devices and for other purposes where human tissue is required.

  Of course, organ donation is certainly the best and highest use of a human body, and something everyone should consider. To their credit, the folks at Science Care encourage organ donation and their site says “most of the time individuals can be BOTH organ donors for transplant purposes as well as whole body donors for medical research and education.” Although they cost more than actual cadavers, and cannot be dissected, some medical schools are switching over to plastinated bodies for their anatomy labs.227

  Anyone who has seen one of the human taxidermy exhibits, in which plasticized bodies are put on display, will know that there is another possible afterlife for your mortal remains.

  I interviewed Dr. Gunther von Hagens, the originator of the process and the force behind the hugely successful “Body Worlds” exhibitions. He told me about the early days of developing his patented process, with bodies exploding in ovens. Unlike his competitors, von Hagens operates an active program soliciting body donations. His Germany-based website reports “about two visitors a day seeking inclusion in the Institute’s body donation program.”228

  A medical student once told me a touching story about an elderly woman who wanted to give her body to science but was concerned it would not be treated with proper respect. She insisted that a note travel with her cadaver, saying “Dear Future Doctor: I hope you learn a lot from probing my body and will treat it with respect. I just thought I’d mention something. Remember when you thought you would fail that organic chemistry exam or not do well on the med school interview … well, I was praying for you then.”

  Sadly we cannot attach sweet notes like that to the data about our bodies as it gets passed around and monetized. It would not do much good anyway. How do you ensure that data about your body is treated with respect by an automated big data decision process, running on a corporate or government computer? Decisions about the fate of our digital corpus are made in nanoseconds with all the precision and coldness of algorithmic logic.

  Our living bodies are always capable of providing one of the three factors (“something you have,” “something you know,” “something you are”) for identifying ourselves to our technology. Biometric technology shows up regularly in Hollywood films. In one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movies, The 6th Day, he spoofs a fingerprint-controlled biometric identification system with a cloned version of ­somebody’s finger, but drops it in the process. He utters the predictable line “I’m all thumbs today.” Having worked with Hollywood scriptwriters I am pretty sure that one got a laugh in the writer’s room. Yet the collection of biometric data is very serious business, and something that many people intuitively feel they should resist.

  Many years ago, in an attempt to counteract fraud, a New York-based bank started requiring a fingerprint from customers when they cashed or deposited checks. The bank quickly stopped using it when clients complained that they did not want to be treated like criminals. This Touch Signature® product is still being used by pawnshops and furniture rental outfits. According to a 2002 New York Times article, the Texas Bankers Association bought 80,000 of the inexpensive blue ink pads and sold them “to nearly half the banks in Texas and to banks in 37 other states.” There are still countries where voters are fingerprinted and Princeton University researchers have noted that, while fingerprints on ballots may allow for better auditing of election results, there is also a serious risk to “the secrecy of ballots in any system that keeps paper records of individual ballots.”229

  Some jurisdictions, such as Venezuela, have long used fingerprint scanners to control entry to polling stations, and, as of 2012, thumb scans were also required to activate the electronic voting process.230 This raised fears that how you voted was being recorded. This is creepy because the average person really has no idea what is going on inside a complex piece of electronic gear like a voting machine.

  Nor do most people realize how many fingerprint scanners are used in industry. They are used by employees to clock in and out of work. Airport employees use a fingerprint scanner to access restricted areas, and travelers are increasingly being required to undergo finger or iris scans in the interest of security.

  The biggest recent leap in the consumerization of fingerprint recognition was the 2013 introduction of Apple’s iPhone 5S with its built-in fingerprint scanner. While Chaos Computer Club hackers defeated the technology within two days, biometrics will undoubtedly become commonplace on consumer devices.

  If your phone does not have a fingerprint reader, don’t fret: you can always download a novelty application like “Fingerprint Lock” for Android mobile phones. It does not actually scan your finger—it just pretends to do that, so you can impress your friends and give some illusion of security. You actually unlock your phone simply by touching a secret spot on the screen.

  Like a $2.95 dummy security camera, this bit of “security theatrics” is probably better than no protection at all. It is also worth noting that Chinese-made Lenovo laptops have had fingerprint readers for almost a decade, and some businesses have opted to purchase this brand expressly for that reason.

  One the most interesting recent uses of fingerprint readers happened in an unlikely place, a chain of very high end stores that sells things like Prada scarves and purses.

  Every year the retailer hired temporary sales clerks for the busy pre-holiday sales period. This store, not wanting to annoy its high end clientele, also routinely accepted returns without requiring a purchase receipt. Often, in January, they found that they were unable to match a purchase transaction for the return of expensive items like $2,700 handbags. The culprits often turned out to be those temporary workers, who simply took the merchandise off the shelf and refunded it to their own credit cards.

  To avoid detection, the dishonest salesperson would put the illegal return through on the number of an unwitting long-serving employee. Long after the temp had left the job, that veteran clerk would be hauled in to answer for a crime she never committed.

  The retail chain’s head of security came up with an ingenious and inexpensive solution: to this day you will notice sale clerks there discreetly reaching under the counter to access a fingerprint scanner which seals each and every transaction.

  The main effect of the proliferation of fingerprint scanners is to ease us into the idea of routinely using our bodies as identification. Research is progressing on using other unique features of our bodies as biometric identification, from our “breath signature” to our cardiac rhythms. These days, the ones that read your finger usually check for a pulse, just to make sure the finger has not been borrowed.

  Most people intuitively find death to be creepy, which is why almost every language has some euphemisms for it. Now, technology is finding ways to make it even creepier.

  The Swedish company Pause Ljud & Bild is selling coffins outfitted with corpse-controllable music systems and 4G Internet access, just in case. The CataCoffin features “divine tweeters with external cooling and one hell of an eight-inch subwoofer, fine-tuned to the coffin’s unique interior acoustic space.” The developers have even gone to the trouble of arranging for a matching tombstone to
supply subterranean power, and updatable playlists on Spotify.

  At $30,000, these things are not exactly flying off the shelf. Most people seem more inclined to order the Lady de Guadalupe Steel Casket from Walmart.com for $1,199, though the concept of putting the remains of your loved one into a product ordered online from Walmart strikes some as an example of terminal cheapness.

  No matter which coffin you choose, the South Koreans have created an interesting use for it. In a bizarre trend that speaks to the country’s escalating suicide rate, South Koreans are turning to “fake funerals” to learn to appreciate their lives. Eulogies, final letters to loved ones, and time spent inside a coffin form part of the experience. Vice Magazine sent Yuka Uchida to have her own creepy “Well Dying” experience in the woods near Seoul.231

  Uchida found the process useful in some capacity, suggesting that “by telling you that this is your final day, and making you focus on nothing but yourself, then making you enter the private space, the casket, this session creates an ideal opportunity for contemplation.”

  On a more modest scale, a company called LivesOn offers “your social afterlife.” Those obsessed with Twitter can now depart this realm knowing that “when your heart stops beating, you’ll keep tweeting.” In a review of it, Theo Merz notes that the service, if it worked well, would allow us to get the three things he says everyone longs for: “1. To cheat death. 2. To see ourselves as others see us. 3. To have a second version of ourselves, which could deal with the drudgery of the everyday.”232