Brain Wars: Thunderdome — in your head

Clive Thompson's excellent column in the latest (April, 2008) issue of Wired magazine addresses the high-stakes arena of the early 21st century: your intracranial wetware.

Excerpts:


I had simply encountered a new advertising medium: hypersonic sound. It broadcasts audio in a focused beam, so that only a person standing directly in its path hears the message.... I'm a geek, so my first reaction was, "Cool!" But it also felt creepy.


Do we have a right to "mental privacy?"


Will the Fifth Amendment protect you from self-incrimination by your own brain?


"To a certain extent, memories are societal properties," says Adam Kolber, a visiting professor at Princeton. "Society has always made claims on your memory, such as subpoenaing you."