Next Civil Rights Battle Will Be Over the Mind, page 1

Clive Thompson on Why the Next Civil Rights Battle Will Be Over the Mind

www.wired.com...

Trolling down the street in Manhattan, I suddenly hear a woman's voice.

"Who's there? Who's there?" she whispers. I look around but can't figure out where it's coming from. It seems to emanate from inside my skull.

Was I going nuts? Nope. 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. In this case, the cable channel A&E was using the technology to promote a show about, naturally, the paranormal.

The good news is that scholars are holding conferences to hash out legal positions. But we'll need a broad public debate about it, too. Civil liberties thrive only when the public demands them — and understands they're at risk. That means we need to stop seeing this stuff as science fiction and start thinking about how we'll react to it. Otherwise, we could all lose our minds

Now it is interesting technology, but the author brings up good points. This is absolutely force feeding ad's down your throat. I don't like ads, I think they are too invasive as it is. I really don't like the idea of them being jammed into our heads weather we like it or not.

The more sinister applications of the technology is also worrisome.