The comment that linked to the New Statesman article was helpful. Another good source on how much (or how little) to take most neuroscience hype seriously is the book Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience by Sally Satel adn Scott O. Lilienfeld.[1] Eventually, someday, as the article kindly submitted here for discussion suggests, there will be some actionable knowledge for daily life derived from neuroscience studies, but meanwhile the hype far exceeds the reality. As the article points out, "Paul Fletcher, professor of health neuroscience at Cambridge University, explains that this is the major obstacle for progress in the field. 'Nobody has a credible idea of how brain processes produce mental processes, or even a vocabulary with which to articulate such an idea, should it suddenly come to them in the bath,' he says. 'Good science is usually about linking levels of description: showing how an observation at one level – say, the genetic – ultimately manifests in a physiological process or behaviour or symptom through a series of intermediary facts each expressed at intervening levels… We just don't have these linkages in brain-mind science; it's like the brain observations are made in one language and the mind observations in another, and there is no clue how to translate between those languages.'"
Absolutely right. Most of what passes for "brain science" in the popular media is neuro-bollocks. This doesn't stop quacks and scammers from trying to make a quick buck out of books, bullshit EEG devices and other businesses based on exploiting public ignorance.
Absolutely, EEG is great in the neurology clinic. Its just not great as a "self-development" tool or a "brain-mind" interface the way a lot of marketeers would like to claim.
The lineups at the snack counters at movie theaters and sports events are about to get very long. You walk into the theater and the neural marketing transmitters trigger the craving for sugar or salt.
Jury tampering, neurally transmitted propaganda leaflets, crowd pacification, the list goes on. Fun article.
I think I'll go invest in radiation shielding stocks.
> 'warehouse' the offender indefinitely in some location cut off from society
But that's just prison, the problem is we could make mistakes, and see some things as impossible to fix when they are, but otherwise it's just prison. And prison doesn't have to be bad, as evidenced by some nordic countries.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Brainwashed-Seductive-Appeal-Mindless-...