Assuming political affiliation can be deduced or implied through brain scans, what would be the consequence?

[ConsentAccidentVictimNo98]

As we all know, we have often tried to measure and judge the perplexing machine that is the brain and trying to figure out how precisely it makes us act. How, we're subject to it and how it can influence our lives. Specifically, in this great pit of wisdom that is known as deep thoughts where only the very best appear I am intrigued with the potential consequences of this side of neuroscience.

This really comes back to the whole "conservatives are more prone to fear" with brain scans, and how this could influence policy. For instance, will liberals in their ever expanding paternalistic sense of superiority may decide that "for the sake of society" it would be necessary for some form of "chip" to be put in place to counter this (this being one of the most likely scenarios to occur in my opinion given the significance of paternalist thought in modern day liberalism). Or, will it be determined that X is subhuman because of how their brains lead to an undesirable effect? I do suppose one could state that I have an anti-liberal bias in this, but again they were just an example I chose to place emphasis on given the liberal majority in related sectors.

As such, what would the ethical consequences be. How do we determine further action, and the correct manner to act.

 

[Ultrapenguin]

But political labels mean nothing anymore. People who were moderate democrats like 15 years ago are called far right chuds nowadays, and I'm sure shifts like that will continue to happen.

What would be more likely to happen (in a dystopian setting) is that "antisocial" brain elements would be identified via brain scan and "fixed" somehow.

In that case though it wouldn't be so big a step from modern psychiatry.

We try to examine people's brains then form them into whatever society sees as "productive" and "ordered" even though half the time we're trying to medicate away completely natural human features simply because they create conflict with an empty bug-person existence.

You could view that through a partisan political lens if you wanted, but I think that's a tad silly. It almost certainly wouldn't ever be labeled as political, it would purely be seen as making crazy people sane (by making them amenable to the establishment), and we kind of already do that.

 

[Geddy Lee's Fee and See]

I think it would justify the belief that a lot of people don't think about their political stances and their consequences, but pick them up due to social cues and the need to fit in, hence why we're in the mess we're in today. It also would justify why democratic republics are a poor system of government since it tends to enable mob rule and oligarchy over time rather than actually solving issues, which was the whole point of that method of governance.

The consequences? Almost certainly sort of corrective brainwashing like @Ultrapenguin said. There's no way any group of oligarchs won't make sure their access to money and power isn't complete by "correcting" so-called bad thoughts, whatever they might be.

 

[toad of the depths]

They figured out they could alter you by giving you brain damage with magnets. That's the logical endpoint of this.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

They wouldn't brainwash or lobotomize you, because you would be doing that to yourself. Brain-computer interfaces are the next big consoomer device, at least in 20-30 years. All they need to do is make it like a cellphone where not having one is an utter pain in the ass. Most people will voluntarily lobotomize themselves with a BCI to access the hip features like "turn a lightswitch on with a single thought." Remember, people have ceded control of their cars and houses to megacorporations and the government thanks to "smart technology" and "internet of things." "Internet of bodies" is just the next logical progression.

Your body works via a thing called "ion channels" that use proteins to transmit signals between cells. A BCI is the perfect conduit for introducing novel electrical signals into your body, like what these scientists have done with catfish. These electrical signals can be augmented with various nanoparticles which alter the amount of various chemicals in your body and with the right electromagnetic field assemble into certain sorts of proteins--basically shit that can be concealed in a vaccine or mRNA gene therapy. 5G towers are one sort of signal that works for this, but they seem to only work at close range--most likely they'll use a different sort of signal for mind control that will be omnipresent in cities. Basically it does this shit by altering the magnetic fields in and around your frontal lobe--that's extremely dangerous for your perception of the world, but it can be shaped and controlled as fit by those with the tools and technology.

That's the science behind it, so what does this mean? It means we're fucked. The government--and private business--will make sure everyone has a BCI and use shit like bankrupting you with sky-high insurance rates if you don't have one implanted. They'd probably make it mandatory for school enrollment, employment, etc. Then all they need to do is just broadcast the right signal and suddenly everyone is more or less lobotomized. They don't mind their miserable situation, they lose beliefs they held like religion and skepticism of outsiders, they become more or less zombies.

That's our future as a society, and it isn't just the US/West since China is working on/stealing the exact same shit.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Going to nitpik the premise a bit, because you really can't determine political preference biologically.

Genetically, political (and religious) preference had been shown to have very little genetic heritability (one study had it at about 0.16 IIRC). In other words, very little of your ideological preference has a genetic component. But, I'll be the first one to agree that genetics isn't the be-all end-all factor for neurodevelopment. So what if it's just a brain scan?

The initial problem is scale of what we're looking at. We can't just measure brain areas and map that to traits. Yes, there are correlations to certain areas of the brain and certain traits, but those are largely found by lesions in those areas having an exaggerated effect on several aspects of functioning (John Q Public and Joe Citizen likely have intact, functioning brains and no obvious behavioral deficits). In most neurological disorders, while a specific area might be the subject of interest, the differences being looked at are at the level of neurocircuits, or sometimes at the level of individual synapses. When we talk about neurological differences related to beliefs, such differences will likely be at the subcellular level, likely in several different areas. We have no way of measuring neurocircuits in-vivo; the best we can do is look at larger areas of the brain and judge general receptor density. And even if we could, we're talking about identifying likely minute differences, among many differences, in the trillions of synapses we have.

But even that's problematic. We can't just look at synapse x of neuron y, because not everyone has synapse x or even neuron y. The brain isn't a set circuit where some people have one chip replaced with another. It's a complex, dynamic web which will have an analogous effect as another web despite a different structure. So you're not even looking for a small difference. You're looking to completely map a series of possibly relevant neurocircuits and somehow tell that this will result in x effect. Oh, and again, you're not just looking at the neurocircuits in one area. Because different areas of the brain interconnect and influence each other.

And differences in neurocircuits or synapses are just part of the picture. You have a lot of other contributing factors that will influence overall behavior (and likely ideology). There's glial interactions, microglia interactions, long-range neuropeptide communication, CSF content and flow, possibly even the gut microbiome...

So fuck it. Let's just chuck the brain scans and give everyone a big 5 personality assessment at 24. Except correlations between personality traits (such as being "prone to fear") and ideology are weak at best, are often from heavily biased studies, and have a poor replicability. Oops.

 

[Jewthulhu]

These electrical signals can be augmented with various nanoparticles which alter the amount of various chemicals in your body and with the right electromagnetic field assemble into certain sorts of proteins--basically shit that can be concealed in a vaccine or mRNA gene therapy. 5G towers are one sort of signal that works for this, but they seem to only work at close range--most likely they'll use a different sort of signal for mind control that will be omnipresent in cities. Basically it does this shit by altering the magnetic fields in and around your frontal lobe--that's extremely dangerous for your perception of the world, but it can be shaped and controlled as fit by those with the tools and technology.

 

[TV's Adam West]

Gangster Computer God worldwide SECRET CONTAINMENT POLICY, made possible SOLY by worldwide Computer God Frankenstein Controls, especially LIFELONG CONSTANT THRESHOLD BRAIN WASH RADIO ( quiet and motionless, I can slightly hear it; repeatedly this has saved my life on the streets ). FOUR BILLION worldwide population ALL living have a Computer God CONTAINMENT POLICY BRAIN BANK BRAIN, A REAL BRAIN, in the Brain Bank Cities on the far side of the Moon, we never see.

 

[Omori Boy]

A new category of porn.

 

[The Lawgiver]

if they scanned my brain they'd probably be unable to determine what side i fit on and then cull me anyways because I wasnt pure enough.
You know, unless i punched them in the face when they tried escorting me to the killing machine chamber.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

If it was accurate I'd support state enforced abortions.