When preparing to investigate the Nomads:
"...tediously worked out equations indicating psychological probabilities..."
-CHAPTER VII, p. 51.
When preparing to fool a lie detector:
"Trevelyan sat back, and took conscious control of his heartbeat, encephalic rhythms, and sweat secretion."
-CHAPTER VIII, p. 59.
We remember Valti's equations and the Psychotechnic Institute's physiological researches in the opening stories of this future history series. The past is not explicitly mentioned but nevertheless is implicitly present in the future.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But the narcoquizzes or hypnoprobes of the Technic timeline would have defeated these methods used by Trevelyan Micah. Or even just a spell under sensory deprivation might have gotten him to crack.
Ad astra! Sean
There's actually an experimental lie-detector which doesn't use stress as a proxy for lying; apparently there's a characteristic "intent to deceive" pattern in a specific location in the brain which can be detected.
If that's perfected, it's going to make a big difference!
The only way to fool it would be the one Flandry used with Aycharaych, somehow convincing yourself that you were telling the truth.
Incidentally, think of what the ability to reliably detect falsehood would do to interrogations.
There's a scene in H. Beam Piper's SPACE VIKING, in which someone is put under a "verdicator", which functions as an infallible lie-detector. The interrogator says that the light will stay green unless the subject tries to lie... and if it turns red, he's going to beat the subject's teeth in with his pistol-butt.
That would be a much more effective threat in those circumstances, where a lie could be instantly proven.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Very interesting, the potential new kind of lie detector you discussed. But I don't think knowledge obtained thru this new device would be admissible evidence in US courts. Because the V Amendment of the US Constitution states no one can be forced to testify against himself. The device you mentioned as being studied would mainly be useful for intelligence work, not cases at law.
But, yes, this possible new device would greatly reduce any NEED to use any brute physical torture for obtaining information. Unless the interrogator was a sadist, of course.
Ad astra! Sean
There is also a scene where the 'veridicator' is used during a legal hearing. In "Little Fuzzy" IIRC.
Witness are attached to the veridicator during testimony.
See also 'Fast Penta' in L.M. Bujolds Vorkosigan stories, both the use to get truth & countermeasures to make it less useful.
"somehow convincing yourself that you were telling the truth."
That might be easier and more common than we think.
Apparently every time we recall something, to a large extent we are reconstructing the memory to some extent, which modifies it. This might be the way the mind works to pare memories down to the most useful stuff.
In any case this is part of what makes eyewitness testimony much less useful than is generally thought.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory_syndrome and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovered-memory_therapy
Kaor, Jim!
Exactly, eyewitness testimony is so often and notoriously unreliable. Even if the subject being interrogated thinks he is being truthful it's still possible he's wrong.
Ad astra! Seanj
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