Law enforcement technologyA machine that predicts crime
The very effort by individuals who are intent on committing a crime to mask their intent has detectable physiological manifestations; it should thus be possible to build a sensor which would identify these manifestations and correlate them with the underlying malintent
The French edition of Slate offers a detailed analysis of a DHS project called Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST). The concept underlying FAST is based on “la théorie de la ‘imalintention’… , l’intention de faire du mal.” The theory asserts that the behavior of individuals who are intent on doing something bad – terrorists, criminals – changes in subtle ways as a result of the very efforts by these individuals to hide, or mask, their intentions from the authorities and fellow citizens. Since such efforts have physiological manifestations, it should be possible to detect these manifestations and correlate them with the underlying intent.
