Can people be defined by high-tech algorithm?

Via Nancy

If you've seen the movie Minority Report, you'll probably recognize the term "pre-crime".

Set in the future, the storyline revolves around a revolutionary technology, dubbed "pre-crime", that's able to predict and therefore prevent crimes before they even occur. "Pre-criminals" are promptly arrested and thrown into a holding facility so they're no longer able to carry out their ill intent.

And now, it seems, the U.S. government is testing out its own pre-crime technology.

An internal Department of Homeland Security document recently revealed that the U.S. government is building a prototype screening system that uses various elements such as ethnicity, gender and heart rate to "detect cues indicative of mal-intent". Coined the Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), it's designed to track and monitor body movements, voice pitch changes, fluctuations in speech rhythm and intonation, eye movements, body heat changes and breathing patterns, among other data. Factors like occupation and age are also considered, as well as eye blink rate and pupil variation.

The U.S. government has suggested that the system may be used at airport checkpoints--the Homeland Security Department oversees the U.S. Transportation Security Administration--and is already conducting field tests in at least one undisclosed location, but which isn't an airport. FAST can potentially also be implemented at other security checkpoints including border crossings and large public gatherings such as trade conventions and sporting events.

After reading the report, my thoughts went immediately to a handful of friends whom I was sure would never make it past a FAST checkpoint. These friends of mine, probably from a lack of confidence or who are by nature painfully shy, often have shifty eyes because they can never maintain proper eye contact. Put them in an environment that is highly tensed and brimming with unfriendly government and law enforcement officers--like any U.S. airport--my friends will likely have heart palpitations, sweaty palms and eyes that look like they're about to fall right out of their socket.
In other words, FAST would eat them alive.

On the flipside, there are also con artists who are so good at their job that they can fool any high-tech, high-speed data-churning machine.

Take the polygraph, for instance, or commonly referred to as the lie detector.

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