Do you know who Heinrich Kluver & Paul Busy are? In the late 1800’s they discovered through experimentation that the rhesus monkeys they experimented on who had their amygdales lesioned had profound behavioral shifts. These monkeys, who were caught in the wild would always react violently or aggressively with people. Monkeys who had a lesion became docile, and allowed people to poke & pinch them.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11060/

What was later discovered was that electrically stimulating, as opposed to destroying the applicable part of the amygdala creates a “rage response”.

http://www.ane.pl/pdf/3355.pdf

please note that artificial stimulation would make anger under these circumstances an involuntary response.

Now, you do understand that MANY human achievements have taken place since Kluver & Busy’s discovery (e.g. Cellphones, Computers, human aviation, the internet) but neuroscience never stopped progressing!

At this point in time, the entire human brain has been mapped out, including all primary motor and somatosensory functions.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/lif...

This means that scientists have determined the areas of the brain responsible for things down to an eye blink or a nose twitch, but this is laughably old news (you knew all of this, right?)

Did you know that mind-reading technology exists today?

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/mind...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/31/mind...

http://www.techpark.net/2008/12/17/scientists-extr...

Some mind-reading products are now being sold to the public at large:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/thought-con...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/necomimi-br...

How great is it to be able to play a video game with your mind? Although some would see this as a waste of mind-reading technology.

Why would you care to sell a fancy controller to the public when you could instead keep mind-reading quiet and monitor the thoughts of foreign leaders? Seems like a simple choice, right?

And they’d never know if you wired them up using nanomachines:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/02/body-impla...

We know now that mind-reading technology is capable of RECEIVING information from our brains. Our brains are communicating with these devices. If mankind is capable of creating devices which can receive signals from our brains, do you really think that the creation and use of devices which can SEND information to our brains is a feat mankind is incapable of achieving?

Now let’s take a step back. Remember what you learned about your amygdala? Artificial stimulation of the amygdala unbeknownst to the target will produce an involuntary response. Our brains are biochemical machines DESIGNED to respond to certain stimuli, and artificial stimulation would simply be an exploitation of how we are built. If someone shocked the area of your amygdala responsible for anger, the “rage response” it is designed to prompt would occur.

Now what if you could use artificial stimulation WITH artificial thoughts? You could make people think and act in ways that they may not otherwise. This is especially true is people with certain psychological profiles are subjected to such treatments.

Imagine someone with little or no friends, and a lot of angst was targeted. For weeks this person is the recipient of a barrage of thoughts almost indistinguishable from his own such as “how dare they…” “they’re not getting away with that..” all being sent to him remotely, and in conjunction with the stimulation of the area of his amygdala responsible for anger. Eventually, the messages creep towards “I think I’m going to get a gun” and “I think I’ll do it today”.

If you invest enough time (weeks, months, years) you could likely create a person capable of homicide. But because of the nature of the rage response, you wouldn’t end up with a cold, and calculating killer, but more likely something along the lines of a “school shooter”, at least for now.

At this juncture I need to clearly state that all murderers are solely responsible for their own actions, but I will also state a few facts independent of opinion:

1: This technology exists

2: This research field is not being properly regulated

3: as with everything, the potential for abuse exists

4: unknowing & vulnerable populations have been exploited before, and as recently as 2005 when experimental AIDS medication was given to foster kids unbeknownst to them

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/135182383.html#...

I look forward you “your” responses.