Re: At the Airport, You Better Smile: 1984 + 23

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf () sethf com>
Date: August 23, 2007 2:34:09 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Cc: David Chessler <chessler () usa net>
Subject: Re: [IP] At the Airport, You Better Smile: 1984 + 23

[For IP, if worthy]
        Sigh ... another entry for the rile-'em-up, stoke the paranoia, file.
First, "micro-expressions" are merely the latest in a long line of
attempting to quantify telling if people are lying by looking at
physical cues.

        There's a recent Scientific American article about it here:
http://www.sciammind.com/article.cfm?articleID=0007F06E-B7AE-1522- 
B7AE83414B7F0182

        Now, this sort of thing is always very overhyped, and eventually
doesn't work well in practice - "lie detectors" (polygraph) being the
most common example. Arguably it's a security boondoggle.

        But it's got nothing to do with 1984, smiling, "restricted
rights and disappearing people...", etc. The article's writing is
almost a parody of the genre of over-the-top "ORWELL!"-screaming.

        Look at it this way: Crying wolf makes it so much harder to
convince those outside the echo chamber of real dangers such as
torture. It plays right into the hands of those who will try to
dismiss real abuses as merely lurid tales of yellow journalism.

--
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php


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