sample scene    FILM CONCEPT (WG#: 862879):    more

A "downloadable realtime virtual streaming polygraph" 

uncontrollably loosed into public use,

after which (proliferating

like 'search engines' or a MediaPlayer

app/plugin) "Big Daddy Truth" is brought to bear on a

stunned "Big Brother" ...through voice & face

analysis, etc, how Power speaks to the People will

never be the same.  Candidates debating will anxiously

watch two monitors in the future--one, standard

digital live broadcast, and the second,

LieJinx.com--in realtime, with 'pinnochio' selected,

the subject's nose will enlarge with each attempted

deception & be webcast throughout cyberspace.  While

the 'entertainment' value of the display is obvious,

it will be rooted in a serious system designed with

all possible science & forensic rigor, hence it cannot

be easily dismissed or debunked, and hence the

thriller undertow of the plot.  The Powers that Be

could plausibly consider murder & mayhem to prevent

it, knowing that, once out there, the genie will never

consent to life in the bottle again, come whatever

else may.  

Warts & All, A New Day.  

And, incidently, the system works best against the

most powerful--a database of Political & Corporate

leadership is established & kept current, so that

personal speaking mannerisms, etc, enhance the

'default' veracity of the subject in question.

Big Brother will have to answer for his excesses, in

an unprecedented, unspinnable, uncontrollable and

universal 'hotseat' throughout cyberspace.

LieJinx.com     Big Brother will Never Get Over it

                "And, Or/Well --We'll See"

THE MATH IS FUZZY, DARK AND DEEP

At least to this observer.  But some codewhacks in San

Jose, in cahoots with a cadre of rogue elephants from

germane disiplines, are claiming to be near a

"demonstrably reliable" virtual streaming polygraph,

using, in conjuction with FACS (Facial Action Coding

System) and Vocal Analysis Software, an as yet

undisclosed & essentially 'uncharted' "interactive

biometric fields paradigm" that allows (they're

claiming) a downloadable "RealPlayer" styled

"Polypane" which will display real-time

"stress-assessment" of "unprecedented depth &

breadth".

One key new twist is this: it seems to work, but not

very well, on first exposures.

The well-known speaker is far the better subject, as a

rich "assessment-signature" can be modeled from a

broad spectrum of "public situation".  In a nutshell,

then? I had to ask, and got: ..."a personal

fractal/gestalt as projected from a dynamic

self-prompting response glossary" -- stored &

'refreshed' on demand "in a single unprecedented

software 'cueset'." 

Okay, Whatever You Say.

The claim is that the more stressful the occasion, the

more accurate are the results.  For example, prompted

as they often are by controversy or crisis, a White

House Press Conference is the planned debut for

"LieJinx", sometime "likely well within 2 months".  

In the "Polypane" (the test version I was shown) you

can click "Spikebox" or "Pinnochio".  In the former,

the measure is the needle-graph of the lie detector;

the latter (which alas can't be done real time yet)

lengthens the nose of the speaker as the responses

associated with deception under pressure occur. You

can then fast forward, rewind, or freeze the speaker's

face at maximum spike, and email the whole display to

anyone.  In a bipartisan, if winky, nod, we 'did'

Clinton. And on the nationally-irrelvant Monica

interrogation, of course he spiked all over the place.

I'm thinking big time spikeage likewise with our

current fearless leader re: "Ke, Kenny Boy? I, I/

hardly knew him."  Hmm, and What Would Jesus Do?  or:

Say?  Good for the Goose, good for the Gander?

         LieJinx:  "the first of many to come, 

                    like search engines"          

I admit this whole thing made me squeamish.  But the

beauty part, if there is one, is that this is on, for,

of, and by the Web--and as such will be a 'genie out

of the bottle'.  Sounds at first blush like a

dream-tool for Big Brother, doesn't it?

Well think again.  It's more the opposite.

It's Big Daddy Truth, lo & behold, keeping a sudden

Eye on Big Brother. An eye that, once opened, will

never close.  And fairly or not, its prime 'targets'

are the Rich and Powerful, especially those who

command and hold National Office and attention.  

Declining to answer "personal" questions will likely

find an enhanced degree of public support under these

new circumstances.  On the other hand, questions

bearing the earmark of entitlement to honest answers

will not likely be suffered to 'go begging', by a

public emboldened to demand what it always knew it

deserved, honest answers to the important questions of

policy, political vision and national direction.  That

it has--however 'soft' the 'science' behind it

remains---an automatic scrutiny--which will prove the

burden of the offended politician to 'debunk'.  Fairly

or unfairly. It appears, at any rate, to have a

scheduled rendevous with manifest destiny.  And the

video archives of the recent past will likely enhance

a perception of colloquial, but acceptable,

'veracity',

when 'tested' against established truth, much like

carbon-dating, where the already-known age of

something is independently reiterated by another

measure. 

This will not likely be admissible in any court of the

near future.  The seachange its advent implies will

issue from the colloquial acceptance of the population

it serves, and, inevitably, entertains, and not from

'hard' science.  This is by definition interpretive. 

Yet, once again, the burden of 'debunking' it as a

misbegotten e-commerce parlor game will fall to the

offended beholder.

ALL POLITICIANS will be analyzed "unspinnably"

whenever facing important and broadcast questions &

answers.  It will be universal common knowledge that

multiple analysis, from multiple sources, will occur

and be downloaded throughout cyberspace during and

after every consequential exchange between Political

Leadership and what remains of our Free Press. It

would seem the Fourth Estate has the most to regain

here, and a growing obligation to seize the moment

when it does appear.

"Pinnochio" riding shotgun against the Oily Robber

Barons of the New Millennium?  sounds like an Idea

Whose Time has Come.  We'll learn to live with it, at

any rate.  In the Name of Constitutional Security.    

Erik Hammond

Software Noir / # 8  / April 2002

Erik Hammond (aka Michael Masley) is a "virtual" Bay Area freelance writer and

"cyberethicist" living IN Berkeley, California      

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 Michael Masley     michael@liejinx.com 

See also
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