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ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/b ... d=10243784]Brain's Moral Compass Shifted With Magnets

Basically, MIT researchers were able to turn off people's morals by applying magnetic fields to certain parts of their brains. (For example, the response to a hypothetical event that could have killed someone but didn't was changed from "that could have been bad so don't do that" to "no harm, no foul".) When the fields were removed, the subjects' morals returned.

Miniaturize the gear so its wearable, put it in mass-produced helmets, and issue the helmets to your loyal underlings, and you've got an less-moral goon squad... No wonder the stereotypical Evil Overlords issue helmets with the uniforms they supply to their henchmen. Or force the henchmen to buy, for truly evil Evil Overlords.

(In Fenspace, this is obviously Boskonian standard-issue equipment. In an In Nomine game, Vapula's been busy...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

There was a "Mentalist" episode that had something like this.

(Though in that case it was a hoax.)

-Morgan.

robkelk Wrote:ABC News: Brain's Moral Compass Shifted With Magnets
Basically, MIT researchers were able to turn off people's morals by applying magnetic fields to certain parts of their brains. (For example, the response to a hypothetical event that could have killed someone but didn't was changed from "that could have been bad so don't do that" to "no harm, no foul".) When the fields were removed, the subjects' morals returned.  

They were only about 15% more likely to respond that way, however, so it's not a sure thing by any means. And anyway, going from a "you could have harmed someone" to "no harm, no foul" is becoming only slightly more amoral. I'd be more concerned if they were able to make people's reactions to a hypothetical event that did kill someone go from "that's terrible" to "oh well, it's not like it was me".
Chris Davies.