Mind Reading (Terra Futura)

Mind Reading is the ability to read minds. It is what made brain-computer interfaces possible.

Background
Research into mind reading, a.k.a. telepathy, had been going on since 1882 when the Society for Psychical Research was founded. This society became known for exposing frauds. The founder of the Rhine Institute, Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine, also tried to find evidence of this phenomenon. None was found. In 1972, the CIA started Star Gate, a project on psychic warfare. Needless to say, it produced little information, and, by 1995, it was shut down. However, there was evidence that extra-sensory perception in some ways was real. Identical twins seemed to feel what was happening to each other. The most famous were the Psychic Twins, Linda and Terry Jamison, who were known to have predicted the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks three years in advance. This evidence was controversial. As a matter of fact, technology could do it better.

Description
Tech Level: 10-12

By the end of the Cold War, technology that could read a person's mind was becoming commonplace in science labs. These included electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging. By 2012, electroencephalography (EEG) was making its way into brain-computer interfaces that could do simple tasks. One notable application was in security. EEGs could detect an echo of a person's thoughts allowing the police to know whether someone is plotting a terrorist attack or not. There was one problem. EEGs could get confused by thought pattern similar but not quite like terrorist attack.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was different. MRI machines were different from EEGs in that they tapped directly into the brain. MRIs could detect the amount of oxygen in the blood in the brain. This MRIs more accurate. MRI machines were being used to help find out how the brain worked but not much else. MRI machines had bulky magnets which made them expensive. Overtime, however, MRIs would become more portable. This would revolutionize fighting crime.