As a follow-up to my recent note on John McAfee and his book on the Hindu “yamas”, I read a bit more about the Belize murder case against him. The circumstances of that murder still seem fishy, and Mr. McAfee’s hypothetical role in it certainly does seem plausible. But McAfee seems to be off the hook now that he’s back in the States. Or is he?<\/p>\n
There’s an interesting article on the Sci Am web site about new techniques for “lie detecting”<\/a>. These techniques are based on “big data” studies of people’s behavior and language usage, not on “high tech” solutions such as sodium pentothol<\/a> injections or wired lie detectors that monitor heart rates, brain wavelengths, skin tension, etc. <\/p>\n All you need now are some videos and e-mails of a suspected liar discussing things that relate to the “secret” that the person might be hiding. The big data studies show emerging trends and differences in what is said and how it is said between liars and truth-tellers. <\/p>\n Has anyone analyzed Mr. McAfee about the murder of his next door neighbor right after some of McAfee’s dogs were poisoned? In fact, someone has! A high-tech company called “QVerify” reviewed<\/a> several of McAfee’s TV and internet interviews about the case, and has posted an analysis of its findings<\/a>. QVerify was founded by former CIA officers and specializes in deception detection. They make their money applying techniques that one of their partners had developed for the CIA. That methodology is based on the analysis of verbal and non-verbal behaviors exhibited in response to questions. They claim that this is not just psycho-babble, but is real hard science. The article in Sci Am seems to affirm this. <\/p>\n The QVerity verdict on McAfee: the company found “a high level of deception exhibited by McAfee”. So, unless you are a cold-blooded sociopath, be careful today whenever you try to fudge the truth, especially in front of a camera or on a web site or smart phone. We no longer live in a private world (as Edward Snowden reminded us; I hope he enjoys his stay in a police-state-in-the-making, or re-making actually). We increasingly need to assume that everything<\/em> we say and do is digitally recorded and is available to someone with power or fortune. Young people especially seem resigned (or even enthusiastic) about having their daily lives captured on Facebook and YouTube. So comb your hair and smile, because big brother is watching indeed!<\/p>\n This technology may really be great for law enforcement and criminal justice. I wonder what it would show if applied to George Zimmerman? I suspect that he would get mixed grades, for lies mixed in with truths. I further suspect that most of us would get similar grades for discussing almost anything important about ourselves. <\/p>\n Verity techniques are becoming more and more reliable, and I’m sure that affordable lie-detecting software will soon be available to the public. So if you suspect that your wife or husband is cheating, or you just want to really know if your spouse thinks you are getting fat and dowdy, get them to talk about it on tape or camera (an I-Phone or Pad will do just fine), then keep an eye on their Facebook page for any and all comments to their friends about you. Run it thru the spiffy new truth software, and NOW YOU KNOW.<\/p>\n Are we human beings, along with our social structures, really ready for 100% honesty? WELCOME TO THE BRAVE NEW WORLD!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a follow-up to my recent note on John McAfee and his book on the Hindu “yamas”, I read a bit more about the Belize murder case against him. The circumstances of that murder still seem fishy, and Mr. McAfee’s hypothetical role in it certainly does seem plausible. But McAfee seems to be off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,23,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3591,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions\/3591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}