I’m having a hard time imagining a scenario in which I would find this valuable in my friend groups. If I were ever unsure whether I could trust the word of a friend on an important matter, I’d think that would represent deeper issues than a mere lack of information a scan of their brain could provide. Perhaps I’m nieve or particular in some way in how I filter people.
Do you have examples for how this would aid friendships? Or the other domains you mentioned?
I could see it being very valuable but I also find the idea very frightening, and I am not someone who lies.
The traditional technology used for similar purposes in some cultures is alcohol. The idea is that as alcohol impairs thinking, it impairs the ability to lie convincingly even more. Especially considering that even if one drunk person lies successfully to another drunk person, the next day the other person can reflect on the parts they remember with a sober mind.
Thus, alcohol is an imperfect lie detector with a few harmful side effects; and in cultures where it is popular, groups of friends do this together, and conspicuously avoiding it will provide evidence against your sincerity.
If I were ever unsure whether I could trust the word of a friend on an important matter, I’d think that would represent deeper issues than a mere lack of information a scan of their brain could provide.
Friendships exist on a scale. If you switch from “a stranger” to “100% trusted person” too quickly, you probably have some unpleasant surprises waiting for you in the future. Also, friendship is not transitive, and sometimes you need to know whether you can trust a friend of a friend (even when your friend says “yes”). I know some people whom I trust, but I definitely do not trust their judgment about other people.
I am sceptical about the role of alcohol you describe and dynamics around it as a form of lie detector, but I know there’s a range of social dynamics I haven’t necessarily been exposed to in my culture.
I have been in various groups that heavily drink on occasion, but I’ve never seen any evidence of people being viewed as having something to hide were they not to drink.
I think alcohol might make people more honest but I think it’s usually things they already wanted to divulge but for lack of some courage or sense of emotional intimacy that alcohol can provide. It’s hard for me to imagine alcohol playing a similar role as a lie detector for significant factual information people strongly want to hide.
Could you offer any examples of where a real lie detector would be valuable in friendships or potential friendships?
A lot of the things I might want to know seem challenging to address via a lie detector. “Will you do anything violent or steal or intentionally damage my property,”
People likely to do those things might honestly intend not to.
I could see it potentially being useful for people having sex more on the casual side.
There’s bad actors who infiltrate, deceptively align, move laterally, and purge talented people (see Geeks, Mops, and Sociopaths) but I think that trust is a bigger issue.
High-trust environments don’t exist today in anything with medium or high stakes, and if they did then “sociopaths” would be able to share their various talents without being incentivized to hurt anyone, geeks could let more people in without worrying about threats, and people could generally evaluate each other and find the place where their strengths resonate with others.
That kind of wholesome existence is something that we’ve never seen on Earth, and we might be able to reach out and grab it (if we’re already in an overhang for decentralized lie detectors).
I’m having a hard time imagining a scenario in which I would find this valuable in my friend groups. If I were ever unsure whether I could trust the word of a friend on an important matter, I’d think that would represent deeper issues than a mere lack of information a scan of their brain could provide. Perhaps I’m nieve or particular in some way in how I filter people.
Do you have examples for how this would aid friendships? Or the other domains you mentioned?
I could see it being very valuable but I also find the idea very frightening, and I am not someone who lies.
The traditional technology used for similar purposes in some cultures is alcohol. The idea is that as alcohol impairs thinking, it impairs the ability to lie convincingly even more. Especially considering that even if one drunk person lies successfully to another drunk person, the next day the other person can reflect on the parts they remember with a sober mind.
Thus, alcohol is an imperfect lie detector with a few harmful side effects; and in cultures where it is popular, groups of friends do this together, and conspicuously avoiding it will provide evidence against your sincerity.
Friendships exist on a scale. If you switch from “a stranger” to “100% trusted person” too quickly, you probably have some unpleasant surprises waiting for you in the future. Also, friendship is not transitive, and sometimes you need to know whether you can trust a friend of a friend (even when your friend says “yes”). I know some people whom I trust, but I definitely do not trust their judgment about other people.
I am sceptical about the role of alcohol you describe and dynamics around it as a form of lie detector, but I know there’s a range of social dynamics I haven’t necessarily been exposed to in my culture.
I have been in various groups that heavily drink on occasion, but I’ve never seen any evidence of people being viewed as having something to hide were they not to drink.
I think alcohol might make people more honest but I think it’s usually things they already wanted to divulge but for lack of some courage or sense of emotional intimacy that alcohol can provide. It’s hard for me to imagine alcohol playing a similar role as a lie detector for significant factual information people strongly want to hide.
Could you offer any examples of where a real lie detector would be valuable in friendships or potential friendships?
A lot of the things I might want to know seem challenging to address via a lie detector. “Will you do anything violent or steal or intentionally damage my property,” People likely to do those things might honestly intend not to.
I could see it potentially being useful for people having sex more on the casual side.
Every subculture I’ve participated in has lowkey bad actors. The harms this causes are underrated imo.
There’s bad actors who infiltrate, deceptively align, move laterally, and purge talented people (see Geeks, Mops, and Sociopaths) but I think that trust is a bigger issue.
High-trust environments don’t exist today in anything with medium or high stakes, and if they did then “sociopaths” would be able to share their various talents without being incentivized to hurt anyone, geeks could let more people in without worrying about threats, and people could generally evaluate each other and find the place where their strengths resonate with others.
That kind of wholesome existence is something that we’ve never seen on Earth, and we might be able to reach out and grab it (if we’re already in an overhang for decentralized lie detectors).