EXPERT: Future Hackers Could Wipe Peoples Memories

A top futurist and former advisor to the FBI and Interpol warns that criminal hackers could one day kidnap people with AI-enhanced brains and threaten to wipe their memories in return for a ransom.

Marc Goodman, who has also worked with the US Secret Service, told Singularity Hub of his concerns about mind reading and neurohacking

Asked to imagine the weirdest future crime scenario, Goodman responded, “I think holding people’s memories hostage in demand of an extortion payment would be a fairly horrific crime. Of course, this is all theoretical now. We do not have the capacity to do this. But I thoroughly believe it will be forthcoming.”

Goodman also pointed to recent experiments with EEG technology which illustrated how brain waves could be read to obtain someone’s credit card pin number 30% of the time.

“I think we’ll see more of that, which could lead to all kinds of problems. Forget memorizing passwords—somebody could just pull that data from a brain scan,” said Goodman.

The futurist also pointed to new treatments for veterans suffering with PTSD that can isolate and minimize bad memories.

“Once organized crime figures out how to do this, I could see a horrific scenario wherein somebody is kidnapped and threatened that unless they pay an exorbitant sum, their lifelong memories of their wife or daughter would be erased,” warned Goodman.

Martine Rothblatt, the transgender founder of Sirius and America’s highest paid female CEO, has developed a rudimentary version of the technology, uploading a clone of her partner’s personality to a robot head called Bina 48.

Rothblatt predicts that within 20 years, mind clones will be humanity’s biggest invention. Whether or not most people will be able to afford such technology is another matter.

[Source]