BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY
mind-reading machines have been around for a long time. In 1895, scientist Julius Emmner believed his machine could record patterns of thoughts in the same way that sound could be recorded. Emmner took inspiration from the phonautograph, which plucked sound waves out of the air and committed their waveforms to paper. It seemed plausible to Emmner, and the world at large, that he might be able to do the same with thought.
His machine was supposed to record thoughts as “mental photographs”, which could be replayed to someone who would receive them “in an unconscious manner”. According to Emmner, mind-reading was solved: all thoughts could be recorded and nothing could be hidden. “The murderer will be conf ronted with proof of his crime and the punishment will be an easy task.”