(no subject)

[supergee]

The inventor of the polygraph later dreamed up Wonder Woman. Really. I have often imagined him chortling like one of the villains in one of his stories: "If they believed the lie-detecting machine, they'll have no trouble believing the bullet-catching bracelets." His intellectual descendants promise us a similar device that will detect the fear in terrorists, presumably a cowardly, superstitious lot. Bruce Schneier discusses.

Comments

[bcholmes]

"failed voodoo"?

[supergee]

I agree with Ishmael Reed that referring to Reagan's "voodoo economics" is unfair to voodoo, and I could see the same objection to using the term for the primitive belief that machines can detect lies.