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Veridicator
A device that measured physiologic responses (biometric data) and translated it to a set of colors that unerringly reported whether or not the measured person was telling the truth. (Read the full article)
| "The Veridicator does have a flaw: it cannot detect mistaken beliefs or delusions. If a sincere member of the Flat Earth Society testifies the Earth is flat, the Veridicator will back him up! One character remarks that he wishes there was a Veridicator that could detect psychotics." (The Mad Librarian 2/9/2006 2:42:20 PM ) |
| "A similar device is the Authenticator, from the film "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" (screenplay by Paul Dehn). In the film, the device -- shaped like a circular-based cylinder -- descends from above a seated interrogatee and, under its influence, it "makes you tell the truth". Armando, a circus owner who had hidden the surviving child of the talking Apes (from "Escape...") was asked a question which he attempted to answer with a lie... but couldn't. Somehow, the device forced him to answer truthfully, prompting him to vault out of the chair and jump through a window to his death, so as not to be fully interrogated by his captors." ( 10/10/2007 7:12:59 AM ) |
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