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"The thing that I'm most interested in at the moment is the so-called Infinite Energy solution - the possibility of finding new ways of tapping into virtually limitless sources of energy."
- Arthur C. Clarke

Probe Screen Hood  
  A device that blocks attempts to see into the contents of the brain mind.  

When some humans gain telepathic abilities, they try to subjugate the normals. Should people with the power to determine with certainty the contents of your mind also have the political power to control you and control society?

He had done nothing disloyal. Nothing, except open the morning mail, find the hood, deliberate about it, and finally put it on. He remembered the small instruction tag:

GREETINGS! This probe screen is sent to you with compliments of the maker and the earnest hope that it will be of some value to you. Thank you.

...Should he wear it? He had never done anything. He had nothing to hide - nothing disloyal to the Union. But the thought fascinated him. If he wore the hood his mind would be his own. Nobody could look into it. His mind would be long to him again, private, secret, to think as he wished, endless thoughts for no one else's consumption but his own...

There was some sort of an Anti-Immunity bill up in Congress to make wearing of a probe screen a felony, but it hadn't been passed yet-

Technovelgy from The Hood Maker ('Immunity'), by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Imagination in 1955
Additional resources -

Here's another bit:

He tapped his hood. "This alloy - opaque to probes. Discovered by accident, by one of these men. Teeps came after him instantly, but he escaped.

"The teeps can't file a framed report on a man whose mind is opaque to probes... The teeps have to get the hoods off... If a man is innocent why shouldn't he want his mind probed? The bill makes wearing a probe shield a felony."

"Teeps" are telepathic humans.

I can find quotes for the opposite idea - see the entry for the Control Helmet from a 1938 story by Edmund Hamilton.

Compare to the Tin Foil Hat (Tin Pulpit) from The Tissue-Culture King (1927) by Julian Huxley, which is apparently the original story from which the "tin foil hat" idea is taken. See also the thought screen helmet from Gray Lensman (1942) by E.E. 'Doc' Smith

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Hood Maker ('Immunity')
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to The Hood Maker ('Immunity')
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

Probe Screen Hood-related news articles:
  - 'Brain Breathalyzer' For Astronauts

Articles related to Surveillance
India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
LingYuan Vehicle Roof Drones Now Available, ala Blade Runner 2049
Chameleon Personalized Privacy Protection Mask
Spherical Police Robot Rolls In China

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