Morendil comments on What visionary project would you fund? - Less Wrong
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I admit that I stole this one from Sam Harris.
He suggests that if you improved the neuroscience of lie detection and then implemented it in politics that the implications would be huge. Even if it weren't 100% effective, the threat of using it would be enough to deter many. Current lie detection is based on thing like thermal and electrical readings of the skin. However, these are really inaccurate compared to a potential neuroscientific approach.
Check out Halperin's The Truth Machine.
Actually, I just read that for some reason. My take was that it was way too utopian, didn't give much thought to the endless ways people would try to circumvent it, and in retrospect its forecasts for American crime and global nuclear terrorism were hilariously wrong. (Although I am generally in favor of massively increased honesty and truth machines.) The writing was kind of wooden, but apparently it was Halperin's first novel.
Or maybe "the invention of lying". Probably less philosophical though.