Looking for the Lie

The NY times Magazine is tailored to an adult audience both educated and informed. They want to feel included in the happenings of the world. The NY times magazine contains articles that focus on politics, current events, and various topics of interest. The article, "Looking for the Lie," by Robin Marantz Henig, would fall under a interest topic related to a current event.

The author raises two important views on the subject of lie detection. First, the major component of the article is the supposed need for a more accurate, nearing fool proof lie detection device. The audience would agree that a fool proof lie detection device will help to solve some the problems in our society, such as a more effective, although far from full proof, defense against terrorism. The second issue the author introduces is the potential problems with a full proof lie detector. The article describes an environment in which no one can lie, and everything you say is either truthful or known to be a lie. As a reader, this scares me in a way that media is supposed to scare it's audience. I, like most of the group of people targeted by this article, rather enjoy my secrets, and my ability to keep things from other people. Such things make me feel safe. The article points out an analogy to the Manhattan Project that applies perfectly. A technology that is developed for potential good, for potential protection, that in the hands of certain people could become a very destructive force. For the Manhattan Project, it was the atomic bomb, which could (and did), very directly, cause a huge impact. For this article, it is the removal of deception, which could lead to a breakdown in society.

The article was written to inform an educated, and influential audience about the pros and cons of lie detection. The author does a decent job in showing the two sides of the situation and how they are being reached. The author allows for the audience to pick their own side to support and influence. I think that the author is pushing more toward convincing the audience that the lie detection technology has a great many negative effects, and few positive. The author points out the applications of absolute lie detection, and how it is currently being developed, but then straying from facts provides a speculative future in which society crumbles around the truth.