Some people imagine a world with no crime.  Others long to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. 

Me? I'm wondering if we shouldn't be strapping Fred from logistics with the Sparkamatic 5000 across his head, to serve as an early warning system for mistakes.  Of course, to make sure everybody in the company doesn't expect one, we'll call it a trial.

From Scientific Amercian (it's on my coffee table, how about yours?):

"In recent years researchers have identified a region of the brain called the medial frontal cortex that plays a central role in detecting mistakes and responding to them. These frontal neurons become active whenever people or monkeys change their behavior after the kind of negative feedback or diminished reward that results from errors.

Much of our ability to learn from flubs, the latest studies show, stems from the actions of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In fact, genetic variations that affect dopamine signaling may help explain differences between people in the extent to which they learn from past goofs.

Meanwhile certain patterns of cerebral activity often foreshadow miscues, opening up the possibility of preventing blunders with portable devices that can detect error-prone brain states.

The brain contains neural machinery for recognizing errors, correcting them, and optimizing behavior."

Interesting stuff.  Of course, I've heard we need to be getting more kids interested in science, so maybe I should be sharing this with my kids, as well.  It's pretty cool to think that we might be wearing a device in a few years to help us prevent mistakes, based on what's going on with our brain chemistry.

I can hear the question now - "What are you?  A brain surgeon?"  "Well no, but I'm wearing a Blackberry on my hip that subscribes to the T-Mobile "Early Warning" service.  HR is doling out free subscriptions of the service, and they said I'd be perfect for the trial period."

What an honor.  Just don't think through the trial participant selection process too much.