My mentally ill daughter sometimes felt that her thoughts were broadcast on a store's public address system. Various logical questions didn't persuade her that she was mistaken.
Not so long ago, I thought I would be interested in comparative legal systems. I know that college courses in comparative education are about the similarities and differences between the educational systems of different countries. What age do children start school? How many years do they attend school? Questions like that are covered. I have heard that the Anglo-American system of courtroom procedure, with opposing attorneys, one for defense and one for prosecution is not used in some other countries. I was curious about differences in what is legal and what isn't, and differences in procedure and concepts of justice, proof, etc.
Today, I received an email from Amazon advertising a Kindle book called "Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" by Friedman and others for $5. I am definitely interested. When I saw the title, I remembered thinking I would like to know of a book about the subject of comparative legal systems. I realized that my daughter might have been convinced that Amazon can read my thoughts, knew of my interest and my thoughts, and sent me a message about their book.
I am not convinced that company, or anybody else, can read my thoughts. Sometimes, I myself have trouble knowing what I am thinking. I did see an article the other day about turning brain waves into speech:
https://www.google.com/search?q=scientists+turn+brain+waves+into+speech
I have read some of "Into the Gray Zone" by Adrian Owen, who has worked for years on the problem of people being alive and conscious but unable to communicate. I think he did use certain sorts of brain waves to detect their condition and maybe even to communicate with them. I can imagine criminal lawyers asking a judge to require a robbery suspect to wear brain wires so others can see his brain reaction to questions about where he was on the night of the crime.
I have seen items about Amazon's interest in sending people things their computers predict they want before any orders are placed. But I think it most likely that the email about an interesting book was selected for delivery to me by algorithms that analyze data about my choices and others like me and consider the odds of my buying and the cost of sending me a message. I may well have searched more than once for comparative legal systems.
The book starts with the sentence:
Almost forty years ago I became interested in the legal system of saga-period Iceland, a society where if you killed someone his relatives sued you.
Friedman, David. Legal Systems Very Different from Ours . School of Law, Santa Clara University. Kindle Edition.
