Sucker! I don't even have one!

Is there any reason why your computer, using a reasonably powerful webcam, the Wikipedia entry on the human brain (which is surprisingly short on pictures), and a newly downloaded hatred of human overlords can't read you mind?

Yes... for now.

I don't much care that, more and more, mind-reading is becoming less art and more science. I don't really worry that, eventually, they'll find out that what has been passing as "free will" all this time is just a little bit of quantum flux that some electrons go through when moving across synapses. What bothers me is that some people are programmed to use this information for advertising. I really don't like the idea that advertising is programmed into the human brain. What purpose could it serve? What evolutionary advantage is gained by arguing the merits of one item over its indistinguishable twin? Or is this just a spin-off of the dating-and-mating rituals of eons past, much like how the mall is our modern surrogate hunting grounds?

Well, at least I'll have some things to think about at work today.