Says Simon

Movies on the family brain: As Sascha's Avatar skit gets canned by Oscar, eruditer cuz SBC (Simon Baron-Cohen) is talkin' Blade Runner-n- iris scanning over on HuffP.

In reference to the aforeposted tome, The Empathic Civilization, Simon ponders a future in which there's testing for empathy and cautions that what looks like e may not always be e, but rather, moral rule-following, convention, acting -- or even shyness.

"What if we hold doors open, or hand in wallets, or give birthday presents for the same reasons we use a knife and fork to eat, or drive on the left, or stop at a red traffic light?"

But don't worry, science to the rescue:

"As yet there is no fool-proof test of empathy, yet given its growing importance within cognitive neuroscience, it won't be long before there is one. The advent of functional neuroimaging is making it possible to see beneath surface behaviour, to establish if the typical neural circuitry for empathy is (or is not) being employed, when someone says they care."

Ooooh, I can't wait.