Mind reading devices: To know WHAT you're thinking, or to make sure you're NOT thinking...

The powers that be are funding research into devices that can use patterns in  (most peoples') brain activity and correlate from that data what people are thinking. We are being told, for the most part, that this is a good thing. That the purpose of this technology is to allow for a better human/machine interface. A technology that would allow disabled people to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see.
That it will allow us to compute with ease, guide aircraft and vehicles more efficiently, and operate surgical robots and exploratory drones in ways we could only imagine previously.
Wonders! Miracles! Progress!
A technological Eden is almost upon us!

Yeah... right.
I think we've heard this one before. Many times.
This, like so many other developments, is another game of 'watch the birdy'.
The technology itself, if developed along these lines, could have some of these benefits. But technology is a tool.
It is the end result of an engineered concept. A concept can be engineered in many ways. Both good and evil uses for any concept are obvious.
The same technology used to identify your face print and give you access to secure areas or data can be mounted on a pole and scan passers by for purposes of control. The same technology engineered to help you find a location or avoid heavy traffic can be used to track your every move. The same devices that we use to communicate with our loved ones or make business transactions are used to listen in on us. The same technology used to give you affordable electricity to run all your household appliances and gadgets can be used to incinerate the city, town, or country in which you live.
Not only can it all be used this way it has and will be used this way.
So how could a device that reads neural patterns to 'interface' with machines be used in a bad way?
Well, dear reader, let's get those neural patterns going, shall we?
Imagine the same machinery put to use to scan people unwittingly.
Imagine the potential to locate and isolate dissent from political ideas.
'You do not agree with Mr X's policy, and we want to know why?' The posing of this question would result in the answer.
The operators would know the moment you pondered it. You would not have to verbally respond. The machine would tell them why.
Well, for most people anyway.
How about those people who do not think the same way as the herd?
What about the ones that are difficult to read?
The people who have trained themselves not to think in a predictable pattern, or those who naturally are different.
Would they be perceived as 'dangerous' to the people behind the curtain?
They already are, but with the advent of this technology the operators would be able to instantly identify them. Would they be exiled, medicated, imprisoned, or worse?
This would be the ultimate step towards mental control and conformity. The enforcement of specific patterns of thought.
Or worse still....
What could be worse than the monitoring of your every thought?
The expulsion of them.
There is a theme in the methods of these madmen.
It is a reductionist theme. They want everything nice and simple. Easy to control. Machine like. They always have, and now the have come closer to realizing their nightmare scenarios than ever before.
Those of you familiar with George Orwell's classic 1984 will be familiar with the concept of 'newspeak'. This is an excellent example of the concept in fiction.
In order to reduce the ability of the oppressed populace of this dystopia from formulating any ideas of revolt or change, the language itself is dumbed down. Words and sentence forms are made illegal and flagged. People who break the language laws disappear, are broken, publicly confess to 'thought crime' and are executed one they are forgotten.
Some would argue this has already begun, and I see some validity in that argument. Words have been redefined for political ends. Entire ideologies made effectively illegal via policy. The language is being dumbed down; and it seems this is a deliberate process.
But, the comparison lies here: The reason for 'thought crime' was not to control creative thought in the masses. It was to eliminate it.
This concept, applied to the technology of mind sifting, could very easily be realized without the need to go through all the complex language and cultural restrictions - that could provoke a revolt - described by 20th century authors like Orwell.
Consider for a moment: What would Stalin, Hitler, or Mao have done with this power of mind over their people?
Just look what the got away with, without it!
With this technology engineered just so, the next ascendant tyrant can verify the elimination of thought. Force us to self sensor in the desired fashion. Make sure we are nice and stupid, on a cerebral level.
You could not play stupid, you would have to be stupid - or you would be detected and removed from the group. Intelligence would be a challenge to authority, and easily detected by the patterns in your head. 
The drones these people would want to control are the masses. 
The machine interface, in this view, would allow the machines to monitor and control the populace.
Those in control of the machines would be literal slave masters. Perhaps a high caste would be a better wording. Maybe they would allow some other, less powerful but loyal sycophantic classes lord over the slaves who would make up the vast majority of humanity. The humanity they deem worthy of breeding and continuing on, that is. 
And the 'well bred' slaves and their task masters themselves?
They better be useful. They better work hard, better keep their heads down, better owe all their loyalties to their masters or they themselves could be replaced by machines.
No room for quaint notions of things like constitutions or God in this brave new interfaced world. No such thing as 'rights'. Just patterns.
Correct patterns and defective patterns.

Dear reader, I hope I am wrong about all this. That these predictions are just that: A guess about what may happen if these ideas are abused. I pray that is so.
But, is this just paranoia?
Do we not already live in a world were we are monitored and controlled increasingly for 'security' reasons, and yet we are constantly reminded of increasing dangers? Do we not live in a world were all the forms of entertainment and mental stimulation are being increasingly dumbed down? A world where vulgarity has replaced subtlety? A world in which people believe freedom (for race, class etc) comes in the form of a government issued cheque? A world in which women parade about for their 'right' to kill their own offspring? A world were we are taught stupid is smart, and smart is stupid? A world in which we are constantly bombarded with the idea the good and evil are relative and to rely on some temporal ruling class to define what is good and what is evil for us? A world were we are judged by what we have, and not who we are?
How far of a stretch is it then to imagine these same forces at work in our halls of power would not abuse a technology that allows them to peer into the very interface of your mind with the physical world?
This has been a long game, dear reader.
We must not allow a check-mate.

"For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. "
Mark 13:22

May God bless and keep you all.
IHSv