Originally in : The Solaris Book of New SF 2.
A clever look at how a technological advance could impact on aspects of humanity that have been with us forever. A man is queueing up to board a plane, and following terrorist actions, the technology now in place is able to look deep into the mind. As he approaches the scanner his mantra is that he has committed no crime. And this is true enough. Except that lurking in his mind there is an attraction to a certain kind of criminal activity, and, no matter how far below the surface it is, the scanner finds it. And it fixes it. Watts looks at the implications against the man’s lapsed christianity, and the role of free will and self-determinatin.
