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I think it feels wrong because for all of human history a person could take for granted a degree of anonymity while among strangers, and more and more that seem

I think it feels wrong because for all of human history a person could take for granted a degree of anonymity while among strangers, and more and more that seems to be no longer the case. Forever, if someone recognized you, chances are you recognized them. People were either within some extended social circle or they were not, and this social circle was face-to-face. Now, we have something of an arms race going on with respect to anonymity, or the lack thereof. Maybe someone will scan me and identify me. What's my recourse? Either I go about in disguise, or I scan everyone around me in order to equalize things. How could all this not feel strange or wrong? Based on the norms of 10,000 years of human society, it's either a-social or downright anti-social.

AstralStorm 11y ago
What if this is actually hypersocial instead? Given enough information, everyone could approach cold reader's peak performance at a glance with additional biography. Sort of creepy - mostly because you can use such information to manipulate people. But like any knowledge it can be used to break ice, strike interesting conversations and broaden one's circle of acquaintances. Or it could be used to build new tribalism. The most problematic part is being able to cut loose and erase the past. This used to be much easier in the past - you just moved far enough and most everybody didn't know what you did.
SixSigma 11y ago
> I think it feels wrong because for all of human history a person could take for granted a degree of anonymity I think for most of human history, humans knew the majority of the other humans within travelling distance and people were wary of strangers because there was no reciprocal trust relationship.