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Disclaimer: You may not agree with this. A downvote does not change that. A comment and intellectual conversation goes much further, however. A quote from the

Disclaimer: You may not agree with this. A downvote does not change that. A comment and intellectual conversation goes much further, however. A quote from the article: The insurance industry is built on mitigating downside risk. Maybe they should have everyone agree to use computers with sensors which can create accurate maps of everything people have ever done, might do, or should do. Citizens will be so much better off with this new system of fairness. We'll call it insurance instead of goverment.

mindslight 9y ago
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but for there being a lot of money to be made by not understanding where commercial surveillance is ultimately headed. The threat of government surveillance pales in comparison to the means of control that "private" industry will eventually "innovate" for the goal of "reducing risk". Drinks at dinner in the middle of the week, paid for with your surveillance card -> higher auto insurance. Not enough physical activity recorded on your wrist/chest surveillance device -> higher health "insurance". Fixing something around your house instead of hiring a manufacturer approved service company -> higher homeowners insurance. Taking a job with a startup instead of sticking with your predictable job at bigco -> higher mortgage insurance. Which could be fine if such risks were priced accurately, but the centralizers' prescriptive models of the world can never actually capture reality (eg the difference between a qualified/uncredentialed repairman and a credentialed/unqualified one). Instead, it will mainly be used for price discrimination to gouge those who'd like to deviate. As more people fall into line (eg sign up for the current ruse of adding a driving surveillance device to save on auto insurance), the ability to even opt out of the surveillance ("no signal") will vanish! Throw in the fact that many insurances are de facto or even de jure mandatory, and we've bootstrapped a system of mandatory restrictions (ie "laws") which are not even token-responsive to the governed. And similar to all teeth of the totalitarian ratchet, such developments will be cheered on by moralizing useful idiots gleeful that the "other" will get their comeuppance - blissfully ignorant that after the initial discount period, their rates will go right back up.

mindslight 9y ago

I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but for there being a lot of money to be made by not understanding where commercial surveillance is ultimately headed. The threat of government surveillance pales in comparison to the means of control that "private" industry will eventually "innovate" for the goal of "reducing risk". Drinks at dinner in the middle of the week, paid for with your surveillance card -> higher auto insurance. Not enough physical activity recorded on your wrist/chest surveillance device -> higher health "insurance". Fixing something around your house instead of hiring a manufacturer approved service company -> higher homeowners insurance. Taking a job with a startup instead of sticking with your predictable job at bigco -> higher mortgage insurance. Which could be fine if such risks were priced accurately, but the centralizers' prescriptive models of the world can never actually capture reality (eg the difference between a qualified/uncredentialed repairman and a credentialed/unqualified one). Instead, it will mainly be used for price discrimination to gouge those who'd like to deviate. As more people fall into line (eg sign up for the current ruse of adding a driving surveillance device to save on auto insurance), the ability to even opt out of the surveillance ("no signal") will vanish! Throw in the fact that many insurances are de facto or even de jure mandatory, and we've bootstrapped a system of mandatory restrictions (ie "laws") which are not even token-responsive to the governed. And similar to all teeth of the totalitarian ratchet, such developments will be cheered on by moralizing useful idiots gleeful that the "other" will get their comeuppance - blissfully ignorant that after the initial discount period, their rates will go right back up.