4 ms·

Society as a whole is going to have to go through some major contortions as people get their heads wrapped around the idea that everything -- and I mean everyth

Society as a whole is going to have to go through some major contortions as people get their heads wrapped around the idea that everything -- and I mean everything -- is going to be digitized and recorded. That is precisely one of the things that give me the shivers about the society today. I understand Mr. Graber's motivation. I also agree wholeheartedly that the "reasonable expectation of privacy" rule has to be applied consistently, i.e. if a police officer can videotape me over the course of his or her work, then I should be allowed to videotape that officer. That said, what gives me the shivers is that our expectations of privacy, in general, seem to be sliding down a slippery slope of justified surveillance. The first time I read "1984", I was still in school (not even university yet) and it etched itself onto my mind precisely because it's so damn plausible. Everyone would love to think it's impossible because "we would never stand for it", but things keep changing slowly. A commonplace example is your workplace, where your employer can monitor all your activities on their computers (and I mean all, not just network communication), record your business phone calls or videotape you. Also, it has become commonplace to have to do a drug test when applying for a job. Another example is the highway toll system here in Santiago, Chile. Certain highways require you to have a device installed in your car to transit them. Instead of waiting in line at a toll booth, your device communicates with a gate under which your car passes and your billed monthly. Every gate also has cameras to record cases of infractions, when a car without the device passes under the gate. Sure, there are laws and rules that control how all this information can be used. Yet it keeps creeping me out to think that this information is available to multitude of people. Now that information of all sorts can be shared easily and readily on a global scale, it seems even scarier. Now you can be embarrassed, humiliated, falsely accused or harassed literally in front of the whole world. What creeps me out even more is that our expectations of privacy seem to be eroding slowly. If we're so indifferent to being under surveillance in public or at work because it makes it easier to prove who's right and who's wrong, why does it seem so implausible that in some future we would accept the same things in our homes? After all, wouldn't it help cut down on domestic violence and child abuse? I hope I'm not coming across as a borderline paranoid nutjob, but I just felt the need to address the issue.

DanielBMarkham 16y ago
Don't sound like a nut-job to me. It's insane the degree to which people are willing to record and distribute every little bit of their lives. And by insane, I don't mean a good thing. The techno-wonks will tell you that it's all evolving to some kind of wonderful singularity nirvana. But do we really want to become The Borg? Because either we either fiercely keep our lives and thoughts private and personal, or we share everything. Right now there's middle ground, but it's eroding quickly. Seriously. I don't think most people have a clue to how they are giving up their personalities and inner lives or what impact this is going to have on the world. It's like boiling the frog. Each year we share more and more -- first blogs, then tweets, then FB status updates, then location-aware tweets. Soon it will be lifetime webcams that you wear. Each little step folks come out and try to say something like "gee! It's getting hot in here! The water is going to boil!" but then they get shot down with a variation of 1) it's just a small change, and 2) it does more good than harm. Water's going to boil soon, folks. Hope you like it that way. 'Cause there is no stopping it. (It's like if we all got super-powers over the space of 50 years. People think super-powers would rock, but in reality the world would go into the shitter. People would be flying all over the place, knocking of banks, etc. It would be a catastrophe. But it would happen so slowly that there wouldn't really be a moment that you could point your finger at and say there! There is the place where we crossed the line. It's always little good, little bad, works for some folks, sucks for others, etc) It may be a great thing that we're moving towards. But it's not going to be human.
- Jach 16y ago
  It may not be human, but I think if you think it's inevitable then you have a responsibility to try and make it as humane as possible. From my perspective, intelligence enhancement and some cognitive re-architecture to remove the bad parts of human psyche can lead to bad places, but only if we allow the non-augmented people to dictate silly rules and regulations. I also don't think we can draw a very strong parallel to the Borg. (They are too imperfect, mere sci-fi creations. :) I don't want to downplay the potential risks, since there are numerous ones, but come on: > Water's going to boil soon, folks. Hope you like it that way. 'Cause there is no stopping it. If you really believe that, then are you just waving your arms and one day you can point back at this post and say "See? I saw it coming."? It still baffles me how much people accept things that are bad (for example, death) with no hope of changing them.

DanielBMarkham 16y ago

Don't sound like a nut-job to me. It's insane the degree to which people are willing to record and distribute every little bit of their lives. And by insane, I don't mean a good thing. The techno-wonks will tell you that it's all evolving to some kind of wonderful singularity nirvana. But do we really want to become The Borg? Because either we either fiercely keep our lives and thoughts private and personal, or we share everything. Right now there's middle ground, but it's eroding quickly. Seriously. I don't think most people have a clue to how they are giving up their personalities and inner lives or what impact this is going to have on the world. It's like boiling the frog. Each year we share more and more -- first blogs, then tweets, then FB status updates, then location-aware tweets. Soon it will be lifetime webcams that you wear. Each little step folks come out and try to say something like "gee! It's getting hot in here! The water is going to boil!" but then they get shot down with a variation of 1) it's just a small change, and 2) it does more good than harm. Water's going to boil soon, folks. Hope you like it that way. 'Cause there is no stopping it. (It's like if we all got super-powers over the space of 50 years. People think super-powers would rock, but in reality the world would go into the shitter. People would be flying all over the place, knocking of banks, etc. It would be a catastrophe. But it would happen so slowly that there wouldn't really be a moment that you could point your finger at and say there! There is the place where we crossed the line. It's always little good, little bad, works for some folks, sucks for others, etc) It may be a great thing that we're moving towards. But it's not going to be human.

Jach 16y ago
It may not be human, but I think if you think it's inevitable then you have a responsibility to try and make it as humane as possible. From my perspective, intelligence enhancement and some cognitive re-architecture to remove the bad parts of human psyche can lead to bad places, but only if we allow the non-augmented people to dictate silly rules and regulations. I also don't think we can draw a very strong parallel to the Borg. (They are too imperfect, mere sci-fi creations. :) I don't want to downplay the potential risks, since there are numerous ones, but come on: > Water's going to boil soon, folks. Hope you like it that way. 'Cause there is no stopping it. If you really believe that, then are you just waving your arms and one day you can point back at this post and say "See? I saw it coming."? It still baffles me how much people accept things that are bad (for example, death) with no hope of changing them.