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Maybe not facial recognition, but why not chip everyone with RFID and GPS and track people? Require biometric auth to use computers or enter buildings? Stop usi
by meddlepal 9y ago
Maybe not facial recognition, but why not chip everyone with RFID and GPS and track people? Require biometric auth to use computers or enter buildings? Stop using cash and require all transactions to be electronic. I'm just asking the questions about what is so awful about massive transparent surveillance? We're never getting this back in Pandora's box so we might as well acknowledge it and make it a part of our existence.
- 13of40 9y agoAs long as we can stop dancing around the fact that most of us drive faster than the speed limit, smoke dope, and/or have unconventional sexual relationships at some point in our lives.
- meddlepal 9y agoFair points. What if everyone else's information was open and accessible so that nobody could hide anything from anybody thus removing potential asymmetric knowledge?
- 13of40 9y agoSuppose someone didn't want their grandparents to know they were gay.
- aplummer 9y agoOr worse, the government of a country where that gets you the death penalty.
- gregmac 9y agoWorse still, a government comes to power in your country and changes the law so you get the death penality, and it's retroactively enforced by looking through everyone's location history.
- meddlepal 9y agoYea, this is a troubling one. I brought up my original post as a thought experiment and I think some arguments presented were better than others. Governments are fallible just like human beings. I suppose in some sense it is arrogant to believe the US will always remain a democracy and certainly other countries have much more tumultuous histories. I still like the idea of a totally open and transparent society but without something totally incorruptible and unbiased taking the role of government it does not seem practical.
- andrei_says_ 9y agoWhat about consent?
- astronautjones 9y agoThere are systems of power that will never fall that make this egalitarian idea irrelevant (and dangerous)
- sterlind 9y agounless the entire government is as transparent as your massive surveillance, no thanks. our democracy is extremely fragile. if information collection goes into a black box it's a turn-key solution for totalitarianism. for instance, see the Stasi. ...however, if intelligence gathered were all open-access, and classification abolished, I'd be into it.
- rhizome 9y agoWhat policies and processes would ensure transparency?
- newscracker 9y agoYour argument is against fundamental freedoms that humans have granted one another, which have allowed civilization to improve over time (with "bad times" alongside). Anyone against dictatorial (not the benevolent kind) powers would never argue for everyone to be micro-chipped and tracked, disallowing all cash, etc. Even in democratic setups these kind of additions and restrictions tweak the power asymmetry significantly, and are causing a lot of human suffering. In short, these moves aren't great for humanity as a whole.