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Not all uses of facial recognition strip people of human rights. Would it strip you of your rights if an airport used this tech to discover known terrorists in

Not all uses of facial recognition strip people of human rights. Would it strip you of your rights if an airport used this tech to discover known terrorists in a crowd? Or how about recognizing you at the DMV and pulling up your records automatically? I'm sure there are millions of non-human rights violating usages (even by the government) of facial recognition.

Zarath 7y ago
IMO it isn't that it strips people of human rights per se, it is that it removes opportunity to disrupt the status quo. Whether you believe this is a good thing is up to you. Terrorists are trying to disrupt the status quo, but so are protestors, people who write to their Senator, etc. By the ubiquity of facial recognition, you are essentially making it harder to disrupt the status quo by non-legal means. This all has the effect of increasing cohesiveness of the existing system. When people talk of "dystopia", that doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad place to live, at least in principal. Brave New World was tyrannical and oppressive, but not necessarily a miserable existence (you always have SOMA). What distinguishes this as a "dystopia" is the inability for the system to change itself. So while it doesn't strip human rights, per se, it certainly strips people of the ability to affect change on their environment. If knowledge is power, then the more knowledge they have about you, the more power they have over you.
- malvosenior 7y ago
  Technology empowerment cuts both ways though. If you regulate technology so only the government has it, then the scenario you lay out will still happen. If you leave access to technology available to everyone, those same protesters could deploy their own version to locate government moles in their midst (for instance). Technology has the ability to power everyone, individuals, groups and governments. It's best to leave the access open to all.

Zarath 7y ago

IMO it isn't that it strips people of human rights per se, it is that it removes opportunity to disrupt the status quo. Whether you believe this is a good thing is up to you. Terrorists are trying to disrupt the status quo, but so are protestors, people who write to their Senator, etc. By the ubiquity of facial recognition, you are essentially making it harder to disrupt the status quo by non-legal means. This all has the effect of increasing cohesiveness of the existing system. When people talk of "dystopia", that doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad place to live, at least in principal. Brave New World was tyrannical and oppressive, but not necessarily a miserable existence (you always have SOMA). What distinguishes this as a "dystopia" is the inability for the system to change itself. So while it doesn't strip human rights, per se, it certainly strips people of the ability to affect change on their environment. If knowledge is power, then the more knowledge they have about you, the more power they have over you.

malvosenior 7y ago
Technology empowerment cuts both ways though. If you regulate technology so only the government has it, then the scenario you lay out will still happen. If you leave access to technology available to everyone, those same protesters could deploy their own version to locate government moles in their midst (for instance). Technology has the ability to power everyone, individuals, groups and governments. It's best to leave the access open to all.