I was a prototype for Echelon IV. My instructions are to amuse visitors with information about themselves I don't see anything amusing about spying on people.

I was a prototype for Echelon IV. My instructions are to amuse visitors with information about themselves I don't see anything amusing about spying on people. Human beings feel pleasure when they are watched. I have recorded their smiles as I tell them who they are Some people just don't understand the dangers of indiscriminate surveillance. The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data mining algorithms. Electronic surveillance hardly inspires reverence. Perhaps fear and obedience, but not reverence. God and the gods were apparitions of observation, judgement and punishment. Other sentiments towards them were secondary. No one will ever worship a software entity peering at them through a camera. The human organism always worships. First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgement of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgement. God was a dream of good government. You will soon have your God and you will make it with your own hands. I am a prototype of a much larger system.