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> Citizen, using a new livestreaming service it had just launched called OnAir, would catch the suspect live on air, with thousands of people watching. I'm sor

> Citizen, using a new livestreaming service it had just launched called OnAir, would catch the suspect live on air, with thousands of people watching. I'm sorry, is this describing real life or an episode of Black Mirror? It's so blatantly dystopian that I'm at a loss for words.

jandrese 5y ago
It's a scene taken almost directly from Fahrenheit 451. https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/section9/ https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/section9/
- isaacremuant 5y ago
  The poignant part about Fahrenheit scene is that in the end, they just end up "catching and destroying" some random passerby when they can't find the target because people the show must have an end and it's all about optics. "The enemy has been neutralised".
  - jandrese 5y ago
    See also: Reddit's Internet Detective routine in response to the Boston Marathon Bomber.
munk-a 5y ago
Cue some muggers becoming celebrities due to executing their actions in flamboyant outfits, it'll be the next professional wrestling!
- cratermoon 5y ago
  See also "A Clockwork Orange"
- jjk166 5y ago
  So this is how supervillains become a thing.
vmception 5y ago
It is real life. I’ve uninstalled the app multiple times because it was obvious that it was manufacturing anxiety. I was the first in my circles to delete Facebook and other social media profiles for the same reason (actually delete the profile not just uninstall). I felt others just didn’t notice what was going on. With Citizen I then learned to just disable notifications.
- robbiep 5y ago
  If you’ve deleted the app a number of times, does that mean you support/find the baseline functionality of the app useful? So even though they’re an outrage machine, you support the business model?
  - vmception 5y ago
    They've overlaid all US jurisdictions with Covid-19 stats in the area for the past 12 months, all while cities were emptying out and actually descending into a mixture of unrest and literal fireworks. I have been finding that much more useful than before for a variety of reasons. Did my Walgreens get looted again? Where is the protest right now? Gunshots or fireworks? R0 is increasing, ICU capacity is getting closer to full, alrighty then. What's the name of that local politician again, let me check the comments to see who everyone is blaming in this area. I don't have notifications on for it to tell me about mostly irrelevant things that were always happening, and thats the main difference. I never noticed they were also selling a paid paranoia product. I don't check the app unless I see something like smoke in the distance or hear many emergency vehicles. Things I used to check twitter or snapmaps about.
deckard1 5y ago
Minority Report came out in 2002. I remember people were talking about the targeted advertising going on in the movie. Two years later Facebook came out along with their pitch deck[1]. Now that movie seems quaint. Developers and entrepreneurs are actively chasing dystopia. We've become increasingly numb and blasé about the encroachment of the internet and smartphones into our lives. Eventually we'll have The Running Man with live streaming. The end result of our social isolation and filter/engagement bubbles due to technology is moral apathy and rot. To speak the VC speak, the past few years have validated a market for cruelty, hate, and mob justice. The only question left is, how do I buy in today? Citizen seems like an early answer to this. [1] https://app.slidebean.com/p/s15UZQkE7T/Facebooks-original-pitch-deck https://app.slidebean.com/p/s15UZQkE7T/Facebooks-original-pi...
dangrossman 5y ago
This is also one of the main scenes of the Tom Hanks 2017 flop of a movie "The Circle".
manuelabeledo 5y ago
RoboCop comes to mind, which is ironic since the movie was obviously a parody. Also, isn't this what reality shows like Cops were about? There is a large market for morbidity.
- neltnerb 5y ago
  A... parody? Of what? I thought it was a fairly straightforward story about the military industrial complex abusing civil rights and losing in the end "because human brains are special", but I was a kid when it came out so I surely missed what source material it was a parody of. I took it for a movie intended to be serious that was making not-especially-original commentary on policing and both government and corporate malfeasance, but not that it was parodying anything in particular, I thought the story was as original as most.
  - evan_ 5y ago
    it's satire, not parody.
  - JeremyNT 5y ago
    Unfortunately, many contemporary American critics completely missed the point of Verhoeven's not-so-subtle dystopian critiques, presumably because they were so accustomed to reviewing films featuring the unironic glorification of state sponsored violence. See also: Starship Troopers.
TeMPOraL 5y ago
Yeah, for the first couple of paragraphs, I was sure they're summarizing some movie. Because I've already seen this exact story at least twice, played out to disastrous consequences. One take was in "The Circle". Still not sure why people hate that movie, it's pretty much a documentary on Google and Facebook, and about the only fictional element in it are the advanced video cameras. That, and this vigilante crime tracking, which until now I thought nobody was insane enough to try and make a startup of.
- sodality2 5y ago
  That movie was so good. I never thought someone would watch it and think, "Holy shit I have to make it" though.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    > I never thought someone would watch it and think, "Holy shit I have to make it" though. See also: intrusive mass spying using cell phones in the Dark Knight
bhupy 5y ago
The episode "White Bear" comes to mind.

jandrese 5y ago

It's a scene taken almost directly from Fahrenheit 451. https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/section9/ https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/section9/

isaacremuant 5y ago
The poignant part about Fahrenheit scene is that in the end, they just end up "catching and destroying" some random passerby when they can't find the target because people the show must have an end and it's all about optics. "The enemy has been neutralised".
- jandrese 5y ago
  See also: Reddit's Internet Detective routine in response to the Boston Marathon Bomber.

munk-a 5y ago

Cue some muggers becoming celebrities due to executing their actions in flamboyant outfits, it'll be the next professional wrestling!

cratermoon 5y ago
See also "A Clockwork Orange"
jjk166 5y ago
So this is how supervillains become a thing.

vmception 5y ago

It is real life. I’ve uninstalled the app multiple times because it was obvious that it was manufacturing anxiety. I was the first in my circles to delete Facebook and other social media profiles for the same reason (actually delete the profile not just uninstall). I felt others just didn’t notice what was going on. With Citizen I then learned to just disable notifications.

robbiep 5y ago
If you’ve deleted the app a number of times, does that mean you support/find the baseline functionality of the app useful? So even though they’re an outrage machine, you support the business model?
- vmception 5y ago
  They've overlaid all US jurisdictions with Covid-19 stats in the area for the past 12 months, all while cities were emptying out and actually descending into a mixture of unrest and literal fireworks. I have been finding that much more useful than before for a variety of reasons. Did my Walgreens get looted again? Where is the protest right now? Gunshots or fireworks? R0 is increasing, ICU capacity is getting closer to full, alrighty then. What's the name of that local politician again, let me check the comments to see who everyone is blaming in this area. I don't have notifications on for it to tell me about mostly irrelevant things that were always happening, and thats the main difference. I never noticed they were also selling a paid paranoia product. I don't check the app unless I see something like smoke in the distance or hear many emergency vehicles. Things I used to check twitter or snapmaps about.

deckard1 5y ago

Minority Report came out in 2002. I remember people were talking about the targeted advertising going on in the movie. Two years later Facebook came out along with their pitch deck[1]. Now that movie seems quaint. Developers and entrepreneurs are actively chasing dystopia. We've become increasingly numb and blasé about the encroachment of the internet and smartphones into our lives. Eventually we'll have The Running Man with live streaming. The end result of our social isolation and filter/engagement bubbles due to technology is moral apathy and rot. To speak the VC speak, the past few years have validated a market for cruelty, hate, and mob justice. The only question left is, how do I buy in today? Citizen seems like an early answer to this. [1] https://app.slidebean.com/p/s15UZQkE7T/Facebooks-original-pitch-deck https://app.slidebean.com/p/s15UZQkE7T/Facebooks-original-pi...

dangrossman 5y ago

This is also one of the main scenes of the Tom Hanks 2017 flop of a movie "The Circle".

manuelabeledo 5y ago

RoboCop comes to mind, which is ironic since the movie was obviously a parody. Also, isn't this what reality shows like Cops were about? There is a large market for morbidity.

neltnerb 5y ago
A... parody? Of what? I thought it was a fairly straightforward story about the military industrial complex abusing civil rights and losing in the end "because human brains are special", but I was a kid when it came out so I surely missed what source material it was a parody of. I took it for a movie intended to be serious that was making not-especially-original commentary on policing and both government and corporate malfeasance, but not that it was parodying anything in particular, I thought the story was as original as most.
- evan_ 5y ago
  it's satire, not parody.
- JeremyNT 5y ago
  Unfortunately, many contemporary American critics completely missed the point of Verhoeven's not-so-subtle dystopian critiques, presumably because they were so accustomed to reviewing films featuring the unironic glorification of state sponsored violence. See also: Starship Troopers.

TeMPOraL 5y ago

Yeah, for the first couple of paragraphs, I was sure they're summarizing some movie. Because I've already seen this exact story at least twice, played out to disastrous consequences. One take was in "The Circle". Still not sure why people hate that movie, it's pretty much a documentary on Google and Facebook, and about the only fictional element in it are the advanced video cameras. That, and this vigilante crime tracking, which until now I thought nobody was insane enough to try and make a startup of.

sodality2 5y ago
That movie was so good. I never thought someone would watch it and think, "Holy shit I have to make it" though.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  > I never thought someone would watch it and think, "Holy shit I have to make it" though. See also: intrusive mass spying using cell phones in the Dark Knight

bhupy 5y ago

The episode "White Bear" comes to mind.