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Fascinating views. The privacy angle is quite in line with what is already happening. With the recent Snowden affair there has been a huge brouhaha about privac

by npalli 13y ago

Fascinating views. The privacy angle is quite in line with what is already happening. With the recent Snowden affair there has been a huge brouhaha about privacy etc. but if you look at “private” information that financial and retail companies already possess you will find that people actually don’t care. As long as you get a 0.5% less on your mortgage or credit cards and some 10% discount on purchases, people are more than happy to have companies record every transaction that you make. I’m not sure on the nanotechnology future that he has laid out though. Specifically, what is the source of energy to transform the air/water/dirt stuff into goods and what is the rational for saying that starting with water/dirt/O2 will be the cheapest route to getting whatever stuff we need. Not convinced on that front.

dev1n 13y ago
Yeah well retail companies won't just throw you in jail if you disagree with their new "marketing" campaign. There's quite a difference between a company you willingly give information to and a government trying to find out who are possible dissidents and how those dissidents could unseat those in power.
- czr80 13y ago
  I'm not sure - if private companies maintain these databases, wouldn't it be easy for a hypothetical corrupt government to access them?
  - dev1n 13y ago
    This is absolutely true, however there are alternatives to companies that track you. Go to JCPenny and they don't force you to use a credit card to purchase some shoes. If you use cash, as opposed to a credit card, you won't be added to their database. The difference between a retail store and the government is whether you have the choice of having your information stored in a database. So yes, a government could just up and say "all your base are belong to us" to supplement any information they already have, but there is no opt-out for a government that might already have information on you based on phone calls and your Internet graph.

by npalli 13y ago

dev1n 13y ago

Yeah well retail companies won't just throw you in jail if you disagree with their new "marketing" campaign. There's quite a difference between a company you willingly give information to and a government trying to find out who are possible dissidents and how those dissidents could unseat those in power.

czr80 13y ago
I'm not sure - if private companies maintain these databases, wouldn't it be easy for a hypothetical corrupt government to access them?
- dev1n 13y ago
  This is absolutely true, however there are alternatives to companies that track you. Go to JCPenny and they don't force you to use a credit card to purchase some shoes. If you use cash, as opposed to a credit card, you won't be added to their database. The difference between a retail store and the government is whether you have the choice of having your information stored in a database. So yes, a government could just up and say "all your base are belong to us" to supplement any information they already have, but there is no opt-out for a government that might already have information on you based on phone calls and your Internet graph.