I advocate the complete elimination of privacy.
Not only do i advocate this, but i think this is a future that technology will ultimately take us to, likely sooner than you think.
Imagine a world where thousands of solar powered planes that never have to land, roam the skies.
Imagine that each of these solar powered planes, have powerful cameras attached to them
Effectively replacing the need for police patrolling the streets. Possibly even replacing the need for a police force at all. The quadrocopters would be cheaper, more effective, and safer (police brutality).
Some of you may be thinking that this will be controlled by some sort of "big brother", or some ominous corrupt government entity.
This will not be the case, the surveillance system, will be completely open. As in, anyone can access it, anyone can view live feed from anyone of the cameras.
Imagine the major social and societal impact this technology will bring. Anyone, and everyone, can know the exact location and activity of anyone and everyone. Anyone can observe you anywhere, and you can observe them, observing you.
All crime, would be virtually eliminated. Things like killing, kidnapping, stealing, and rape, would become nonexistent. Corruption in politics, would be completely done away with, because you can observe your politician, at all places, and at all times.
Because of this technology, institutions such as prisons, would vastly decrease in size. Instead we would likely replace them with mental institutions/rehabilitation centers.
People of the future, would look back on times before the implementation of this technology, and will regard such times (now), as a period of barbarism.
Usually when i talk about this idea, people usually become worried about superficial things such as, the possibility that people may look at them when they are nude. Because of the fact that everyone can do such, we would eventually transcend such things. Nudity, would eventually become something so natural, that when in the face of it, people wouldn't even react/realize it.
This is only one example of the many social issues that we will transcend.
The ideal complete form of this technology, would be so powerful, it would allow one to observe every aspect about ones life. You could pull out your phone, search someones name, and instantly be able see what they are doing, at anywhere, and at anytime. You would even be able know their credit card information, the difference is, you would know, that they know, your credit card information. You would also know, if they ever used it. (This is of course assuming that we still use access codes and not retina and finger scanning, which is another future of technology ex. iPhone 5)
Another interesting consequence of this technology, is that the anti-gun movement, would essentially become obsolete. There would be no need to restrict guns, because everyone is being watched, by everyone.
This technology is already being worked on/already exists. Quadrocopters have been around for years, its just a matter of application. Solar powered drone aircraft, is relatively new technology, but is being worked on.
Google just recently bought a solar powered drone company called titan aerospace, you can read about it here. (I think Google will be the very entity to implement this technology, just as they have done Google car...Google is the future)
This technology is the future, and will forever change society.
I suppose such a technology will be beneficial to fighting crime, and I welcome it. But it will not eliminate all crime. Firstly, when such technology exists most people will not think about it all the time. People will live their lives, mostly ignoring these things you do not see. Secondly, criminals already use hoods, sometimes masks. The use of such items will only increase. And criminal acts within buildings cannot be seen at all.
ReplyDeleteWeapons can be concealed too, until you enter the school and start shooting everybody. Or not conceal anything, because you were planning on killing yourself afterwards anyway.
People are not often nude when they're outside. People will continue to cover themselves after this technology is implemented.
Your points are fair, but I think he means more than surveillance vision. He means complete privacy intrusion, like tracking your phone (which is basically an artificial limb for a person), studying your history to predict patterns, and knowing everything you ever do (like buying or making a gun).
DeleteI completely agree with you that this would be an ideal future, with a few circumstances that may have been implied but I'll state them anyways.
ReplyDeleteYou said that people can observe, you didn't specify whether they had control, which is where corruption takes place. In order to get incorruptible control, the system would need a DAO (Distributed Autonomous Organization). Like Bitcoin's system, that allows control of the security system to be directly in the hands of the population.
Secondly, I don't think this is something for tomorrow; not because of the lacking technology, but because of the culture. It's the same as the acceptance of mind uploading. Right now it sounds ridiculous and inhumane, but as society starts to use virtual reality more, and their lives become more consumed in the online world and less with the physical, then mind uploading doesn't seem so insane.
Right now, most of the world is not ready to hear the idea of ridding humanity of privacy because it's an inherently human characteristic to live private lives. It will take some transcending from our biological, primitive human egos to come to accept such a reformed society.
I see your point, and i think your right.
DeleteBut this is why i wrote this, in order to change peoples minds on this topic, we must first discuss it. All the points i make above are solid, and irrefutable.