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Big Brother Gets a Brain
Gregus writes "The Village Voice delves into the DARPA's latest plan to track people and vehicle movement in cities, ostensibly for urban warfare, though this would be really handy watching 'suspicious' people in any city. "The goal, according to a recent Pentagon presentation to defense contractors, is to 'track everything that moves.' " The actual DARPA RFP and briefings. I just feel more safe all the time."
Unfortunately, it's Jade Goody's
It's like Newtonian Physics to them.
They just want to know where we are, and what we're doing at all times, so that they can extrapolate what we will do next, and thus know the future.
I mean, it's not like this raises privacy concerns or anything
Mod Note: Funny, Insightful, Interesting... g'luck, I think it's all just measuring our cycnicism right now : )
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
If Darpa is getting a brain, Does that mean Hussein is getting a heart, and the part of Dorothy is being played by Bush Jr?
(And introducing Ret. Gen. Powell as Toto.)
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Time machine? Nothing offensive happened in 1984 except big hair bands and parachute pants.
Seriously, Don't take anything I say seriously.
Nah, they don't need that. Somebody had to buy up all those RFIDs that WalMart cancelled.
RagManX
Guy: Hey, I was on holiday all last year, abroad. I didn't file a return because I didn't make any money.
IRS man: No you weren't. You were in San Francisco all year.
Guy: Oh. I didn't know you could find out that kind of thing.
IRS man: We have photos. Look, some of them are quite good.
Guy: Oh yes. Can I have a copy of that one of me selling stolen car radios at the beach?
IRS man: How about that one? Your hair looks really cool in that one.
Guy: Great!
IRS man: We'll add it to your bill...
You could easily use credit card information to track where people are going, or even record the numbers on their money when they go to the bank, and then see where the money goes. It's not that difficult. It baffles me to think that DARPA could actually track everyone... maybe they could prevent those Jerry Springer episodes by calling you in case your wife's at your brother's house!
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Of course! It's not like they could be more reflective to make them easier to track via eye or anything. It MUST be big brother, right? Right?
If it bothers you that much, you can cover it up with some left over tin foil from your hat.
I'm not too bothered if someone is tracking where I go and where my car goes within a city.
You're obviously not married.
If 'they' were really interested in tracking the "suspicious people" 'they' just have to hang out in front of "The Village Voice" and WBAI offices in NYC :-)
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Frankly, I don't mind -proposals- and -concepts- like this, if they can be executed properly.
Yeah, I'd like to meet Bob at the server farm, and Bill behind the data feeds, but hey, that's not realistic. I can't remember who said it, but those who do nothing wrong have nothing to fear really. Now sure, if they hit my house with cameras, I might have some qualms, but being out on sidewalks, things like that, it's not too bad if somebody knows that I just got my arse mugged and hunts the perp down using a network of cameras.
Just imagine, something like this could end the high speed police chase once and for all. Just let your perp go right on home, the cameras follow him home. All you need to do is go up there after he parks, "hi, you're under arrest", read the rights, and no death, mayhem, or destruction associated with a chase.
Another thing I heard recently was that maybe, just maybe, the government is actually there to protect and serve. Sure, I would probably run screaming from the USA if they put a Bush behind the controls of a system like this, but they aren't.
I just think it'd be neat if they could actually get this system to work. Just imagine - being able to walk the streets wherever you are without fear of getting mugged, raped, murdered (you might not want to live there if that's a common fear), or anything. It'd be incredible. A system like this is a fine balance between privacy concerns and legality.
So you ask, what happens if the system sees you go from your house to the porno shop? Big deal in my opinion. If somebody leaks the information and you're running for office, big deal - we all have hormones, you know.
So I say let them show what they can, and if they can help out our police force in enforcing laws (yes, they're there, folks), that'd be awesome. I just don't want to see these cameras report DMCA infractions, but I want to see them report muggings, murders, you know, the usual gamut of things one person does to the other on a sidewalk or street. Although it makes me wonder...would a system like this put the guys behind COMAND and OnStar out of business?
>I think the US government is now far worse than >the british government was in 1776.
Yes, it's inferior to the Dutch government of 1491 but not as bad as the Ethiopian regime of 1732. On the other hand the French monarchy of 1288 was worse than the Xixian theocracy of the late 14th century, and almost as awful as the Tupi tribal councils of the 1920's.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
You could always bail out and move to Oceana. I hear they have mild winters. Seriously, its a big planet. If you don't like what's happening, there are plenty of places to go. There's always going to be hints of Orwell's 1984, but if you push the people to hard they'll push back. Or maybe not. Whatever. At least you'll have something to do, rewriting those newspapers. 100% employment.
Hey, just do your Physical Jerks at night instead of in the morning. I find Jenna Jameson's, er, "workout videos" to be a great help.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
...how would the system react (even one with a 'brain') to people who participated in the Ministry of Silly Walks?
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
Commander: Sweet mother! IFF signal!?
Operator: Unknown, sir!
Commander: Damn it! Any units ready!?
Operator: Negative, fifth armour is stuck in a traffic jam at Main street!
Commander: Damn it all to hell! Get me NORAD on the line, someone inform the president!
Operator: Visual confirmation coming in by TrackSat2 Delta... NORAD will be notified, unable to notify the president sir!
Commander: Explain yourself!
Operator: The president is driving that segway, sir!
Commander: By all that's unholy...
Hate me!
Yeah, but can they see me with my foil hat on?
Linux: Helping nerds look smarter since the late 90s.
Too bad for them, though, that keeping tabs on my position will cause them to lose track of my velocity...
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
In the true penny-arcade style, I propose the following:
We gather a large group in a major urban center. Taking our cars, we drive en masse along a pre-planned route that, to the pattern-matching machine, will appear as a giant wang on the map.
This wang will be awe-inspiring, perhaps enough-so to cause the AI in the machine to become envious, thereby destroying it.
President: What's that on the map? Some sort of terrorist cell!?
CIA guy: Ummm....
President: I want answers!
CIA guy: Well... It appears... to be a... wang, sir.
President: Wang, eh? That some sort of dirty bomb?...
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
I wonder if DARPA makes a model for my room, or for my house. A consumer model would always be able to tell me where I left my car keys, or where I lost my bookbag. Or where my mind ran off to...
What do you mean? Senator McCarthy did a great job protecting us from Muslim terrorists. We're at war with Muslim terrorists. We've always been at war with Muslim terrorists.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.