Re: freedom vs security

From: James Swayze (swayzej@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Mar 15 2000 - 17:02:47 MST


Spike Jones wrote:
>
> > Someone once said, "Any people willing to give up a little freedom for more
> > security, deserves neither". James
>
> James, its not so much that people are willing to *give up* freedom
> as it is being taken, not so much by governements but by individuals.
>
> Consider the privacy issues we talk about. Cameras are getting
> better and cheaper. check this:
>
> http://www.advanced.th.com/video.html#!vid001

I've been watching the development of these things. Actually the prices at this
site seem high. Have you ever read Jim Halperin's "The First Immortal"? These
remind me of the 3D wrist cams he had in the novel that supposedly helped reduce
crime. Everyone wore them and the feed was sent immediately to a huge database
and if I recall eventually to Strong AI. Any crime committed against a person
was witnessed by this system. It is both comforting and worrisome just like the
truth SCIPS also in the story.

In some respects I see some things of this nature as inevitable. An example is
we want the convenience of credit cards so we don't have to file for a loan
every time we want to purchase something, especially something expensive like a
refrigerator. It's safer aainst theft or loss to have plastic rrather than carry
the $600 to $3000 one might shell out for the fridge. However, we give up some
bit of privacy for this convenience. Can it be reversed? No. No one is going to
give up the convenience anymore than we will go back to riding horses instead of
driving cars.

We further give up even more privacy when it becomes necessary to protect our
credit assets. To these ends we will be soon looking into an eye piece to read
our iris pattern. I doubt most people have thought about the fact this is
tantamount to getting fingerprinted without first committing a crime--the usual
impetuous for finger printing. Will this trend be reversed? Not as long as
thieves exist to steal your assets and identity. I could go on about this but I
won't. I'm sure everyone here is bright enough to already know all this stuff.

James

-- 
"Quod de futuris non est determinata omnino veritas"
			    NOSTRADAMUS 15TH Century



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