Comments on: You will be watched while you read this

By: David Fisher

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:38:10 +0000

Just going to say we are already halfway there. All cars with airbags are already connecting…

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/black_boxes_states.html

the only thing missing at this point is the “ET Phone Home” scenario you outline… but wait, Onstar cand and does do that!

By: Scott Bowen

Scott Bowen — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:21:31 +0000

LordBasil — This is a reasonable reaction: turn an illegitimate system into your favor, as you did at that bugged workplace. Of course, it’s more work on top of the tasks one already has.

As for the traffic light deal, maybe you make the yellow, maybe you don’t. Maybe a cop sitting nearby nabs you. The built-in traffic-light camera that sends a signal to your bank account to deduct the cost of your violation that you must then go to court to argue against to get your money back is what will be part of the future.

By: lordbasil

lordbasil — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:17:24 +0000

The company I worked for had the place wired. It is like working in a place with an open mike. Anything you said would be back to management in a heartbeat.
Seems like a stupid thing to do to me so I took advantage of the open mike to tell them what I wanted them to believe. It worked. From then on they were putty in my hands.
The weakness of a system is gutting it with more information than it can possibly handle. And that is what is happening right now. So the computer has to search for key words instead of any human being able to handle the influx of information coming in. So anyone wanting to confuse the system either enters all the keywords or substitutes words for what they really mean.
Any computer system is an idiot/genius. For instance the information going to the cop. I see kids hacking the computer and lowering the speed reported by 5 to 10 miles an hour.
The camera system is a scam. At 35 miles an hour, you need 3.5 seconds to stop. (based on highway patrol rule of thumb that you need one car length per second of stop time) You also need 2-3 seconds to react to a change of light if you are very fast. The contracts state that the yellow light cannot stay on more than 3.5 seconds at a municipal stop. Therefore if you are within 3.5 car lengths of a light, it is virtually impossible to not run a red light at 35 miles per hour. 35 is the speed limit on main highways within a city. 25 is the speed limit otherwise. This is today, not some future technocrat society. Average ticket is 75 dollars or more. I have not been caught running a red. But I know the rules. Someone within these game rules will always run the red. Smile, you are on candid camera. The scammers just got you.

By: I’m Sick of Being Observed, Tracked, and Spied Upon | RevolutionRadio.org

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:05:01 +0000

[...] by Scott Bowen TrueSlant.com [...]

By: annlindenmuth

annlindenmuth — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:59:16 +0000

Early in ‘The Patriot’ Mel Gibson’s character (with apologies to all considering what I’ve read about him lately) says: “Tell me Mr. Howard, what is worse? One tyrant 3000 miles away, or 3000 tyrants one mile away?” It appears we are still dealing with thousands of tyrants all around us.
Is this another example of life imitating art?

By: Scott Bowen

Scott Bowen — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:05:21 +0000

Ann — What galls me is the involuntary surrender of information to which we must subscribe if we want to do things that we have to do to get by in America. At this point, trying to operate without a cell phone is quite a feat if you’re involved in any number of professions, but, as reader JCalton points out above, that device is reporting on you and used to track you. Eventually, I think, our cars will do the same. You won’t be able to buy a vehicle that is not wired with a device that tells things about your driving, your location, and your direction, whether you want that information known or not.

It’s not as if we’re entirely a nation of cons skulking around, pulling off some kind of rip off, and deserve to be monitored. We’re a Republic of free individuals in a country where we have long enjoyed freedom of movement, until now. Ironically, we happily embrace the technology that is stripping away our right to move about without a governing oversight (either corporate or state).

It would make the KGB proud.

By: Scott Bowen

Scott Bowen — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:56:00 +0000

JCalton — Thanks for the links. I need to check them out and scare myself more. As far as political parties go, any one of them loves surveillance power. I recall that Clinton signed into law a whole bunch of wire-tapping regs that civil-rights groups did not much like.

Now please excuse me while I go bury my cell phone.

By: annlindenmuth

annlindenmuth — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:34:32 +0000

Will we feel wonderfully secure in a world where our cars are talking to the other cars and regulating their speed …
Back when I was a teenager my motto was “what they (parents) don’t know won’t hurt ME.” Even after all these years I can honestly say that I still subscribe to that motto, only now it’s connected to ‘Big Brother’ which is way too much like your description of our ‘futureworld.’

By: jcalton

jcalton — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:55:02 +0000

The government already can (and does) track any of us through our cel-phones. This isn’t some “what does the future hold?” prediction…it’s the wave of the present. Sprint received so many requests (8 million) that they created a special website and paid 110 employees just to ease the processing of warrantless searches for their customers’ location:
http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2009/12/8-million-reasons-for-real-surveillance.html

If you believe in the two-party system, the one that should be rejecting this is actually requesting more of it:
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/obama-attorneys-argue-warrantless-cell-phone-tracking/