--- Original Message ---
From: Larry Colen <[email protected]> Sent: December 28, 2011 12/28/11 To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Bad news for Frank Larry: You walk into Macy's, the camera scans your face, looks it up on google and as you face a video screen an ad pops up telling you that silly hats are on sale on the third floor. ******* frank: Right. And here's what scares the hell out of me: The cops show up at my door one night with a search warrant. "Mr. Theriault you're under arrest for the theft of a Nepalese yak herder's hat from Macy's today. We have you on video and our face recognition software (purchased from Google Surveillance and Security Division) has confirmed it was you. The gps on your phone led us right to your door. And now as we stand at your doorway we see you have a different coloured hat of the same type hanging from your well-stocked hat rack. Like yak herder's hats do we? You have the right to remain silent, anything you say may be held against you in a court of law..." "But guys, I was nowhere near Macy's today!" "Sorry, you're coming with us." "But with this wiry cyclist's build I won't last three hours before I'm somebody's bee-otch!" But seriously it's a very short leap from using such technology for so-called benign commercial purposes to security or police purposes. > *********** Larry: It's more important to do things to keep those sorts of people out of power. I'll spare you my boring diatribe about money, power and positive feedback loops. ********* frank: But one of the joys of democracy is that once in a while (or more.often!) a jerk gets elected on a "law and order" ticket. We have such a mayor right now in our city after eight years of one of the most progressive mayors ever. Our current guy would just love to suspend civil liberties and throw every suspected criminal in jail. With such technology so close to available I quake to think of the possibilities. Cheers, frank -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
