March 14, 2003
Professor�s technology may violate personal freedoms
By Amy Potter
Kansan staff writer
Think back to high school English class and remember
life in George Orwell�s classic novel 1984. It was a world where Big
Brother was always watching and people felt controlled.
Flash forward to 2003 when a real form of control could
take place, a form of control called geoslavery.
�This technology makes Orwell�s vision look amateurish,�
said Jerome Dobson, research professor for Kansas Applied Remote Sensing.
A form of technology Dobson helped pioneer, known as
geographic information systems, could assist a person in coercively
monitoring and controlling the physical location of another individual �
also known as geoslavery.
GIS can be used by governments to predict populations at
risk for terrorism and natural disasters through satellites and other
technologies. When GIS technology is combined with a global positioning
system, a radio transmitter and receiver, it becomes easy for someone to
monitor a person�s movements. Transponders can be added, in the form of a
chip or a bracelet, to control an individual�s movements through burns or
electric shocks, Dobson said.
Geoslavery can pose serious threats to the safety of
children and women in abusive relationships, Dobson said.
Some forms of the technology are commercially available.
Dobson said parents had already purchased devices in the form of bracelets
to deter kidnapping, and some parents in Great Britain have had chips
implanted in their children.
Parents have good intentions when purchasing the device,
but it could prove harmful for the child.
�Think about a kidnapper,� Dobson said. �They�re going
to keep cutting until they find it.�
Dobson also posed the scenario of the woman in an
abusive relationship and unable to make arrangements to escape because her
every move is monitored.
Sarah Terwelp, executive director of Women�s
Transitional Care Services, said her center had dealt with various forms
of control of women for a long time. Women can already be tracked through
social security numbers and credit information, she said.
�Obviously our biggest concern would be there are
already so many barriers to a woman who wants to leave an abusive
relationship. This would actually put those in physical terms,� Terwelp
said.
Geoslavery also threatens people in countries with
limited personal freedoms, Dobson said. He is not as concerned with
countries like the United States, which has a strong stance on freedom;
more so, he wonders about other countries.
�Imagine what�s going to happen in countries where there
is not tradition of personal freedom,� Dobson said. �It will become a tool
of repression like we�ve never seen before.�
Xingong Li, assistant professor of geography, teaches
principles of GIS. He said he had not really addressed the idea of
geoslavery but will in his last lecture of the year.
�The only thing I can do is let them know about this
technology and tell them the technology is used for both good and bad,� Li
said. �I can show them their responsibility as to how to use this
technology.�
Michael Bellmyer, Olathe junior, is a student in the
field of GIS. He said in the future, as an expert in the field, he would
hold greater responsibility especially with a technology that could
potentially be dangerous.
�With any kind of knowledge and field you�ll have
certain responsibilities to take on,� Bellmyer said. �I think that�s kind
of universal that the things you are responsible for are the things you
have to safeguard.�
Revision of current laws and regulations are needed to
protect individuals, Dobson said, but stalking laws offer some means of
protection.
Terwelp said legislative representatives must be more
informed of the problem so they could start to make decisions to protect
individual freedoms.
�If the technology is available and out there we can�t
necessarily take it away. It�s just how we can mold the use of it,�
Terwelp said.
With this new technology, geography is becoming a
discipline that is essential to understand, Dobson said.
�Geography through GIS has the greatest potential for
good of any discipline today,� Dobson said. �It�s also become the most
dangerous of disciplines in terms of needing responsible, thoughtful
development.�
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