Sorry, I missed a few meetings, been away a lot recently.
Some of you may still remember me. I've scanned through
the last month's email in this group and just had to respond
to this bit of scaremongering:
David wrote on Tue, 02 Jul 2002 21:58:52 BST:
> Lee wrote on Tue, 02 Jul 2002 20:24:47 +0100:
> > Think Goto Jail, Think Little guy vs MEGA corp. What's next, Chips
> > implanted in your head from birth, bar codes on your forehead....
>
> More likely to be monitors with built-in webcams first... of course,
> it'll become law that all monitors HAVE to have built-in webcams.
> They'll probably pass it off as a 'national security concern' or
> something, to defend 'freedom' against 'terrorists'. I expect we'll see
> a lot of that shit over the coming months and years.
Hmmm. I see how rapidly the younger population have bought into
mobile phone technology. I'm sure that if the implanted chips or
whatever offer enough communication benefits to people, they will
be queuing up to have the operation. As for two-way screens, think
"virtual embodiments" - lots of future jobs creating sanitised
public images for people - an extension of our current web-page
creators. In the meantime, if you don't want the world to see how
you really look, you can always revert to using makeup or putting
rose coloured filters on the cam lenses.
Personally, I fear unregulated technology far more than I fear
attempts (which may be misguided) to regulate it. I need some
way to prove to my bank (or my government, or my police force)
that I am who I say I am and I am doing what I say I am doing.
I also like to know that attempts to deceive me (or anyone else
for that matter) can be detected and traced, if serious enough.
The "Little guy vs MEGA corp" comparison is misleading here.
It all depends on what the little guy and the Mega Corp are
trying to use the technology for. We can switch off our machines
if we dont like what the Mega corp is doing to us. But if the
little guy is conspiring to blow us up, etc., we may not be so
easily defended without a lot cross-checking to detect it.
Ted.
-- Ted Marston <ted@nowtsfree.freeserve.co.uk> http://www.nowtsfree.freeserve.co.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------
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