Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - TOTAL Surveillance is Inevitable, You Know...and SOON!

Macheath · 05-25-2003, 08:50 PM

I'm interested in Art's idea that it's acceptable so I'll use that as a basis for speculation.

Seems like the main thing wrong with information is who controls that information. I certainly have a problem with someone like John Ashcroft having access to information because I know, despite what he says, he does not have access to ALL information.Remember Rumsfeld's famous "unknown unknowns", they know there are big gaps in their knowledge.

So where information is absent, we humans insert belief - assumptions about how the world works. Belief leads to ideology which leads to ideologues like John Ashcroft, a man who will never have true total information awareness (TIA) because total knowledge might contradict his assumptions and prejudices.

Let's jump forward and assume that society is run by an Intelligence that knows all, an intelligence not governed by prejudice or ideology. Would that society be democratic - our beliefs and wants would be known, would they be acted upon? Would that society be "safe"? Certainly. Would hypocrisy cease to exist? Never again would we see the preacher who protests the building of a strip club and then goes home to rape his teenage daughter. What would happen to religion? Would the omnipotent one see the belief in another omnipotent one as a threat or contradiction?

Perhaps we are on the road to this world, but it is a LONG road. John Ashcroft's so-called TIA is like a stoneage tool in comparison to what I have described. As such, belief in an information utopia does not oblige you to sing the praises of that rat bastard Ashcroft. After all, would you let some caveman perform brain surgery with a rock? Fight PIA.

The road to TIA will lead to social upheaval and so it should. If the DoD records you - record yourself. If they say you were here, prove you were there. If they claim your recording is a fake, put it on the internet for open analysis. If they persist, make the injustice known - this is the basic stuff of democracy. Or as Marge Simpson once said The courts might not work any more, but as long as everybody is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done.

05-25-2003, 08:50 PM	#4 (permalink)
Macheath Junkie Location: Sydney, Australia	I'm interested in Art's idea that it's acceptable so I'll use that as a basis for speculation. Seems like the main thing wrong with information is who controls that information. I certainly have a problem with someone like John Ashcroft having access to information because I know, despite what he says, he does not have access to ALL information.Remember Rumsfeld's famous "unknown unknowns", they know there are big gaps in their knowledge. So where information is absent, we humans insert belief - assumptions about how the world works. Belief leads to ideology which leads to ideologues like John Ashcroft, a man who will never have true total information awareness (TIA) because total knowledge might contradict his assumptions and prejudices. Let's jump forward and assume that society is run by an Intelligence that knows all, an intelligence not governed by prejudice or ideology. Would that society be democratic - our beliefs and wants would be known, would they be acted upon? Would that society be "safe"? Certainly. Would hypocrisy cease to exist? Never again would we see the preacher who protests the building of a strip club and then goes home to rape his teenage daughter. What would happen to religion? Would the omnipotent one see the belief in another omnipotent one as a threat or contradiction? Perhaps we are on the road to this world, but it is a LONG road. John Ashcroft's so-called TIA is like a stoneage tool in comparison to what I have described. As such, belief in an information utopia does not oblige you to sing the praises of that rat bastard Ashcroft. After all, would you let some caveman perform brain surgery with a rock? Fight PIA. The road to TIA will lead to social upheaval and so it should. If the DoD records you - record yourself. If they say you were here, prove you were there. If they claim your recording is a fake, put it on the internet for open analysis. If they persist, make the injustice known - this is the basic stuff of democracy. Or as Marge Simpson once said The courts might not work any more, but as long as everybody is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done. Last edited by Macheath; 05-25-2003 at 08:54 PM..