I'm glad this was submitted here for discussion. The first time I read this essay I had trouble coming up with ways our society behaves that "people in the future will find ridiculous." Many of the ones in the comments are just ways our society is backwards, but not many taboos.
1. America's devoted support for our military. A support so unquestioning that you can be beaten up for saying otherwise. Polar opposite from the Vietnam war. Strange how much this has changed in less than forty years.
2. Eugenics, while not totally taboo, it's hard to talk about it without being labeled a bigot, racist, etc.
3. I also think it's difficult to have a discussion on pedophiles that doesn't involve advocating locking them up forever, it might be worth having a more empathetic discussion on such crimes. (I almost didn't include this last one for fear of getting in trouble, I rewrote it a dozen different times, but it's such a taboo subject that it should be examined.)
Bill Joy's essay "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" [1] is a good read for anyone working through what such a society would be like and what it means for our race. I think it comes down to the philosophical question of what man's purpose is.
Thanks for sharing this article, I don't know why I hadn't heard of this.
It's pathetic that it takes illegal leaks for the public to know about this type of surveillance, then we jail the leakers/whistleblowers. Shouldn't this type of thing at the very least be a voting issue? They really do want to know what every American is doing all the time, terrifying.
I once switched my laptop hard drive with a portable one bought at the store, by removing the portable's case and swapping that drive with my laptop's. I then had the new 500gb one in my laptop and an old 120gb in a new portable housing case. I joked to my friend who was with me that I could just return the now 120gb drive back to the store no questions asked. He told me I was an idiot if I didn't; he didn't think of it as stealing as I did. Unfortunately I don't think that mindset is uncommon with our society. What's worse is being moral can be seen as weak and stupid by those who don't see the long term benefits of having a moral population. (Probably aided by the con man often glorified as extremely clever and smart in media, when often he's just taking advantage of people's good will e.g. Catch Me If You Can, Matchstick Men, maybe 21 and Oceans 11. But people love someone smarter than everyone else so they want to emulate that) On the bright side most of the brighter people I know have good ethics.
It's a nice thought to believe there isn't malice in the government, but the facts say otherwise. Intelligence laundering to bypass our basic legal rights is a malicious motive[1]. Russ Tice's (NSA whistlerblower) interview talking about all the people the NSA targeted (including our president in 2004) is also not only malicious, but terrifying.[2] And as Bill Binney (another NSA whisteblower) has said, we're a "turn key totalitarian state", I'm not sure how one could think a totalitarian state could not be malicious.
I wish there was a more active discussion on the NSA being able to tap into any phone to access users data. That HuffingtonPost link also linked to a story with a bit more detail[1].
>"The U.S. National Security Agency is able to crack protective measures on iPhones, BlackBerry and Android devices, giving it access to users' data on all major smartphones....in which the agencies describe setting up dedicated teams for each type of phone as part of their effort to gather intelligence on potential threats such as terrorists."
This is news to me, I assume they could pull any data from an iPhone/Android/Blackberry, maybe even activate the camera if "need" be.
Oakley lenses are practically bulletproof. They're well worth the cost if you need protective eyewear, just ask the US military. Being a fashion statement is just a byproduct of that. Some would venture to say Oakley has advanced technology more than RED.
I'm fairly certain that if you're in the midst of typing and accidentally press that mic "Siri" key on the keyboard, it presses the space bar anyway. I just tried it again and unless I pause my typing and press it, it just normally spaces.
They could cut their funding and/or use the data center for parts. That data center alone costs billions to build, it makes me uneasy knowing my tax dollars goes to abuses of power like this.
That's an excellent point, though it still is relatively scary. Such as the powers the DHS has in "constitutional free zones"[1]. It makes me nervous having 230,000 people having this much power because they're under the umbrella of "DHS".
>"More is often the solution proposed by the leaders of the 9/11 enterprise. After the Christmas Day bombing attempt, Leiter also pleaded for more - more analysts to join the 300 or so he already had.
>"The Department of Homeland Security asked for more air marshals, more body scanners and more analysts, too, even though it can't find nearly enough qualified people to fill its intelligence unit now. Obama has said he will not freeze spending on national security, making it likely that those requests will be funded."
and this scares me the most:
>"Meanwhile, five miles southeast of the White House, the DHS has broken ground for its new headquarters, to be shared with the Coast Guard. DHS, in existence for only seven years, already has its own Special Access Programs, its own research arm, its own command center, its own fleet of armored cars and its own 230,000-person workforce, the third-largest after the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs."
More more more, funny how all this makes me far more uneasy then any terrorist threat. At least I can fight off a terrorist, lord help you if you try to say no to the SWAT team wanting to search your home for a teenager who made a homemade explosive.
A TSA agent was once similarly telling me how it "emits less radiation than a cell phone" after I opted out. I of course couldn't care as opposed to how invasive it is. I think as a public we tend to value our health, almost unhealthily; but when it comes to civil rights or privacy, we don't care as long as we're not effected.
I'm not really sure how much good a VPN will do with this much surveillance. I feel it's only going to get worse. CCTVs feeding into said datacenters? Web, traffic, and dash cams? As long as the common man "has nothing to hide" they don't seem to care.
This is fantasic! And kind of addictive. I used to use Tineye regularly for backwards-image search until Google unveiled their own. It's awesome to see that Tineye is still innovating. I hope we see more products from these guys in the future.
One nice variation of that quote I've been seeing is "Don't compare your behind the scenes to someone else's highlight reel". It's far too easy for us to reflect on all the daily hurt and trials we go through, only to compare it to someone else's most glorious 15 minutes and feel like we've failed. When in reality most of us are fighting some sort of battle, many just hide it well.
1. America's devoted support for our military. A support so unquestioning that you can be beaten up for saying otherwise. Polar opposite from the Vietnam war. Strange how much this has changed in less than forty years.
2. Eugenics, while not totally taboo, it's hard to talk about it without being labeled a bigot, racist, etc.
3. I also think it's difficult to have a discussion on pedophiles that doesn't involve advocating locking them up forever, it might be worth having a more empathetic discussion on such crimes. (I almost didn't include this last one for fear of getting in trouble, I rewrote it a dozen different times, but it's such a taboo subject that it should be examined.)