Are We Ready For a <i>Minority Report</i> Made Real?
When I read this last year I suspected it wouldn't be long before I'd be seeing something like this in today's WaPo:
Imagine a world of streets lined with video cameras that alert authorities to any suspicious activity. A world where police officers can read the minds of potential criminals and arrest them before they commit any crimes. A world in which a suspect who lies under questioning gets nabbed immediately because his brain has given him away.
Though that may sound a lot like the plot of the 2002 movie "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise and based on a Philip K. Dick novel, I'm not talking about science fiction here; it turns out we're not so far away from that world. But does it sound like a very safe place, or a very scary one?
It's a question I think we should be asking as the federal government invests millions of dollars in emerging technology aimed at detecting and decoding brain activity. [...]
Will this be enough evidence for an arrest? Can it be used to convict a person of intent to commit a crime? [...]
These are just some of the questions we must ask as we balance scientific advances and the promise of enhanced safety against a loss of liberty. And we must do it now, while our voices still matter. In a world where private thoughts are no longer private, what will our protections be? ...(more)
That story follows one from yesterday's WaPo that the Bush admin is set to launch a new domestic spy program, "rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority."
I don't think I'll ever hear Alan Parsons' Eye in the Sky (YouTube) the same way again.
"over the idea’s legal authority”
He can always get Yoo back to write up a couple of memos saying bush is a God that can do whatever he wants, right?
What country am I living in?
You know, this article be it a potential reality or simply just the writer's imagination going wild makes me wonder. I'm wondering if this is more of a "testing the waters" type of thing. Maybe its just coincidence that this particular piece follows an article on Bush's new illegal spy program but then again, maybe its not. Maybe this is what the politicians have in mind and are throwing this out there to see what sort of response they will get.
I've been mentioning Minority Report and Enemy of the State since they came out as two movies that are not very good, but very prophetic and make-you-think kind of movies that had a lot of accurate "predictions" (much of it was already in place when the movies came out).
Americans, you want to have as little to do with your government as possible in the future. Everything they have, and have about you, will be used against you if you are not part of the elite.
“Tick, Tick
Fellow citizens, the truth is that our present can only be as stable as our future.
For too long we have hobbled from decade to decade, generation to generation, and millennium to millennium, myopically adhering to superfluous battles that can never be won. Never once as a species forwarding or embracing an all encompassing path towards a certainly better future.
Our excuses have been many, our reasoning mostly incoherent, and our lack of vision as a species, certainly fatal.
For in the meantime, as each tick of the ages has passed, the critical threats posed and ignored by our species discordance have increased exponentially.
Pandemic famine and disease, massively destructive weapons, fatal atmospheric and climate change, super volcanic eruptions, catastrophic space body impacts, Orwellian societies of unparalleled oppression, and many other global catastrophes too numerous to list here, waiting to befall us at any moment.
In fact, one of the most immediate and ominous threats facing America and much of the world today is the utilization of advanced technologies for the implementation of authoritarian control over societies.
My friends, the truth is that if we do not fight for and secure freedom today, the time will very soon come when it will be almost impossible to do so.
In retrospect, when one soberly considers the critical challenges that we must face together to survive as a species, our differences, at times, can become almost imperceptible.“
-anonymous"
Excuse me a moment, I have to run out and buy a large roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil.
Joe O. @ 3:
Joe the new Visa commercials that show people paying with cash as problematic is social conditioning for a cashless society.
Georgette Orwell @ 5:
If this comes to pass, everyone will be wearing a tin foil hat. Literally! lol
"If my thought dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine..." B. Dylan
Maybe it would be a good thing. Then all Americans will also know when Bush lies and has criminal intents. We would have been forwarned that Gonzales was a liar, that Rumsfeld was crazy. We'd know when Judges planned to break the rules and laws. We would know that Senators take money as bribes . The few honest people left could in fact know that the government lies, cheats and steals from the people it supposedly serves.
So maybe these high and mighty people might just want to reconsider, or brain wash the people running the new system......
I remember as a child in the 1960’s, in a small western Pennsylvania elementary school, being taught about the evils of totalitarian states, especially about the evils of the Soviet Union and Communism. The Communists we were told opened private mail, eavesdropped on phone calls without warrants, encouraged neighbors to turn in other neighbors. They even had cameras installed high above in all the public squares to keep a watchful eye on its citizenry.
Those were the examples given to me in school to explain why the people of United States were the freest people in the entire world, why our system of government was inferior to none, and why we had nothing to fear.
What happened to us?
liz @ 9:
Such systems are never turned upon those who implement them. In fact, the likely outcome of such a web of surveillance and scanning is to not prevent crime, but to create crimes that never were, and then use those crimes to punish non-conformists and politically inconvenient people. The War on Drugs has operated this way for a long time. It's only a problem if you happen to be the wrong kind of person.
Rico @ 10:
The Reagan Revolution corrupted our political system completely with an empty-suit jerkoff as the frontman for a wholesale takeover of our democratic apparatus.
slippy hussein toad @ 12:
You are so right!
Oh yes. Government use of intelligence has been sooooo successful...
They'd have to lock every one of us up for what we are thinking about Bush and his henchmen. I know most think like me (I want him in a box and buried) so does everyone I know. They would have to have more police than citizens.
The world of THX-1138 or 1984 is just around the corner. What needs to be done? VOTE and get everyone you know to vote. They've stolen your wallet, they are killing and abusing your children and selling YOUR property.
AND who's to blame? We went along with re-electing bush. We listened to the Swift Boat Liars and America believed them. Rush tells us what to do. Drudge gives us the news we are supposed to hear. The MSM media fills our head full of Britney, Paris, and all wanta be starts on American Idol.
We continue to elect the congressmen and senators who don't follow the beliefs and the duties we elected them to do. . We rush to make more money, to embrace more sport stars, more celebrities. WE HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO STOP OUR GOVERNMENT FROM DOING THIS TO US.
The youth of this country are embracing a candidate for president that they know nothing about, except he has a lot of personality and can read a good speech, and reminds them of one of the big rock stars out there. He might be a good candidate, but we don't know = weres the information about what he has really done and wants to do. The MSM only tells us only that he will give us hope, same thing promised by the other candidates. The MSM twist and turns and manufactures information whether any of it is true or not, that is out there about the other candidates, trying to flame and slur. Wanting to make it a more interesting campaign.
The whole problem in this country STARTED WITH THE TAKE OVER OF NEWSPAPERS, RADIO AND TV. Our sources of information. Being bombarded 24/7 with the news and views the government wants you to know and believe is the whole problem. Until - and by now - it will probably never happen, we get the real news and condition of our country this will continue to evolve into more chaos.
Joe O. @ 7:
Hey. DO NOT wear tinfoil!
MIT study found that foil hats actually amplify brain signals.
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/
lol
We already have cameras.
What is now in play is that satellites which should be helping our troops in Iraq (to control the border, say), or searching for al Kaida in Afghanistan have a much more dangerous target.
Us.
Spy Satellites new target is us
Joe O. @ 7:
...as required by Law
Many of you here labor under the illusion that this race toward a scientific dictatorship is all Republican driven, like the Democrats in Congress have no idea what is going on and that it is all going to get better when Hillary or Obama take the White House (if they take the White House.)
Congress passed the Homegrown Terrorist Act by a margain of 402 -- 6 or thereabouts which makes -- as one example -- the force of argument a violent act if it opposes the government which in turn would make one a homegrown terrorist. Which means a great many Dems supported that bill.
The entire Washington Gravy Train needs protention from the American public who will rise up soon in outrage as the economy collapses, food and gas prices soar and legions go bankrupt. That is why these systems are being put in place. By enlarge, these people do not serve the American people; they serve the corporate interests that are carving up and destroying America for profit and power. And this is not just going on here.
The Ministry of Defence in Britian outlined how the biggest threat to the UK -- highly likely in the report's opinion -- was homegrown dissent that that strategies -- like neutron bombing a civilian center to wipe out large scale opposition without damaging infrastructure --are being wargamed.
This is a global phenomenon, not unique to America, which the powers that be seek to implement. Governments, almost all governments, in hand with global corporations seeking to corral and cull the average man. We ain't seen nothing yet as well, unless people start to wake up to the implications of what is going on in plain sight.
I haven't left this country, THIS COUNTRY HAS LEFT ME.
So long as the public can use it to ask questions of their leaders...
e.g. So Dick, were you drunk when you shot that guy in the face?
So George, have you taken a drink of alchohol or snorted cocaine since you were made President?
etc...
THOUGHTCRIME!!
Joe O. @ 3:
Um, someone's imagination going wild? According to the article it's being voted on and discussed in Congress? Time to wake up to the 'conspiracy' theories if you ask me. Police State has arrived already, but how bad will we let it get?
David @ 20:
Are you going to expatriate or stay and fight? I'm trying to decide myself...
Frank Dufek @ 24:
I was going with how a person reading the article may see it. Some, like myself see it as reality or at least a potential reality while others may see it as a person's imagination gone wild. My main point though, is that the idea is being floated out there and for that, there obviously is a purpose.
What we have here is classic fascism - it's not coming - it's already here. The nation-state run by corporate interests, supressing the individual rights of citizens and becoming more militaristic by the day.
We've been living under a pretense of "democratic freedom" for more than a century here in the US, while the Powers that Be (PtB) - the international banking cabal (World Bank, Fed, WTO, IMF, and the rest of the alphabet) have been slowly sucking the wealth and resources out of this nation. Apparently, through years of propaganda and manipulation, several useless wars to build up the holdings of the MI complex, and the systematic degradation of our education system and other infrastructure, the PtB have finally decided we've been dumbed down to the point that it's time for the "final solution."
We accepted two "stolen" elections with barely a whimper, and we were happy to give up many of our civil rights/freedoms after being scared by an obvious false-flag operation on 9/11/01. One more little terror attack (maybe a small nuclear explosion right before the conventions), and lots of folks are going to be spending the summer at camp - FEMA camp. Or, maybe the economic collapse they've got in the workls will be enough.....
I'm not sure how we can pull ourselves out of this, but I just keep telling everyone I know what I see as the truth of our situation. Mostly they think I'm nuts, but as Cheney, Chertoff, Bush and their handlers get even more brazen, as evidenced by this WaPo article, perhaps more will see the light. Even so, I'm not certain how we can turn the tide - but sooner would be better than later.
Imagine a world of streets lined with video cameras that alert authorities to any suspicious activity. A world where police officers can read the minds of potential criminals and arrest them before they commit any crimes. A world in which a suspect who lies under questioning gets nabbed immediately because his brain has given him away.
****************************************************
That's not "Minority Report" -- that's "1984", only taken to an even greater and more horrific extreme than even what Orwell thought up. If the government were to combine brain scanning and street video cameras with some variation of the HI-MEMS technology that proposed by the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) which potentially could be used to infiltrate people's homes without their knowledge, then what you would have would be a citizenry living under complete and absolute surveillance. And how would arresting someone for crimes they potentially could have committed any different from Orwell's idea of crimethink? Answer -- there's no difference. At least in Orwell's "1984", the Ministry of Love's system of spies and telescreens can only detect thoughtcrime if someone expresses it by word or action -- at least one refuge remains to Outer Party members inside their own heads in the privacy of their own thoughts provided that they are able to restrain themselves from expressing them. However, if they were able to create brain scanning technology so sophisticated that it could detect something as simple as a momentary impulse, even that last shred of privacy would be removed -- and with it, any possibility of individual dignity or even human sanity. In my honest opinion, most people would find life under those kinds of conditions absolutely unbearable and anyone who thinks that such a system would be a good idea is not taking into account the wide range of potential negative side effects that would predictably manifest as a result of its implementation. Just for starters, I think you would see a significant reduction in life spans and dramatic if not explosive increases in both chemical and behavioral addictions as well as many other forms of mental and lifestyle-related illness. Both science and history have demonstrated time and time again that you simply can't expose any living creature -- never mind a self-aware and self-motivated human being -- to constant stress without producing negative consequences for that organism. In my opinion, such a system would not save humanity -- it would destroy it.
Rico @ 10:
We were distracted. It began with what I call the "me" generation of the Reagan years. I was overwhelmed with disgust as an older college student - seeing others not even one generation younger than me so obsessed with money and so little concerned with society. Big corporations loved this and fed on it. Those kids from my college years are now having kids, and of course they could care less about the world or even the state of their own country. They hide away with their video games, shamelessly steal music on the internet and brag about their 'rights' to do whatever they want, whenever they want. This generation wants to become rich and famous so they spend their creativity making video to post on YouTube - and hey, violence is OK as long as you get your 15 minutes. Its all about how hot you look, what stuff you have and what happened on the latest piece of shit called "reality" TV. Why on earth would any of them actually CARE if they were being watched? Or if our president admits to sanctioning torture? Most of them are so self-centered that when the subject of torture is brought up, they will loudly tell you that the 'terrorists' had it coming. They don't want to listen to any facts about the Geneva Convention - half of them don't even know where Geneva is let alone anything about The Hague. I got this directly from a colleague who teaches social studies. Scary stuff. This is what happened to us.
This weekend I met a group of young people at a small college and found a ray of hope. They were intelligent, inquisitive, open, honest and not tied to their cell phones. I was impressed to the point of tears. It gives me some hope; hope that there are a lot more out there like them because we're going to need them very, very soon.
In the movie Minority Report, there is a brief moment in a chase scene where Tom's character and the Precog girl are hiding behind the balloons at the mall - the advertisement immediately shown behind the chasing cops afterwards says: "see what others don't see."
In the scene where Toms character is tubed and put into cryogenic freeze, the number on the pod is 119.
From the same incompetents who allowed 9/11 to occur on their watch..............
MCMetal @ 32:
you are a fool if you think they are incompetent. They are getting everything they asked for and more.
Rico @ 11:
we turned out to many assholes with university educations???
Don't forget Priest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ8mO5hY0b0
The local city gov't here in Lansing Michigan recently approved putting cameras up on street corners deemed unsafe by the city at a cost of over $300,000. Many in the city have argued against this. A crime could still occur and it would take help the same amount of time to get there if the person monitoring the video happens to catch the act going down. This seems more about catching more criminals and getting more convictions than reducing crime.
Many locals asked the city council about hiring more officers and they were immediately rejected due to salary costs, pensions and health care. In other words, because of George W. Bush's war, our cities cannot afford to hire the police officers they need to protect our citizenry. And I would imagine that the people that will be hired to monitor these cameras will be hired in at minimum wage, no benefits, and I predict they will not be police officers or law enforcement trained individuals. They will be the product of outsourced/privatized gov't.
Thanks George
Frank Dufek @ 26:
I'm having a tough time deciding myself.
Folks, America is already deeply into "1984" territory. It's not coming, it's already here. Doublespeak. Cameras watching us everywhere. Computers tracking our every purchase, every library visit, everything we do.
In the novel, Orwell has the government rewriting history so that the country was always at war with Eurasia, or Eastasia--whichever one is the current enemy is written in as the only enemy. We went from fighting "communism" to fighting "terrorism"--a new -ism, but the same old warmongering.
Our politicians in both parties twist words into meaningless phrases, frequently even using words in exactly OPPOSITE meanings. The two parties are just different wings of "The Party," which has the goal of protecting its own existence by controlling the citizens.
I live in a poor part of North Little Rock, Arkansas, at the low end of the economy, yet we have cameras on some of our street corners. When we have cameras watching even the poorest streets, then Big Brother is already here. Orwell was off by a couple of decades, but that's all.
Go read (or re-read) "1984." It's chilling because it's no longer a dystopian SF novel; it's a modern-day reality.
(Oh, and thanks to Ranch111 at #35: I think "Electric Eye" is very fitting and all too accurate. "You think you've private lives, think nothing of the kind/There is no true escape, I'm watching all the time.")
Welcome to Bush's America--or as I think of it, "U.S.S.R. 2.0."
Paul B. @ 38:
I tend to think of it as "The United States of Authoritarianism", personally...
This is just the sort of precursory work necessary to establish a system of criminal ARBITRARY law. Mix total surveillance with selective enforcement and arbitrary laws and the political apparatus is complete.
Relax, people. If you read the published articles in this area, then you'll know that the way that they are being described in the MSM is pure hyperbole. We had the same promises/warnings about reading minds using EEG in the 80s. Now it's imaging. But neither come close.
If you're not doing anything wrong you don't have anything to worry about. Oh, and "they" will decide what's "wrong."
It's interesting to see the comments out there from folks debating the "do I stay or do I go" question. I know I am. Feels like Germany between Weimar and the invasion of Poland - when all the smart jews, gypsies and entertainers got the heck out of Dodge/Berlin...
What a load of old shit.
I don't believe that for one moment. That's a fluff piece. Scarey, scarey scare tactic. Scare them into submission.
Besides, everyone is a criminal when the laws are made by criminals.
Different Anonymous @ 42:
I've been thinking of forming an expatriate group among my friends. If things start to get much worse this summer, as I anticipate, I will want a plan in motion to leave. I feel like all of the great people I learned from throughout history had to give up everything at times for what is right.
bigbrother2084 @ 43:
You're not scared by your own media/government's attempt to scare you into submission?
Hooookay, dunno how we're gonna have a rational debate anymore.
Correct-2-moon-doe. SEE:
http://www.mypersonalstory.net/
To all the "people" out there who think that property rights are only for the rich, please understand that it is for us ALL.
http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/opinion/1206001957245...
Amerika, the land of ubiquitous law enforcement. Makes me grateful that I have no children.
Is it just me, or does Micheal Chertoff remind anybody else of that eagle that used to make "American" statements on The Muppet Show? Every time I see him I think of that damned muppet.
Frank Dufek @ 45:
I'm sick of being scared. The monster is under the bed, there is no question. I'm just going to have to learn to love Big Brother.
I mean do you really think that brainscans are viable? How would our courts react to it? Should we start wearing foil on our heads?
We all already are in submission. How the hell did we get here?
bigbrother2084 @ 50:
bigbrother2084 @ 50:
I don’t know how our court would respond to it NOW. But an Iran invasion and a terrorist attack later it wouldn’t surprise me if they were sending us to camps.
"Will this be enough evidence for an arrest? Can it be used to convict a person of intent to commit a crime?"
Who needs 'evidence' or 'convictions' now that damn pesky Habeas Corpus is out of the way? The Constitution only protects criminals, we should throw out the whole thing.
But who cares about that, have you guys heard the good news? Chocolate ration is going up to 20g a week!!
If you're borderline or actually schizophrenic you know for sure that
this article is just a COVERUP and that the technology for reading
thoughts and projecting thoughts into your head already exists.
Articles like this drive them up the wall. I know because I used
to be one of "them". Now I'm one of "us" and I walk among you. Ha!)
I think I just ticked off a complex event program at SAIC.
bigbrother2084 @ 50:
By believing the bullshit they tell you on the TV.
I'm so glad the larger part of my life has been spent, and I have no children. That's no consolation to you, perhaps, but it sure is a comfort to me!!!!!!!!!!
Don't worry about this kind of crap. It simply isn't going to happen. Why?
No energy. In 10 years the gov't is going to be much more concerned about heating homes and keeping people fed. High tech gizmos like that have such a low ROI, it's not even funny. You don't need to fill the streets with that kind of crap, when you can have everyone glued to a hyper efficient LCD screen lapping up Fox / MSNBC / CNN bullshit.
Gas is $4 a gallon NOW, and production of oil has been essentially flat for the past few years - demand is WAY outstripping production, and it's only going to get more intense. So, when they dream up these orwellian high tech fantasies - don't buy it.
You want to know what the USA will be like in 40 years? Read the novel "A World Made By Hand" by JH Kunstler.
PS "The good old days" has real meaning, like never before, even now.
There are too many people on the planet to allow democracy. It'll only get worse. Wait and see.
danger hussein al-malak @ 37:
Really, given this is a world wide phenomenon, where could you run to?
And how good would you feel leaving friends and family behind?
Besides, America is about the only country in the world that has the power top reverse this trend because people have tasted freedom and even though most are in serious denial now, when the truth hits home, and it will soon enough, many will draw a line in the sand.
You will do more for others, and yourself I believe, by staying.
David @ 60:
I guess it's everyone's opportunity to become a martyr
ummm... aren't we already there? you tube already silenced randi rhodes and rev. wright and barack is having his "macaca" moment right now with speaking the truth about pennsylvania...
i always wanted to stage 1984 as a period piece. it's not only about who's watching us, it's also about that we're all watching each other.
cameras already abound. the watchers haven't been centralized yet but they still have oppressive power.
no big brother but lots of nosey siblings...
the big question is whether ALL will have to be subject
to this kind of scrutiny. and by that i mean all the way up
to the whitehouse, congress and the supreme court.
no one should have immunity for this kind of surveillance.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
I just laid in a new supply of aluminum foil. Looks like I'm gonna need it.
I'm pretty sure the people least interested in mind-reading is the current administration, lest we read their minds. plus, we'd learn that 99% of people are "thought" criminals lol.
Before cameras in jails, it was only a "criminal"'s word against the police.
Before camears on police cars, the same
Before public cameras and citizen held cameras we couldn't expose governmental and establishment abuse of our citizenry.
Before public cameras, we only had eyewitness accounts as proof for prosecuting crime and/or the many innocents who are wrongly incarcerated by people who think they remember what the perpetrator of a crime looked like.
Bring on the cameras. This site alone gives us an example weekly of abuses caught on cameras (from both citizen and government sources) that help increase our freedoms, not restrict them.
Fade @ 67:
No. Your rights go right out of the window. "A world where police officers can read the minds of potential criminals and arrest them before they commit any crimes. A world in which a suspect who lies under questioning gets nabbed immediately because his brain has given him away."
This is WAY beyond guilty until prove innocent. This gets into the realm of Quakery. Lie detector tests are not 100%. This will be used to arrest POLITICAL enemies of the state. What ever happend to prove beyond a resonable doubt. This is an invasion of privacy. What ever happend to being free?
I guess it proves that all the citizens in a police state are guilty and are the enemy. The Stasi, and Soviet Russia and its satelite states did this crap. Free societies don't do this.
Fuck this Nazi Gestapo shit.
Joe O. @ 8:
actually... if this ever becomes reality, i will go out of my way to destroy each and every receiver i can find and come into contact with...
klunk @ 69:
Those are nice, big, empty words. Sure you'll go destroy the receivers. Yep. And I'm sure you take out every street-level surveillance camera you see, and every cop car with a license-plate reader (we even have those in central Arkansas).
I've said the same big, tough words, and never followed through, just as countless others have done. But instead, we're posting comments to a BLOG. Yeah, we're the tough-as-nails descendants of the Founders who pledged their lives to liberty. (That's sarcasm for those who don't recognize it. Or perhaps irony...hell, I haven't had my coffee yet...)
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