Does technology scare you?
- Thread starter Lamb
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The potential for misuse scares me more, along with the stupidity of people.
Why people feel the need to share every detail of their life with companies that slice and dice it and sell it to the highest bidder is beyond me, for example. But even talking about how things might be misused results in people figuring I'm just being negative.
Why people feel the need to share every detail of their life with companies that slice and dice it and sell it to the highest bidder is beyond me, for example. But even talking about how things might be misused results in people figuring I'm just being negative.
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Repeat after me, "nothing to hide, nothing to fear, nothing to hide, nothing to fear".
I remember seeing a TV show some years ago about governments collecting data and they interviewed a former Stasi agent. He commented that if the government has the data it will be misused at some point and the only way to stop the misuse is not to allow them to gather the data in the first place.
When the government and big technology firms gather data and keep it forever, and we regular people clear it out every once in a while (because we don't have the means to maintain the storage to save every single thing) we don't even have the raw data to explain what it really means, in the event a hostile government tries to present the data as being sinister.
To take an example, the GPS history on your phone shows you driving 20mph over the speed limit on the wrong side of the road at 11pm, on the 28th of June 2017. This looks like you were driving drunk. Can you prove otherwise? Maybe you were overtaking something and were as sober as a judge, and dropped your speed as soon as you completed the overtaking. Good luck proving it - weaving across the road while failing to maintain a consistent speed looks a lot like the way a drunk might drive.
I remember seeing a TV show some years ago about governments collecting data and they interviewed a former Stasi agent. He commented that if the government has the data it will be misused at some point and the only way to stop the misuse is not to allow them to gather the data in the first place.
When the government and big technology firms gather data and keep it forever, and we regular people clear it out every once in a while (because we don't have the means to maintain the storage to save every single thing) we don't even have the raw data to explain what it really means, in the event a hostile government tries to present the data as being sinister.
To take an example, the GPS history on your phone shows you driving 20mph over the speed limit on the wrong side of the road at 11pm, on the 28th of June 2017. This looks like you were driving drunk. Can you prove otherwise? Maybe you were overtaking something and were as sober as a judge, and dropped your speed as soon as you completed the overtaking. Good luck proving it - weaving across the road while failing to maintain a consistent speed looks a lot like the way a drunk might drive.
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What scares ME is the degree to which we depend on it.... Imagine what would happen if a terrorist organization or enemy country caused the 'net to totally crash.... or caused a massive electrical blackout... or even if a solar flare "fried"our electrical grid.
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And so much of the time people love how convenient it all is, and never even think about what happens if it doesn't work. Even when the system all but crashes people soon forget. It wasn't that long ago it was impossible to buy toilet paper and yet already people act as if everything will always work like clockwork.
Take out the payments system and what would happen then? How many places even give a useful option to pay other than online with a credit card? How many people would be unable to buy their groceries because all they have is a piece of plastic that makes their bills go away for a while? How many people are prepared for even a slight glitch in the matrix?
It always reminds me of the stupid people who go hiking in the mountains. They don't have a map, or a compass, or a waterproof, or any provisions at all, but they have a cellphone and know how to call emergency services to come and get them off the mountain. So some poor schmuck gets to risk their life looking for someone who doesn't even know with any certainty where they are, because they couldn't be bothered to look after themselves.
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... or if the government shut stuff down to coerce people into compliance ...
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No.
Except maybe Nuclear arms and crazy dictators who own nukes.