Half life 2's scanners coming true?

[naked jesus]

This isn't the full article, but it gives you an idea of what i'm talking about.

Government remotely detects terrorist thoughts

so basically, these old sci-fi stories of bleak dystopian futures seem to be coming true.

Im sure some of you have read Minority Report, or seen the movie and if you havn't, it features a thing called Pre-Crime. Pre-crime is controlled by these 3 strange humans (i cant remember exactly what/who they are)and they're wired up to read the future and put out little disks that contain information on crimes that will take place within the next week and the police can attemp to take the suspect down.

Obviously, this isn't as advanced as literally seeing into the future, this just reads brain waves to see if you seem likely to commit an attack.

I think it relates to HL2 quite alot as well, the scanners flying around, scanning you and building up a dossier of your personal data to monitor and insure that you don't intend to commit a crime.

Technology is great, but it's quite a worrying thing when you see it being manipulated to create such a machine that can read your mind and predict any of your thoughts. This relates in someway to the talking CCTV, only its alot more advanced, and im not sure it has been mentioned yet.

anyone have any views/opinions?

[Torrean]

I sometimes think about how easy it would be to do certain questionable things, but I would never do them. I wonder if I'm a terrorist, then?

[ForceFist]

That's freakish! I think that's going to far, soon we will have machines running the streets and people staying inside all day because of the annoying flashes.

[Sauce]

Somebody isn't a terrorist just because they think about blowing shit up. You have to actually DO something before you are a terrorist.

It all sounds pretty stupid to me.

[Mango]

There are lots of companies working on similar technologies. I've read articles about facial recognition systems, body language systems etc. These technologies will eventually be rolled out onto our streets, along with many other surveillance devices. (schools in UK have been given go-ahead to fingerprint children for internal biometric profiles) With wiretapping (it also appears America now has carte blance to carry out domestic wiretaps for 6 months), and regulation of the internet coming soon (I'd bet my bottom dollar this happens) you're looking at total awareness.

It seems we're destined to live in high-technology cities more akin to a panoptic prison than anything we've seen before. But of course, this is all just to catch those mean 'ol terrorists and criminals that're the real reason for the crumbling of society.

Anyway, I believe that this is a tiny step in a huge path to something so pervasive, so all encompassing and so awe-inspiring in its monstrous beauty.

I'm sure they're people that see no reason why we shouldn't have these types of devices on every street corner, coupled with CCTV and complete tracking and monitoring via RFID ID cards. To you: is there something, anything deep inside that tells you this situation is wrong? Is this what you want for your children?

[naked jesus]

that was an insightful comment

(schools in UK have been given go-ahead to fingerprint children for internal biometric profiles)

there's no fuckin way i'm going to concent to that

[Rustvaar]

The next thing you know though; if biometric scanning becomes a standard practice, you'll either have to allow your children to have their prints scanned or it'll be "Sorry, no education."

I think it's very interesting, but to have devices that read minds and register facial patterns and stuff; I'm a human and even I have my flaws when it comes to registering sadness and happiness - we all do, most of us do. Obviously there are things like tears streaming down someone's face and the initial connection is 'sad', but on the other hand; there are tears of joy.

Do you want a robot or piece of software to define that and terminate you for being happy? I sure don't.

Oppressive monsters.

[dragonfliet]

While I'm very apprehensive about systems like this, as they would be a nuisance to legitimate people who simply have other things on their mind, I don't imagine it'll intrude on us in the near future by any means. I'll keep a lookout in 15 years, but it'll be a long road to roll this out.

As for the Minority Report reference: Call me evil, but I would be in complete support for a system like that. Honestly. Either: 1) no violent crime is commited, saving thousands of lives at the expense of a few hundred POSSIBLY innocent people or 2) thousands of Violent crimes happen and a good number of the perps get away with it and a good number of innocents STILL go to jail for crimes they didn't commit. Yeah, I'm for the system that eliminates total lives lost. That book seriously pissed me off. Look, one guy was innocent, therefore the entire system doesn't work. What system doesn't have flaws? Jury trials certainly don't work, Professional juries certainly don't work, Tribunals certainly don't work. Should we just stop prosecuting?

Okay, that was off topic, but you started it NJ.

~Jason

[Mr. Happy]

Well, that's your opinion and that's ok, but I'd like to point out that the very basic, fundamental, right down to it tenet of the American justice system is that "it's better to let a thousand murderer's go than to let one innocent man be jailed." That's what the study of criminology is built upon, and that's why most people instinctially agree with minority report type stuff.

Anyway, I don't see the need for it anyway. Maybe in Europe, where they seem to have a bomb plot every other weekend, but not here in the USA, we are at absolutely no risk from any kind of attack.

[SlappyBag]

Well, that's your opinion and that's ok, but I'd like to point out that the very basic, fundamental, right down to it tenet of the American justice system is that "it's better to let a thousand murderer's go than to let one innocent man be jailed." That's what the study of criminology is built upon, and that's why most people instinctially agree with minority report type stuff.

Anyway, I don't see the need for it anyway. Maybe in Europe, where they seem to have a bomb plot every other weekend, but not here in the USA, we are at absolutely no risk from any kind of attack.

You know, there was this one day, ages ago, called 9/11 where these huge planes crashed into two huge buildings killing thousands of people.

Talking CCTV makes sense, and I don't mind about constant security and constant tracking, but reading people thoughts is wrong. Me and my friends usually joke about getting in fights and blowing up buildings, but we would never do it.

[ad_hominem]

wasn't that 9/11?

[ShaDoW]

Anyway, I don't see the need for it anyway. Maybe in Europe, where they seem to have a bomb plot every other weekend, but not here in the USA, we are at absolutely no risk from any kind of attack.

lol? I hope that was sarcasm. But I'm having trouble reading it.

Feels to me that all of Europe is a safer place to live in as opposed to the USA. The UK might have had some terrorist trouble a while ago, but thats about it. So I wouldn't go and generalize it for all of Europe... thats a lot of countries.

I don't have any problems with all these security measures. The whole pre-crime thing from Minority Report is of course science fiction. But all the other possible measurements they can take today? No problem with me.

I just go by the rule "If you haven't done something wrong, you don't have anything to fear".

Slick: 7/11 is a supermarket, 9/11 is the "attack".

[Mr. Happy]

We don't know of a single terrorist in the United States.

We have no evidence of an upcoming attack.

Al-Qaeda put their all into 9/11, which was SIX YEARS AGO and then we crushed them like the pansies they are.

Al-Qaeda the organization is broken, and although the ideology has inspired many small al-gaeda-IST goups in the Middle-East and Europe, none of them have the strength, organization, or resources, to mount an attack on the United States, especially with our rediculous amount of border security.

It's not like in Europe where you can move freely between countries without having your passport checked.

[SlappyBag]

Yeah, I was thinking of the shop 7/11 in my post. Corrected.

[ShaDoW]

It's not like in Europe where you can move freely between countries without having your passport checked.

Again, major trouble reading whether this is sarcasm or not.

Of course they check passports in Europe. In Europe they just don't arrest and trial anyone who happens to have a book on him with a picture of a plane or a bomb on it.