2084

If ID cards and a national database are not chilling enough, just add in the technologies outlined in this paper and you have a truly chilling picture of life. For example:

A second important side-effect of panopticon surveillance is the chilling effect it exerts on otherwise lawful activities. If you believe your activities on the net are being monitored for signs of terrorist intent, would you dare do the research to write that thriller? Nobody (with any common sense) cracks a joke in the waiting line at airport security -- we're all afraid of attracting the unwelcome attention of people in uniform with no sense of humour whatsoever. Now imagine the straitjacket policing of aviation security extended into every aspect of daily life, with unblinking and remorseless surveillance of everything you do and say. Worse: imagine that the enforcers are machines, tireless and efficient and incapable of turning a blind eye.... may lead to attempts to monitor thoughts as well as deeds. What starts with attempts to identify paedophile predators before they strike may end with discrimination against people believed to be at risk of "addictive behaviour" -- howsoever that might be defined -- or of harbouring anti-social attitudes. ... Previous police states were limited by manpower, but the panopticon singularity substitutes technology, and ultimately replaces human conscience with a brilliant but merciless prosthesis.

My questions: given the virtual inevitability of these technologies and the plausible cases for the at-first-sight uses of them, how do we protect ourselves from the invasiveness? Secondly, if ever there was a case for something usurping God's prerogative, perhaps this is it? A dystopic aping of Psalm 139 or what?
The Panopticon Singularity

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