<nettime> Pascal Zachary: Rules for the Digital Panopticon (IEEE)

[Jim Bell]

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Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 20:41:55 +0200
From: Patrice Riemens <patrice at xs4all.nl>
To: nettime-l at kein.org
Subject: <nettime> Pascal Zachary: Rules for the Digital Panopticon (IEEE)
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original to:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/rules-for-the-digital-panopticon


Rules for the Digital Panopticon

The technologies of persistent surveillance can protect us only if certain
boundaries are respected

By G. Pascal Zachary
(Posted 20 Sep 2013)

>For centuries, we humans have lacked the all-knowing, all-seeing
>mechanisms to credibly predict and prevent bad actions by others. Now
>these very powers of preemption are perhaps within our grasp, thanks
>to a confluence of technologies.

>In the foreseeable future, governments, and perhaps some for-profit
>corporations and civil-society groups, will design, construct, and
>deploy surveillance systems that aim to predict and prevent bad
>actions and to identify, track, and neutralize people who commit them.

>And when contemplating these systems, lets broadly agree that we
>should prevent the slaughter of children at school and the abduction,
>rape, and ­imprisonment of women. And lets also agree that we should
>thwart lethal attacks against lawful government.

Sorry, but I can't agree with that last statement.  "Lawful government"?  Which government would be willing to admit that it isn't 'lawful'?  The only government I would consider 'lawful' is one which complies with libertarianism's 'Non initiation of force/fraud principle', but since I am aware of no such government, I cannot agree that this statement has any practical purpose.  And while I might wryly agree with it, it would only be on the condition that all employees and officeholders of real (non-compliant with NIOFFP) government surrender, resign, and return every penny of money paid their for their 'services', back to 'day 1' of their employment.  And, of course, compensating all victims of that government for their damages and suffering.  Indoctrinated with the idea that they had the right to do what they did, I doubt that any of them would comply.
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