Face Recognition Breakthrough - Why develop nukes?

[grarpamp]

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/18/0024203/breakthrough-in-face-recognition-software
Face recognition software underwent a revolution in 2001 with the
creation of the Viola-Jones algorithm. Now, the field looks set to
dramatically improve once again: computer scientists from Stanford and
Yahoo Labs have published a new, simple approach that can find faces
turned at an angle and those that are partially blocked by something
else. The researchers "capitalize on the advances made in recent years
on a type of machine learning known as a deep convolutional neural
network. The idea is to train a many-layered neural network using a
vast database of annotated examples, in this case pictures of faces
from many angles. To that end, Farfade and co created a database of
200,000 images that included faces at various angles and orientations
and a further 20 million images without faces. They then trained their
neural net in batches of 128 images over 50,000 iterations. ... What's
more, their algorithm is significantly better at spotting faces when
upside down, something other approaches haven't perfected." ...



Why, like nukes, does society insist on developing
tech whose primary purpose upon analysis seems
only to be destructive, or of control, or in removing rights
from individuals and groups, or just plain [ab]using them
for profit? What possible quantifiable significant individualized
benefit would a single human have from such things, when
in fact they are pointed at them, instead of being wielded
in their own hands?

This isn't crypto or a weapon a human can also use to
protect themselves beforehand. Do you really need to
facial recognize your friends, your boss, doctor, or even to
seek justice [aka: revenge] after someone's already done
damage to you? Do you really care if another face has
your name so long as if the cops come, society, laws and
process are done right such that you are declared as
innocent error and formally expunged from all db's and news
and even compensated? Where is the FR in your hands? For
that matter, do any individuals in your network really need to
FR you either? In individual paired contexts, FR seems
pointless. And any benefit when used to say hunt in a
group seems thoroughly washed out by negatives on balance.

When the camera comes to your face, instinct tells
to put a mask to protect yourself. So there's something
obviously wrong with the "picture" being developed here.
Maybe it is the developers that need more cameras
in their face to get a feel for the more likely uses.