The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism

[nebsen]

A dystopian future is closer than you think ! Anybody remember the film The Minority Report 2002 ?

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

Mar 2, 2019 1:22:56 GMT -5 nebsen said:

A dystopian future is closer than you think ! Anybody remember the film The Minority Report 2002 ?

Nah, never saw it.
Ima hafta add it to my to view list.
More please.

However, I've seen some, once considered alarming, things I read in
• Animal Farm
• 1984
• It Can't Happen Here
are now an every day unobjected taken for granted reality.

I guess folks come in a four pastoral varieties:
Sheep,
Shepherd,
Wolf,
Sheep Dog.

[zarahan]

A dystopian future is closer than you think ! Anybody remember the film The Minority Report 2002 ?

I remember that movie, set in Year 2054, which aint too far away, where special "pre-cogs" sensed
crime before it happened and the police were dispatched to arrest theenvisioned criminals.
But this was special people with ESP or precog powers. Reality may be more sinister.

Its not special pre-cog people but computerized "big data" harvesting every scrap of info on you for
manipulation and control- because our lives are now so much bound up online. Where you live, work, your
habits, your political beliefs, the web sites you visit etc etc- basically much privacy is gone. So whoever is
manipulating the search can now build a detailed "profile" that is not just individual, but can
be used for identification of "deviant thought" or "predict" such from your profile using big data.
In the 1930s and into WW2 the Japanese authorities actually had an official governmental agency called the
"Thought Police" which dispatched grim-faced men to liquidate or crush "dangerous thought." No
such crude mechanisms are needed anymore. It can all be done seamlessly, behind the scenes with big data.

ANother similar movie about the future is Will SMith's "Enemy of the State" where the hero became a social
"non-person"- his credit cards suddenly cut off, fired from his job as various "reports" targeted
him and so on. The reality is even more sisnster. Smith played I think a lawyer connected with some
investigation into a particular intelligence agency person or other such connection.

But the future is now, and looks more like CHina's rollout of so-called "social credit." Its not just
financial credit anymore. Those citizens who have the correct thoughts, participate int he right
associations etc etc get a "good social credit" score. Those who fall short get a bad social credit
score- meaning credit cutoffs, job losses, delayed medical care, etc all sort of bad things begin
to happen in your life.

China’s "Social Credit System"


SOme have suggested that Facebook is a precursor of a similar system in the US. Only "real" people
are supposed to have accounts (laugh for now) and of course every mouse click is harvested by
the Facebook surveillance machine to build a detailed profile. COmbine this with governmental
data, and the vast array of digital cameras now in every space,, (check out England and its pervasive
camera surveillance everywhere) and working together the technology for a controlling 24/7
"social credit surveillance" system, pervading every aspect of your life, is already in place.
Indeed, one negative data point against you might be why you do not have an active Facebook
account? WHat are you trying to hide??

IN CHina failure to join certain activities is itself a negative point marker against you. I have heard
some argue that CHina is the test bed for the kinks to be worked out, and for the increasing array of interlinked
servers, sensors and cameras needed for detailed 24/7 surveillance coverage to be produced cheaply. Its already here.
In the future of course, Facebook may be gone and some other entity take its place, But the
pervasive surveillance control system will be there and its grip tightening. Its not just capitalism as
the video suggests, but governmental regimes are increasingly using it big time. I have no doubt that
Facebook and other tech companies is already selling the technology to various regime customers.

[zarahan]

Another angle is "predictive surveillance"- of certain "backward groups" who tend to have negative
social credit. Since data patterns show more crime or disturbances statistically with such groups,
measures can be taken to "cull" them (via increasing abortions), or profile them them aggressively
on street (why should a black man walk around with say $500, $600, $1000 in cash- roll ominous Voiceover)
unless he is involved in some sort of illegal activity? Hey, our data profiles show this may be
likely, hence lets crank up more police stops etc etc. This actually was part of the reasoning behind
the infamous "black cash" traffic stops of the 1990s on INterstate Highways, (and sometimes city streets)
such as that run by Florida SHeriff Bob VOgel, off I-95. And this was in the days before "big data" became so
powerful. Vogel's "mistake" was that he was open about his profiling. These days things are more concealed
ans subtle, with more innocous sounding reasons and justifications, but same bottom line.
Colorblind Racial Profiling: A History, 1974 to the Present By Guy Padula
www.routledge.com/Colorblind-Racial-Profiling-A-History-1974-to-the-Present-1st-Edition/Padula/p/book/9781315174648


But hey, "social credit" and big data may be even more profitable in the future, as they are combined with police enforcement.
Right now its a bit reactive- but as "predictive power" is deployed, why wait for the random motorist to drive past?
They can be sought out and targeted in advance, not merely people with warrants but those with unfavorable social credit.

[nebsen]

Mar 2, 2019 10:07:49 GMT -5 zarahan said:

Another angle is "predictive surveillance"- of certain "backward groups" who tend to have negative
social credit. Since data patterns show more crime or disturbances statistically with such groups,
measures can be taken to "cull" them (via increasing abortions), or profile them them aggressively
on street (why should a black man walk around with say $500, $600, $1000 in cash- roll ominous Voiceover)
unless he is involved in some sort of illegal activity? Hey, our data profiles show this may be
likely, hence lets crank up more police stops etc etc. This actually was part of the reasoning behind
the infamous "black cash" traffic stops of the 1990s on INterstate Highways, (and sometimes city streets)
such as that run by Florida SHeriff Bob VOgel, off I-95. And this was in the days before "big data" became so
powerful. Vogel's "mistake" was that he was open about his profiling. These days things are more concealed
ans subtle, with more innocous sounding reasons and justifications, but same bottom line.
Colorblind Racial Profiling: A History, 1974 to the Present By Guy Padula
www.routledge.com/Colorblind-Racial-Profiling-A-History-1974-to-the-Present-1st-Edition/Padula/p/book/9781315174648


But hey, "social credit" and big data may be even more profitable in the future, as they are combined with police enforcement.
Right now its a bit reactive- but as "predictive power" is deployed, why wait for the random motorist to drive past?
They can be sought out and targeted in advance, not merely people with warrants but those with unfavorable social credit.

Zarahan you are spot on ! I heard about the China credit angel the other day... it's all about" control:" also China I said a while back has really been working hard on " Face Recognition technology, etc.now ready for roll out to other countries with a authoritarian bent & systems !

Also the trilogy" Matrix" spoke, to this dystopian future !

[zarahan]

Yeah. In the Matrix all the humans were in test tubes and lived their imagined physical
lives thru computer programs served up by the Matrix- the ultimate in "big data." I dont think it
will get to this extreme point, but the technology seems ready to go towards a variant of Orwell's
"Big Brother" scenario. They have the capability now, particularly, where as you say, they
can tie in other data with facial recognition, from ubiquitous cameras everywhere. Today's Big
Brother may not be a single, heavy-handed central regime, but a grouping of both government and
corporate manipulators, hiding the true workings of the system behind many layers of deception
or misdirection. Nor do I think it will be as openly heavy handed as 1984. The overall controls
will be more subtle, with a great deal of seduction-where people willingly give up their privacy, which
basically is what is happening now. Of course, heavy-handed personnel are waiting in the wings to
apply threat, intimidation and force when the time comes for it.

Interesting that some rail against the evils of "the federal bureaucrats in Washington" when in fact there is just as
much danger to liberty from the state and local levels, as those familiar with black history can attest.
N0t too long ago black/hispanic motorists were being victimized by corrupt shakedown machinery in Texas,
that seized millions of dollars. One guy was depositing money for his church as the article linked
below shows, when the allegedly "closer to the people" local regime, engineered corrupt seizure tactics
to take all the congregation's money. In these cases, the burden of proof is on the victim to
prove his/her innocence. People who objected were threatened and hit with bogus charges. FOr many
ordinary folk, "surveillance capitalism" is overshadowed by local "cash under cover of law" extortion.
www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/03/12/cops-use-traffic-stops-to-seize-millions-from-drivers-never-charged-with-a-crime/#7bc9a095f54b

"Surveillance capitalism" is valid concern but perhaps only half the story. The other half might be the
joint working of corporate and gubment forces- from banksta bailouts, to massive public-private contracting schemes-
like certain military contractors, to regulatory bureaucracies "captured" or manipulated by the corporate
entities they are supposed to be regulating. A wheel within a wheel. Where does the corporate capitalism
or surveillance begin or end in an era when it works hand-in-glove with grasping gubment regimes?

[nebsen]