More Technology Watching You

I remember the first time I saw "2001 a Space Odyssey", in it the computer named HAL would watch the astronauts and even read their lips, it seemed like science fiction at the time; but, it also seemed possible. Well, it is now just reality and nobody seems amazed by it or even scared of it.

NBC - TechNewsDaily - Eye movements could be next PC password

As the title of the article says, your computer can be programmed to identify you just by the way you move your eyes. The article states that "Computer scientists all over the world are studying biometrics for crime solving, for border security, and just as a high-tech way to sign into smartphones, tablets and other devices." The article goes on to say how this technology could be used to indicate if someone was emotionally unstable.

The next article is actually a video. YouTube - Autodesk 123D Catch for the iPhone. The video shows an application for for IPhone's that allows you to take someone's picture and convert it automatically into a 3D Model.

What we are looking at is a series of technologies that capture your individual biometrics. Iris scans, motion detection technology like Kinect, electronic fingerprints, voice recognition (Siri) and all sorts of applications that look at your living habits to predict what you will want or what might influence you.

The next article is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and is titled - Biometrics in Argentina: Mass Surveillance as a State Policy. Argentina both requires a national identification card and now the biometrics of all citizens. The kicker is that they are also going to assign everyone a personal identification number for life which is linked to their biometrics. I gave a sermon today on these types of technologies and their implications, I wish I would have read these articles yesterday.

It is coming and sooner than people think, I have been saying it for years and will repeat it. In the not to distant future your biometrics will be required for you to use the internet, cell phones or anything connected to the internet. You will not need to carry identification because your face will be your id card. And even if you are allowed to use these things, the government will determine what you can and cannot do based on age and past history. If you don't go along, they will simply cut you off from the internet and the coming electronic money.

When I first told people that their phone would watch them and predict their actions, they thought I was paranoid and then when I showed them the Galaxy SIII, they were uncomfortable. I now know someone that owns one and thinks it is great. People accepted it immediately with no concern for the consequences.

I am going to try something. I am asking everyone who reads this post to leave a comment on what they think about these things, leave it anonymously (I don't require you to prove who you are).

We have all heard of Facebook, it has one billion users, that is one out of every seven people on earth. Facebook is just that, it monitors your face, your personal identity. Recently there was a lot of news articles saying that there were a lot of phony profiles on Facebook and what a horrible thing this was. Facebook is going to require that you verify who you are to use it in the future, they may do that now for all I know. This technology will be used to stop "online bullying" and prevent sexual predators from going after children. It will also be used to dumb down political debate, eliminate any real privacy and convince people to ignore you based on public opinion about you.

Let me explain that last one. One of the most popular uses of the internet is to get other people's opinions about restaurants, products and dates. There are sites where you can rate the man or woman that you dated. In response to this, there are now people offering their services to improve your online profile. Most social media has some sort of rating for other people on the social media site. I can imagine sites being created that allow the users determine who is allowed to use the site, what a force for using social pressure to get people to conform.

I have been using the World Wide Web (internet) since the first year. I have been on it since the beginning and have watched it evolve. When I first started using it, Internet Explorer did not exist. In fact, I beta tested Internet Explorer before it was released. I remember when personal computers first came out. I remember punch cards and learned how to make them in order to program computers back in the early 70s. I regret to say that I did not consider where all of it was heading, I thought the technology was just sort of cool. I don't find it cool anymore.