NP: Surveillance of the Mind Series Unlimited: The “Surveillance State”
By James W. Astrada
The subject of the last three articles concerning surveillance of the mind dealt with the reality of how government agencies were developing and utilizing technology to monitor and detect abnormal behaviors in its citizens. Although the idea of an Orwellian society in the near future has been teased as almost fantasy, more and more evidence points to the grim reality of a true modern dystopia where “pre-crime” will haunt us all. Within this realm of reality, our minds are being probed in case we become a nuisance or display too many feelings that may overwhelm our corporate masters watching us daily.
Deemed the “surveillance state” by some, DARPA has been pouring funds into its special program that will increase its sophistication and tools used for monitoring immensely. Forbes reported that DARPA has intentions and has contracted scientists at Carnegie Mellon to develop what they called an “artificial intelligence system” to monitor real time feeds to predict what an individual may do in any type of situation. When an act is committed deemed “not permitted,” officials would be notified and quickly take action to ensure maximum protection. DARPA is initially planning to install these “Skynet” devices in bus stations and airports; however there are those that believe that every single intersection in the country will have one.
It has been also revealed that Carnegie Mellon is one of many universities that were contracted to develop “smart software” for the military arm of the U.S. government. DARPA spokesman Mark Geersten insisted that this project’s goal was for defense purposes only “to invent new approaches to the identification of people, places, things and activities from still or moving defense and open-source imagery.” The New American however investigated and revealed that they believed Geersten wasn’t completely honest about the project’s initial purpose. They did discover that a program called PetaVision which according to research was a “multi-modal approach to Real-Time Video Analysis; Biologically-inspired, hierarchical neural networks to detect objects of interest in streaming video by combining texture/color, shape and motion/depth cues.” Whatever this program was made could involve a highly advanced cybernetic organism with unlimited potential (A.I.). With learning computers destined to surpass human intelligence very soon, there no telling what this type of technological “terror” will do to humans. The New American even suggested that due to PetaVision, any citizen deemed hazardous to the government would not be able to seek refuge anywhere on the planet since all technology will be shared.
With the Digital Age coming full circle, any video camera, email cam, phone cam, handheld devices, tablets, or electronic gizmo will be open game for the NSA to successfully connect to any individual’s life for monitoring any potential abnormal behavior. It seems that according to Intel, DARPA is planning for an entire geospatial network to create an “automatic construction of a 3D wireframe of an object using as few images as possible from a variety of angles.” With accomplishment of this technology and the collaboration between governments and local law enforcement, the days of the illusion of privacy are over. It seems that law enforcement will soon have a stranglehold on not only real world activities but cyberspace as well. Even though the Fourth Amendment is seriously violated with this type of domestic “surveillance,” the public may be persuaded to believe this movement and establishment of control is for our own good. There are those who believe that the government is there for them like “Big Brother” watching out for their best interests and the common good, and there are those that believe that this totalitarian system of control will never stop until the world is completely engulfed by their “invisible hand.”
We must remember that the world is never perfect and that some sacrifices must be made in order to establish the theory of the common good. Many will argue on what they would be willing to sacrifice with no common agreement based on human self-interest. There should be certain restrictions that do not allow one’s own privacy snatched away under the guise of national security programs or “defense” contracts. Humans must learn to draw the line on how much we are willing to give up for the illusion of safety in a chaotic world we live in. We can never be completely safe and the nature of the universe has so eloquently displayed since its inception; humans must be willing to accept this reality without succumbing to false pretenses of security under the guise of “liberty from terrorists.” The day humans awaken from the slumber of ignorance, we will see the world as it was portrayed in Branded (2012) where elusive powerful entities mimicking mega corporations wage war for our pathetic souls/minds whilst concealing themselves as product choices and trademarks. Will this become a sick and twisted version of the Truman Show on a global scale? Perhaps we may have already traded away our freedom just for illusions and fairytales of a safe world where Black Fridays and ITunes keep us shielded from the harshness of reality.
References
Reuven Cohen. “U.S. Army Sponsored Artificial Intelligence Surveillance System Attempts to Predict The Future.” Forbes (October 2012).References
Joe Wolverton II J.D. “DARPA Sponsors Surveillance Technology to Predict Future Behavior.” The New American (November 2012).
http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2011/09/28.aspx
Robert Abele. “Review: ‘Branded’ could use a little commercial appeal.” LA Times (September 2012).
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/06/petavision-on-petaflop-supercomputer.html
© Copyright 2012. James Astrada.
© Surveillance of the Mind Series 2012. James Astrada