Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's completely wrong. The Palantiri were created by the Noldor (one of the powerful old races of elves) and used without corruption, and then given to the Numenoreans as a gift; they were used for a long time without corruption. They were so powerful that even Sauron could not make arbitrary images appear. But the weak-minded were easily influenced by him through it; not through the nature of the stones. The ring…
The exception being Tom Bombadil, but he is a strange creature.
China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
121–130 of 185 posts
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#122Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#123This will be rolled out further and further, first the rest of China, then other parts of Asia, eventually Europe and the Americas. Strongly resist the rollout of this technology, along with the social credit rating systems. This is like the last chapter of humanity before we stagnate for hundreds of years.
In the US at least, there are probably enough people with a significant number of firearms that it would take a war to make this work. I’m not usually fond of anti-government fanatics, but I have to admit that in extremes they can be useful.
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Companies which name themselves after dystopic objects or ideals with a 'nod and wink' always creep the living hell out of me. There's never a good answer when they inevitably ask, "well what did you think was going to happen?" http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri
the palantiri weren't dystopic objects. they were positive items used for communication until some of them were captured. I think the name of the company is highly apt.
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Military Commissions Act seems to have passed the scrutiny of both legal and political part of the system. The legal battle has shifted permanently. It's now over details in particular cases, not over the generic principle. The notion of enemy is now in the US criminal law. The President of the United States has now the power to designate either US citizens for foreign citizens as enemy. The way it's defined includes…
What you're talking about - the erosions in the US system - is an extraordinary distance from where China is at already. You can't talk about Winnie the Pooh in China, or mispronounce the "ping" part of Jinping in the media. Those aren't jokes, that's indicative of China's rapid regression backwards. Over the last five years they've curtailed the few freedoms around business and expression that had been gained. Their…
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
The blame should not be on people who choose not to forgo the comfort of modern technology, it should be on a state which abuses that technology for dubious purposes.
No-one (perhaps except folks like Stallman?) is blameless here. One of the responsibilities of citizenship is to preserve your liberty against encroachment by State and private actors. Neglecting to consider that is a moral failure, and one I've been guilty of in the past. I'm not saying that it's necessarily immoral to, say, have a FB account. But it is to have one without considering the implications and acting acc…
Not being Stallman or a full-time civil liberties defender, what's a good way for the basic citizen to be more informed, and better evaluate FB-like services?
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#127Once the algorithms realise that everyone commits at least a few crimes a day they will become 100% infallible by issuing arrest warrants for anyone with a pulse.
I never read Brave New World , but I've heard that was a theme. Everyone used illegal drugs, but there was no enforcement. Instead, if they wanted to bring you in, they just charged you with illegal drug use --because everyone knows that everyone uses illegal drugs.
Not only was the drug legal, the premise of bringing people in has nothing to do with the plot and theme of the book.
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#128For those of you who find this interesting and also enjoy anime, Psycho-Pass explores this premise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Pass TLDR: > The story takes place in an authoritarian future dystopia, where omnipresent public sensors continuously scan the mental states of every passing citizen. Collected data on both present mentality and aggregated personality data is used to gauge the probability of that ci…
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#129It's a shame we moved a lot of the US industrial base to an authoritarian and potentially hostile country like China. A bit scary to think of the generation or two of people who won't have the knowledge to manufacture things should they ever need to because of conflict in some form. Seems like it reduces any leverage the US has for holding China accountable for much that it does.
What would holding China accountable entail, exactly? "America doesn't like they way you do civilization. We don't like the way you brought 650 million people out of extreme poverty in a generation. If you have to use authoritarian tactics to do that, it's better that they stay poor and addicted to opium. You have to disband now." "Oh, okay. Sorry America. We recognize the error of our ways. We will stop being China…
Re: China using big data to detain people before crime is committed
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm not sure what another state department might have done The US State Department, and the entire US government, has for generations made human rights central to US foreign policy. It's believed that people with freedom and opportunity become vibrant trade partners and allies, not enemies in war. Democracies don't start wars against other democracies, as an historical rule. That historic policy is widely believed…
This seems deeply, deeply idealistic to me--but ultimately this seems political, so I'll just say my point was that it's not clear what Obama could have done differently aside from save face and keep the state department staffed.