If this has been created by government agencies, then the data should also be public. Once the data about what politicians are doing and saying becomes public, the program will end. :)
That's not how it works, as history has shown us.
San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
261–270 of 292 posts
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#262This is what so sad about tech, it gives those in power unprecedented abilities to control the population. Essentially heading back to slavery through technology with no way out for the slaves anymore.
> Essentially heading back to slavery through technology with no way out for the slaves anymore. I wouldn't be so sure about that. Not with the many weapons circulating in the US. Just look at what the French can do with basically stones and molotovs as weapons. No matter how brutal the French police act, the population is not afraid of telling their leadership how much they suck in terms that they can understand. No…
This often goes missed when gun owners are criticised for saying that guns are useful in a revolt. The point isn't to win against a tyrannical government, it's to force said regime's hand into a position where they either give up or commit an atrocity that hastens their demise and weakens their mandate.
Vietnam and Iraq are two standout examples of weapons being useful to resist a powerful occupier. They never actually defeated the US, they were just a huge pain in the ass until the US finally gave up and left.
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
Voting for the wrong person? Attending 'subversive' meetings that criticize the current regime? Going to the wrong church?
How will a streetlight camera affect any of that?
By allowing tracking of every citizen to and from every other citizen's house, place of work or worship, park, street corner or alley 24 hours a day.
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Those intersection cameras..." Fun fact: Intersection cameras have been proven to cause more accidents, as more people slam on their brakes to avoid a ticket then coast through the light.
That sounds exactly like an urban myth along the same lines as 'seatbelts kill more people than they save'. Has it ever been proved? Worth also noting that rear-end crashes are generally less dangerous than t-bones. For similar reasons, roundabouts can be preferable to standard crossroads even if they result in a higher number of collisions.
See https://www.motorists.org/issues/red-light-cameras/increase-... for various sources showing that red light cameras increase the number of accidents. Within The Netherlands there is a restriction on where such cameras can be placed due to this effect; basically the number of current accidents has to be pretty high.
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
With modern LED the small battery powered headlamp I have on a headband is like a headlight of the cars of the past :)
Headlamps can be dangerous because the shadows are in the same plane as your vision. I gave up using them for hiking because they didn't help me see drop-offs. You're better off with a light in your hand or on your waist.
Ultratrail runner here. No-one in the ultra community uses handheld torches. We all use headtorches, and we run long distances at night through mountains
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, any employer can always choose to lower their standards, but wouldn't you argue then, that the quality of their output is also likely to suffer? The goal here is to ensure their ethical competitors have access to resources they don't.
You seem to think that technical ability and ethics are somehow related. That's a sad misconception which leads to all kinds of bad results. There are many people with very high ability that have an ethical framework which would make them feel right at home in dictatorial regimes. They probably wouldn't even notice it. "I'm just doing my job" is alive and popular.
No, I don't think they're related at all. But if some percentage of high ability users have ethical concerns, it reduces the overall pool of high ability individuals available to them, while more ethical companies have their pick from the entire pool.
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#267Has anyone else read the novel Golden State by Ben H. Winters? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39599913-golden-state He describes an extrapolation of our world's recent history, one in which "reality" is captured for posterity by omnipresent cameras. Citizens record the details of each day by taking written notes of encounters, in addition to stamping pages of their day book with "conversation stamps". These stam…
As someone who has OCD related to this ("Citizens record the details of each day by taking written notes of encounters" could almost describe me), I'd be interested to know if he addresses the downsides that could result from this. You become more worried about capturing the moment, so you can't live _in_ the moment. It's almost self-defeating -- because you are worried that if you have this interaction, you will for…
I'm familiar with the feelings you describe, but the Golden State's citizens appear to be unconcerned with this. The book's timeline is preceded by unspecified terrible events which have destroyed the old world. These events are said to have been triggered by lies, and it's this terror of repeating past mistakes that keeps citizens in line.
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#268This blog post is highly misleading and inaccurate. Access to the video is very limited and subject to strict protocols for use in investigations. And the audio recording capacity isn’t live because the City has no use for it. The SD Reader isn’t a very trustworthy source. Here’s the U-T’s extensive piece on the topic: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversatio...
"Access to the video is very limited and subject to strict protocols for use in investigations. And the audio recording capacity isn’t live because the City has no use for it."
This is a good and instructive example of statements that contain no information.
If access to the video were liberal and careless, it would be described as "very limited and subject to strict protocols". If, on the contrary, access to the video was very limited and subject to strict protocols ...
You get the idea. Zero weight should be given to assurances that would be given out regardless of the actual state of affairs.
A good heuristic is to ignore these communications and concentrate only on actions, but in this case where there may not be concrete evidence of misbehavior, we need to rely on a different heuristic: potential risks and worst case outcomes.
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s up to us to stop this. Me and many others took time off work to tell our transit agency, BART, not to implement a draconian police state, including facial recognition cameras. BART wound up becoming one of the first (if not first) transit agencies in the US to implement a privacy policy instead [0]. Work still remains though, one BART employee told the press they were considering fake gun turrets that would drop…
But that is kinda funny. Probably effective too! Maybe add in a dub from Robocop.
It’s not funny when you consider that BART police have shot and killed at least three unarmed people in the last few years, not to mention they’ve even engaged in fatal “friendly fire” of their own... This is easily one of the most violent transit police departments.
Re: San Diego Implemented City-Wide Streetlight Surveillance
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Those intersection cameras..." Fun fact: Intersection cameras have been proven to cause more accidents, as more people slam on their brakes to avoid a ticket then coast through the light.
That sounds exactly like an urban myth along the same lines as 'seatbelts kill more people than they save'. Has it ever been proved? Worth also noting that rear-end crashes are generally less dangerous than t-bones. For similar reasons, roundabouts can be preferable to standard crossroads even if they result in a higher number of collisions.
"That sounds exactly like an urban myth along the same lines as 'seatbelts kill more people than they save'. Has it ever been proved?"
I hope you will look further into this - you may be interested to learn (I was) that a nearly perfect intervention for red lights being "run" is to lengthen the yellow signal.
It costs nothing and works as well, or better, than red light cameras - and with none of the artificial, unexpected driving behaviors that can cause rear-end accidents.
http://saferstreetsla.org/679/case-studies-longer-yellow-lig...
https://www.motorists.org/issues/red-light-cameras/yellow-li...