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A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief

nytimes.com

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Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief

#151

Post by barsonme »

logfromblammo wrote: post #142
adrianN wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also think that speeding laws are good. However I think it would be better if we designed our streets so that drivers don't drive at dangerous speeds. Have frequent speed bumps, narrow lanes, cobblestones, etc on residential streets.

Posting a "SPEED LIMIT 25 MPH" sign is not nearly as effective for keeping cars out of your living room as a few stout concrete posts extending 4 ft above ground level and 8 ft under it. The sign does not prevent someone from driving like an ass.

More or less. While I usually speed, the speed limits do regulate my speed since I dislike tickets. So, I'm willing to drive a speed that: I feel is safe and is close enough to the posted limit so I don't get a ticket.

But, yes, for the most part I do agree.

Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief

#152

Post by techer »

pdimitar wrote: post #110
techer wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for that. Can you suggest some additional reading?

Apologies, not yet ( correction: see my edit in the parent comment ). It's a newfound "love" of mine only for 2-3 months now (and I am a busy guy). I am just getting immersed in the art and short comics aspect for now. I haven't gone to reading the Blade Runner fanfics just yet. ;) FWIW, Tumblr and DeviantArt have a lot of art and fanfic work in the cyberpunk genre. Pinterest too, to a lesser extent. You should start…

Funny that I saw Ghost in the Shell when it was originally released in the cinema but for some reason didn't think of it as cyberpunk!

Time to dive into it again it seems!

Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief

#153

Post by bcherny »

barsonme wrote: post #12
bcherny wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't totally agree with that. A law should either be enforced close to 100% of the time (with exceptions at the discretion of a court), or 0% of the time (ie. the law should not exist). If jay walking, pot smoking, or anti-sodemy laws are not really enforced, to me that's a sign that they should be taken off the books. In an over-legislated society, we should focus on having strong core legislations that everyone…

What about something like speeding? Let's say we get rid of speeding laws since they're not 100% enforced. Should we have unregulated driving? Move towards a law that simply says "no driving unsafely"? IMO those are both poor ideas—they're either unsafe or vague and subjective. I don't see a way around having well-defined speeding laws, yet there are plenty of situations where it's silly to ticket an individual who's…

If the speed limit is 65 but in practice driving 70 is still safe enough, we should raise the speed limit to 70.

Going further, there is some evidence that getting rid of the speed limit actually reduces accident rates (eg. German autobahns, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn#Safety:_international...). You can look at these sort of stats in the context of the broader idea of removing explicit rules in order to increase personal responsibility and encourage safer behavior (eg. replacing stop signs and traffic lights with roundabouts, https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Safety/roundabouts/benefits.htm).

Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief

#154

Post by billmalarky »

techer wrote: post #109
pdimitar wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[ Apologies for off-topic ] As a relatively new cyberpunk fan, let me give you a few points: (1) Cyberpunk is very much about being realistic about human nature. Some of us (like me) assume malice by default. You might not believe me but I get saddened every time I am proven right. This is coming from a 36-year old programmer supporting his mother and girlfriend. (2) We don't assume altruism by default because (2.1)…

Thanks for that. Can you suggest some additional reading?

I've finally just started reading Snow Crash since I told myself I would one day roughly 15 years ago.

It's excellent.

Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief

#155

Post by foobarrio »

pdimitar wrote: post #95
dumb-saint wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think modern airports are a good prototype for the sort of dystopian environments we can expect in the future. It will only get worse until the entire thing collapses, as it always does -- Stasi, McCarthyism, Gestapo, you name it. This time it's more scary because the technology is sci-fi compared to the previous iterations. I am more and more convinced that the cyberpunk guys got it right in terms of predicti…

[ Apologies for off-topic ] As a relatively new cyberpunk fan, let me give you a few points: (1) Cyberpunk is very much about being realistic about human nature. Some of us (like me) assume malice by default. You might not believe me but I get saddened every time I am proven right. This is coming from a 36-year old programmer supporting his mother and girlfriend. (2) We don't assume altruism by default because (2.1)…

+1 For Ghost in the Shell. Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig was great.

I'd recommend Diamond Age. The shows shows almost the death of Cyberpunk (poor people) into Victorian Style Steampunk (rich people).

Re: A World of Surveillance Doesn’t Always Help to Catch a Thief

#156

Post by eximius »

dumb-saint wrote: post #126
kamjam wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood this "UK is creepy cos of all the cameras they have". Yes, there are a lot of them in the built up cities, most are privately owned and a lot are probably directly controlled by the government (and related agencies as well). The large paranoia towards the UK probably stems from "The UK has more CCTV cameras per person than anywhere else in the world" but no ones knows this to be true for certain…

> It may well be true, but don't think that you're being filmed any less in any other first world country. In Germany there are strong laws against CCTV proliferation. They exist mostly in public transportation, and their presence has to be clearly advertised. You can even order Google to blur your house on street view. Try it in a German city, and you will see how common it is. And yet, Germany is one of the safest…

I think Germany being safe is a result of culture, not anything with cameras. Many, many modern problems are fundamentally cultural issues and things like CCTV cameras are either masking or exhibiting their symptoms.
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