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Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

theregister.com

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Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#251

Post by cultofmetatron »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #222

I remember nostalgically when this kind of thing would have been so unpopular in the USA, including (especially?) among the "populist right", that it would not have happened. The escalation of the surveillance security state has been quick and vast.

its almost like there a special interest group working behind the scenes that has been simultaneously developing expertise in maintaining surveillance state technology and is motivated to maintain strict control over american public opinion to manage those resistant to their manufactured consent mechanism.

Of course that would require decades of testing and refining the technology on a people so conditioned for us to malign that our mainstream shows can make jokes about their dead babies and only be met with applause.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#252

Post by mmooss »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #248
mmooss wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are 'this government's best friend, advocating for their opponents to give up and quit. In a remarkable pattern that I never thought I'd see in the rugged individualistic, idealistic, freedom-loving USA, a large group is literally self-defeating: They defeat themselves before even getting out of bed. That's why your opponents are unstoppable - because you don't stop them. The performative nonsense is their aggres…

Taking performative actions you are certain will fail unnoticed is a waste of energy. I most certainly didn’t advise doing nothing, this seems like a hyperbolic take that ignores what I suggested was more impactful. By extension, encouraging others to take those actions is productive and there are other actions I didn’t enumerate that are productive - I didn’t intend to be exhaustive in all actions that could be prod…

> Taking performative actions you are certain will fail unnoticed is a waste of energy.

It's true, but usually in the opposite way you intend. If you go into ventures thinking they will "fail unnoticed", you certainly will fail. For example, who would hire someone or invest in someone with this attitude?

If you go in determined to succeed no matter what, there are no guarantees but you have a good chance.

Comments certainly contribute - the only risk to their power is people like you mocking them. And have you ever seen a successful team where some people mock others doing work?

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#253

Post by m463 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #222

I remember nostalgically when this kind of thing would have been so unpopular in the USA, including (especially?) among the "populist right", that it would not have happened. The escalation of the surveillance security state has been quick and vast.

I remember maybe a decade ago talking to a person in computer security. What I was surprised was a strange turn of events in the 'exploits' arena. Although they monitored exploits/cert/etc, they also monitored the people who were involved in exploits.

I kind of wonder if the political arena is quietly doing the same thing. Instead of targeting dissenting opinions, it might be possible and effective to target the people with dissenting opinions.

sort of scary.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#254

Post by lo_zamoyski »

adastra22 wrote: post #190
gizajob wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does U(1) symmetry in gauge theory arise from?

At some point the answer is “because that’s what reality is.”

If by "reality" you mean "the universe", then the way the universe is depends on a cause, as the existence of the universe is not explained by the universe itself (even an "eternal" universe). Its existence is contingent on some other cause that ultimately cannot be contingent and thus does not require explanation.

So the cause or dare I say reason for the universe being the way it is will depend on its cause.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#255

Post by lo_zamoyski »

hoppp wrote: post #115
joomla199 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that we don’t know why electromagnetism exists, this is basically true for many technologies.

We don't know why the world itself exists so everything is magic

Speak for yourself. That "we" is presumptuous.

The cause of the universe must itself be uncaused, or else it is only an intermediate cause that must itself refer ultimately to an uncaused cause. An infinite regress is impossible with respect to existence. Unlike causes per accidens which can in principle be infinite in length, a cause `per se` cannot; without a terminus, there would be nowhere from which the latter causes would derive their force, so to speak, like an arm pushing a stick that is pushing a rock that is pushing a leaf. Meaning, the cause is not some distant one in time, but one always acting; otherwise, everything would vanish. The only cause that could have this property is self-subsisting being.

From there, you can know quite a bit about what else must be true of self-subsisting being.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#256

Post by adastra22 »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #254
adastra22 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point the answer is “because that’s what reality is.”

If by "reality" you mean "the universe", then the way the universe is depends on a cause, as the existence of the universe is not explained by the universe itself (even an "eternal" universe). Its existence is contingent on some other cause that ultimately cannot be contingent and thus does not require explanation. So the cause or dare I say reason for the universe being the way it is will depend on its cause.

The universe just is that way because it is. THAT is the root cause.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#257

Post by fnordpiglet »

mmooss wrote: post #252
fnordpiglet wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking performative actions you are certain will fail unnoticed is a waste of energy. I most certainly didn’t advise doing nothing, this seems like a hyperbolic take that ignores what I suggested was more impactful. By extension, encouraging others to take those actions is productive and there are other actions I didn’t enumerate that are productive - I didn’t intend to be exhaustive in all actions that could be prod…

> Taking performative actions you are certain will fail unnoticed is a waste of energy. It's true, but usually in the opposite way you intend. If you go into ventures thinking they will "fail unnoticed", you certainly will fail. For example, who would hire someone or invest in someone with this attitude? If you go in determined to succeed no matter what, there are no guarantees but you have a good chance. Comments ce…

I’d note you’ve not really proposed anything related to how commenting on policy in this administration achieves anything just pointed to cases where negative thinking brings bad mojo or something. Along that vein, I have been trying to grow wings and fly to the moon for the last 15 years but despite the investment of effort have not succeeded. It’s probably because people kept telling me it’s not possible and a waste of time, by the reasoning here. If I could get people to stop mocking me when I flop off the roof onto the ground I surely would succeed?

There are activities that are absolutely not worth doing because their chance of succeeding is zero percent even with the strongest of desire for it to not be zero.

I posit because this administration literally does not care what you have to say only what one individual on this planet has to say there’s no point in trying to reason with them. The only action that will work to stop them is in court and in the voting booth, and by proxy activities that magnify the value of either of those activities by getting others to participate. I think protest is a much more effective use of energy for that reason - it energizes like minded people and when this administration reacts with brutality to opposing opinions it shocks people not aligned with dictatorial oppression - which is almost everyone. But participating in the comment processes of their regulatory capture? Waste of time with zero chance of causing even an iota of change no matter how hard you wish it to be otherwise or how much you ignore the naysayers. Spend that energy growing wings and flying to the moon.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#258

Post by bdamm »

nkmnz wrote: post #138
bdamm wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most doctor's offices just use my name and birthday to assume authorization to transfer sensitive medical information. I kinda feel like privacy is massive "emperor has no clothes" aspect of society.

This behaviour is just because their IT system doesn’t allow regular users to search for names, just for birth dates. Then they pick you by name from a list of people with that birthday.

This is nowhere near the only use of the "birthday + name == all info" hack in the US medical industry. It's basically one big giant frat club with shakes and implicit trust all around. Except that it doesn't actually work; you can fake being a doctor to just about any US medical office and get nearly any American's private medical data.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#259

Post by [deleted] »

Semmel wrote: post #143
ghssds wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the next immediate step is always fascism. Chronologicaly the Stasi was built after fascism ended. It operated in East Germany, a communist state.

Yes, in a rundown communist state. What could have followed , would be a Kim leader steering the country in the North Korean direction — which I’d call fascist. Luckily there was Gorbachev and in the people enough decency and civilisation left, so the system just folded

[deleted]

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#260

Post by rofldude »

Semmel wrote: post #143
ghssds wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the next immediate step is always fascism. Chronologicaly the Stasi was built after fascism ended. It operated in East Germany, a communist state.

Yes, in a rundown communist state. What could have followed , would be a Kim leader steering the country in the North Korean direction — which I’d call fascist. Luckily there was Gorbachev and in the people enough decency and civilisation left, so the system just folded

[dead]
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