You're in a fight with your brother over who can drive the car tonight. Your blood is boiling. For a second, you're quite sure that you could smack him. Or maybe you're at the convenience store. You see that 10-cent cinnamon fireball sitting by the register, and you're very much considering stealing it - after all, it's only 10 cents. The cashier didn't charge you last time.
But you didn't smack your brother and you didn't abscond with the Fireball because you are a good, law-abiding citizen. Yet with the direction in which law enforcement is going, you might be arrested anyway.
Chicago has alllowed the installation of more than 2,000 closed-circuit surveillance cameras since 2004. New York City also has thousands of cameras on its street corners. there is also a proposal to require the city's night clubs to install cameras.
But who will attend all of these cameras? Fear not, citizens - your endlessly devoted government has taken this into account. Since there are not enough personnel to watch every individual camera, many cities are seriously considering purchasing "intelligent video," a system that can detect fishy activities, such as people walking in circles or dropping off packages in mysterious places - as if the cameras' ability to eavesdrop on conversations wasn't enough.
But that's not all - scientists have recently developed a brain-scanning technology that can discern a person's intentions before they even act. The world in Steven Spielberg's futuristic blockbuster, Minority Report, may have seemed inconceivable, but this new research seems to suggest otherwise. And if you think that the government won't eventually be willing to utilize this technology, perhaps you should re-read the preceding paragraph. Even the scientists who produced the scanners have raised concerns.
This is where the aforementioned scenarios come in to play. Aside from the obvious possibility of false positives - where the computer picks up "suspicious activity" which isn't suspicious at all - any person can easily decide on an action and then change his or her mind. It's happened to everyone - it's part of being human. There is always going to be that possibility of a computer error, and that makes technologies reprehensible.
Great Britain has more than 4.2 million government cameras spread throughout the country. Some British citizens are videotaped around 300 times a day. The United States hasn't quite reached this point yet, but given the recent laws and initiatives which have passed, it is clearly heading in that direction. Authorities will continue to propound the idea that their actions are in the name of fighting terrorism, but with surveillance technology's growing presence, it is increasingly possible for an Orwellian dystopia.
It's easy to excuse the government's Big Brother-like techniques because they make us "safer," but if Americans want to enjoy the freedom and privacy of past times, it is imperative that we take a stand on this issue.
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