Surveillance (+ AI)

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n19/john-lanchester/document-number-nine

"‘Digitalisation has brought the Chinese people the historic opportunity of the millennium,’ the plan says. What does that mean? It means that China feels that it fell behind the West by missing out on the industrial revolution, and intends not to repeat the mistake with this coming wave of technological change. When it comes to AI the party really, really isn’t messing around. ‘The widespread use of AI in education, medical care, pensions, environmental protection, urban operations, judicial services and other fields will greatly improve the level of precision in public services, comprehensively enhancing the people’s quality of life.’ Oh, and by the way: ‘AI technologies can accurately sense, forecast, and provide early warning of major situations for infrastructure facilities and social security operations; grasp group cognition and psychological changes in a timely manner … which will significantly elevate the capability and level of social governance, playing an irreplaceable role in effectively maintaining social stability.’ This is as pure a dream of a totalitarian state as there has ever been – a future in which the state knows everything and anticipates everything, acting on its citizens’ needs before the citizen is aware of having them. It is an autocratic fantasy, a posthumanist dream, hiding in the plain sight of a Chinese government white paper."
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
"a street crossing in Fujian where jaywalkers are identified and have their face, name and address appear on a video screen beside the road; a school in Hangzhou where facial recognition technology monitors students to see when they are bored or distracted (the scanners are also used to pay for food and borrow books from the library); a state surveillance network, Skynet (yes, that’s the same as the evil computer system in the Terminator movie)..."
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Also, the social credit system they have there sounds exactly like that episode of Black Mirror
 

mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
The social credit thing is a lot more nuanced/messier than it's often made out to be and so not quite as dystopian, at least for the moment. As time goes on and with everything else the CCP is aiming for then maybe it will get there eventually.
 

version

Well-known member
A machine is probably more reliable than a human, but the difference in engagement and lack of flexibility can make them much more frightening. A machine treats humans like they're just another machine.

Convenience really does seem to trump everything.
 

luka

Well-known member
In cities under siege Stephen Graham says a lot of this stuff was pioneered in Fallujah and in the occupied territories and the Israeli occupied territories, that these sites became laboratories for precisely this kind of population control.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Apparently the Chinese get hold of a lot of military and security tech - presumably including surveillance tech - from America via Israel, which likes to reverse-engineer the stuff they get from the USA as military aid and sell it on to the Chinese state.
 

luka

Well-known member
Apparently the Chinese get hold of a lot of military and security tech - presumably including surveillance tech - from America via Israel, which likes to reverse-engineer the stuff they get from the USA as military aid and sell it on to the Chinese state.

Was it you who said that on here before? Someone did. It would make sense if it was you given your weapon research background. It's a great fact. One of those facts which reminds you that the world is far weirder and more complicated than we think
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Was it you who said that on here before? Someone did. It would make sense if it was you given your weapon research background. It's a great fact. One of those facts which reminds you that the world is far weirder and more complicated than we think

I think I did mention it a couple of years ago. There's also a 'special relationship' between the USA and Israel which is rather one-sided, it would seem.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed

catalog

Well-known member
Could have made for an interesting plot device in Crash (which I have't read or seen). Adds an exhibitionist element to the motor fetishism, the chill of the cybernetic gaze.
Yes but also no. Cos crash is about the crash being a sexual moment. So adding a layer of invasive voyeurism would not improve what he already did with that pairing. Would just pollute/dilute..

You should read the short version in atrocity exhibition, read the whole novel, watch it, then read sinclairs book on it as well. I think you'd like it.
 
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