Re: The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age
Charmi Miller <[email protected]> Wed, 17 Mar 2004 13:36:56 -0500
| Newsgroups | gmane.culture.religion.muslim.progressive |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
--------------F1E87137B8291D9134939000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mr. Rosen discussed issues in Florida like the Naked Machine at Orlando Airport which can x-ray through clothes to detect possible weapons. yes, i think these machines are a big, big problem. i saw a news segment about them in which people who chose to go through them were saying "oh i don't mind if it protects us from terrorists", but 1) how does having people without ill intent choosing to go through them help anything except data banks of naked images, and 2) who's going to protect women from the terrorist sale of their naked images over the internet and anywhere else? men, too, of course, and what about children? they're easily used by those who want to use them in all kinds of airport activities in particular, but would anyone allow them to go through these machines that expose them? these parts of it just ...gross me out. the kinds of choices that are made by those who have desire to harm seem to be outside the range of vision of those who want to control from harm. (giving them the benefit of the doubt in that one arena, that there is at some level a true desire to protect from harm.) coming up with randomly concocted applications of otherwise useful technology to just plain invasion of privacy does not address the problems the world's societies face. it's too unorganized and piecemeal to do much good at all.... i have to say that to me the whole problem is the way our government (US) fails to lead or offer any sense that there IS a government which exists with any intention other than amassing profits for a few someones and power for a few more someones, and you can install all the security you want to wherever you want, and not even begin to touch any of the real sproblem. i don't know what the right thing is to do, to protect us from our government's enemies, but this is not it. i know a lot about the types of detection systems being worked on for biological agents, and the technologies available for materials analysis, just as a result of the research journals i regularly read, but i don't get any sense of proper collaboration of resources to find ways to really solve problems. there is a great dearth of science for social benefit, and a glut of technology for filling pockets at all levels. this is no way to do things. yeah yeah the fervent capitalists would say to me "don't be so naive!! how do you think any advances were ever made?" and i'd say.... "and how many advances were suppressed because they offered no profit or could <gasp> bring profit to the "wrong ones", or might even eclipse the profits of the "right ones"?? this argument... that without capitalism there is no technological or social progress is without basis. (obviously.) charmi --------------F1E87137B8291D9134939000 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <i>Mr. Rosen discussed issues in Florida like the Naked Machine at</i> <br><i>Orlando Airport which can x-ray through clothes to detect possible weapons.</i><i></i> <p>yes, i think these machines are a big, big problem. i saw a news segment about them in which people who chose to go through them were saying "oh i don't mind if it protects us from terrorists", but 1) how does having people without ill intent choosing to go through them help anything except data banks of naked images, and 2) who's going to protect women from the terrorist sale of their naked images over the internet and anywhere else? men, too, of course, and what about children? they're easily used by those who want to use them in all kinds of airport activities in particular, but would anyone allow them to go through these machines that expose them? these parts of it just ...gross me out. the kinds of choices that are made by those who have desire to harm seem to be outside the range of vision of those who want to control from harm. (giving them the benefit of the doubt in that one arena, that there is at some level a true desire to protect from harm.) coming up with randomly concocted applications of otherwise useful technology to just plain invasion of privacy does not address the problems the world's societies face. it's too unorganized and piecemeal to do much good at all.... <p>i have to say that to me the whole problem is the way our government (US) fails to lead or offer any sense that there IS a government which exists with any intention other than amassing profits for a few someones and power for a few more someones, and you can install all the security you want to wherever you want, and not even begin to touch any of the real sproblem. <p>i don't know what the right thing is to do, to protect us from our government's enemies, but this is not it. <p>i know a lot about the types of detection systems being worked on for biological agents, and the technologies available for materials analysis, just as a result of the research journals i regularly read, but i don't get any sense of proper collaboration of resources to find ways to really <i>solve</i> problems. there is a great dearth of science for social benefit, and a glut of technology for filling pockets at all levels. this is no way to do things. yeah yeah the fervent capitalists would say to me "don't be so naive!! how do you think any advances were ever made?" and i'd say.... "and how many advances were suppressed because they offered no profit or could <gasp> bring profit to the "wrong ones", or might even eclipse the profits of the "right ones"?? this argument... that without capitalism there is no technological or social progress is without basis. (obviously.) <p>charmi</html> --------------F1E87137B8291D9134939000--