Worlds first cybernetic hate crime?

[Danny]

http://io9.com/5926587/what-may-be-the-worlds-first-cybernetic-hate-crime-unfolds-in-french-mcdonalds


He angrily grabbed my eyeglass, and tried to pull it off my head. The eyeglass is permanently attached and does not come off my skull without special tools.

People are people and as such will always few something different as strange and with scorn or derision, but things like this make you wonder with things will be like in 50 years. Will there be 'purity first' groups campaigning for 'no augments' restaurants where people with replacement cybernetic limbs are not allowed due to prejudice and scorn?
The optimist in me would like to think not. The realist in me however...

[LouCipherr]

Wow.

Here's what made me laugh - this was one of the comments posted:

"Wouldn't mind seeing a show of hands: Who here is disturbed or worried by the potential for Glass to serve as a kind of surveillance device? Does it bother you to know that you may be filmed or photographed at any time and by virtually anybody?"

What a diluted dipshit. Doesn't this bozo realize that you're caught on camera over 100 times per day already? There's video cameras mounted on almost every commercial building (inside and out). The cops film you. The CCTV's on every building photograph/film you. The stop-light cameras (aka "red light cameras") film you. Hell, the drones in the sky flying at 20,000 feet are photographing/filming you just waiting to drone your ass (thanks, Obama). Get used to it. This is how things will be from now on.

Welcome to the (lazy) police state, all around the world.


Speaking of cameras: the idiots in the McDonalds were already being recorded by their OWN cameras. Why didn't the employees flip their shit over that and destroy the cameras mounted inside the McD's if they're so concerned about being recorded/filmed? :rolleyes:

[Mike70]

Wow.

Here's what made me laugh - this was one of the comments posted:

"Wouldn't mind seeing a show of hands: Who here is disturbed or worried by the potential for Glass to serve as a kind of surveillance device? Does it bother you to know that you may be filmed or photographed at any time and by virtually anybody?"

What a diluted dipshit. Doesn't this bozo realize that you're caught on camera over 100 times per day already? There's video cameras mounted on almost every commercial building (inside and out). The cops film you. The CCTV's on every building photograph/film you. The stop-light cameras (aka "red light cameras") film you. Hell, the drones in the sky flying at 20,000 feet are photographing/filming you just waiting to drone your ass (thanks, Obama). Get used to it. This is how things will be from now on.

Welcome to the (lazy) police state, all around the world.


Speaking of cameras: the idiots in the McDonalds were already being recorded by their OWN cameras. Why didn't the employees flip their shit over that and destroy the cameras mounted inside the McD's if they're so concerned about being recorded/filmed? :rolleyes:

and i think every single one of them needs to be ripped down and destroyed. technology is at the point of going way too far. its at the point where it is no longer assisting our lives (like the refigerator, the washing machine) but damn close to controlling them. no, this doesn't make me a technophobe. i highly believe in computer research and nanotech BUT am completely opposed to anything that makes surveillance easier. hell, i wouldn't mind seeing a living computer in my life time because that will mean that something truly intelligent finally exists on this planet. I'm even for merging humans and computers in the distant future. what i am not for is some little shit in a uniform being able to see everything i do when i step outside of my house. what the fuck is next? thought crime?

[SymphonicX]

Wow, and the world just gets stupider, and stupider.

I mean...amazing. What the f*ck is wrong with the world?

OK so trying to shrug off yet another example of where humanity indeed highlights itself as eligible for a mass euthanasia experiment, I did enjoy this very cleverly placed quote:

"Subsequently another person within McDonalds physically assaulted me, while I was in McDonand's, eating my McDonald's Ranch Wrap that I had just purchased at this McDonald's. He angrily grabbed my eyeglass, and tried to pull it off my head. The eyeglass is permanently attached and does not come off my skull without special tools"

Note how many times he says "McDonalds" in that sentence....genius!

[LouCipherr]

and i think every single one of them needs to be ripped down and destroyed.

Agreed.

And we all know why all these cameras (and now the drones are watching you overhead) are around - for no other reason than to make law enforcement's jobs easier. If you can snoop, scan people and spy on everyone 24/7 without limitations, then law-enforcement is a breeze.


OK so trying to shrug off yet another example of where humanity indeed highlights itself as eligible for a mass euthanasia experiment

:lol:

Wow, Symphonic, i'm with ya on that one!


I did enjoy this very cleverly placed quote:

"Subsequently another person within McDonalds physically assaulted me, while I was in McDonand's, eating my McDonald's Ranch Wrap that I had just purchased at this McDonald's. He angrily grabbed my eyeglass, and tried to pull it off my head. The eyeglass is permanently attached and does not come off my skull without special tools"

Note how many times he says "McDonalds" in that sentence....genius!

Excellent deconstruction of that statement. You're right - that's crafted VERY well, and you can tell that was well thought-out prior to being posted. He REALLY wanted to get his digs in on McD's. As well he should.

[krakenslayer]

I dunno, I'd be pretty pissed off if someone came up and shoved a camcorder into my face, and I kinda feel the same about this. I realize that we're surveilled so much already by CCTV, and I find that deeply disturbing, but there is definitely a heightened sense of violation about having a CCD attached to someone's head, aimed at your pus from six inches away. It's bad enough that the authorities can track your every move (although, in actual fact, the logistics of actually tracking someone from one CCTV point to another, across a city, is surprisingly difficult, involving concentrated effort and substantial application of manpower), but the idea of private individuals recording for posterity everything they see in their whole life is really scary, and I really don't like the idea of some guy I've never met uploading footage of me picking my nose in the street onto YouTube. That's not just surveillance state, that's the end of privacy, the end of sweet forgetfulness. So while I am all for anything that fucks over McDonalds, I also wish those thuggish employees all the best, and I'll be sure to rip the eyepiece out the first fucker's face that dares to point it at me.

[Mike70]

but the idea of private individuals recording for posterity everything they see in their whole life is really scary, and I really don't like the idea of some guy I've never met uploading footage of me picking my nose in the street onto YouTube. That's not just surveillance state, that's the end of privacy, the end of sweet forgetfulness. So while I am all for anything that fucks over McDonalds, I also wish those thuggish employees all the best, and I'll be sure to rip the eyepiece out the first fucker's face that dares to point it at me.

indeed. i strongly feel that privacy and being left alone in public are the most important rights that we should possess. they should trump all other rights that conflict with them. Privacy should win out all the time. i am of the opinion that it should be utterly, completely and totally illegal to photograph, videotape, or record anyone without their permission (or notifying them of it in the case of stores/banks) - whether they are in public or not. yes, this should apply to the press too. if i tell you to leave me alone and get the camera out of my fuckin' face and you don't, i should be able to smash said camera into a thousand pieces because the idiot with the camera has violated my privacy and my right to be left the hell alone no matter where i'm at or who i am.

[krakenslayer]

indeed. i strongly feel that privacy and being left alone in public are the most important rights that we should possess. they should trump all other rights that conflict with them. Privacy should win out all the time. i am of the opinion that it should be utterly, completely and totally illegal to photograph, videotape, or record anyone without their permission (or notifying them of it in the case of stores/banks) - whether they are in public or not. yes, this should apply to the press too. if i tell you to leave me alone and get the camera out of my fuckin' face and you don't, i should be able to smash said camera into a thousand pieces because the idiot with the camera has violated my privacy and my right to be left the hell alone no matter where i'm at or who i am.

Nail on the head, brother. Without a private life we are just one-dimensional automatons.

On the other hand, as someone who takes a lot of photographs (I must be part Chinese), I don't have a problem with being innocently and incidentally captured on film, say in the background of some tourist's sightseeing pictures. I would be a hypocrite if I said otherwise. I do think there is a difference between that and deliberately, systematically documenting people's lives as a matter of course. That's what I hate about CCTV and fucking detest about this.

There was a TV miniseries broadcast here in the UK a few months ago, I forget the title and can't be arsed checking but it was written by Charlie Brooker, anyway each episode featured a different blackly comic story set in a different dystopian future; one featured a Prime Minister forced to have unsimulated sex with a pig on live TV by a mysterious man who is holding a member of the royal family to ransom; one was set in a future where every wall is a TV screen playing a constant cycle of commercials and reality TV shows, and most of the population is forced to work on exercise bikes to produce power to fuel it all, and everything from flushing the toilet to eating is charged by the "rev". The final story basically covered this exact scenario: a world where every sensory experience is recorded and can be played back. In this world, everyone is paranoid and stressed at all times; although it is possible to delete material, it is rarely done as storage is no object and everyone hordes their memories "just in case"; job interviews involve submitting the complete last month's worth of recordings for scrutiny; people squander their lives replying past glories and relationships instead of experiencing new ones; they use their memories for petty things like "resolving" arguments (oneupmanship) and rubbing people's faces in their mistakes; bad experiences are picked over endlessly and resentments grow and fester rather than being allowed to fade into the past. The disturbing thing is, it was the most plausible episode of the three. As silly as it might sound, I fully believe we WILL go down that road, sooner or later, and it will be more or less exactly like it was in the movie: a nightmare.

[Danny]

indeed. i strongly feel that privacy and being left alone in public are the most important rights that we should possess. they should trump all other rights that conflict with them. Privacy should win out all the time. i am of the opinion that it should be utterly, completely and totally illegal to photograph, videotape, or record anyone without their permission (or notifying them of it in the case of stores/banks) - whether they are in public or not. yes, this should apply to the press too. if i tell you to leave me alone and get the camera out of my fuckin' face and you don't, i should be able to smash said camera into a thousand pieces because the idiot with the camera has violated my privacy and my right to be left the hell alone no matter where i'm at or who i am.

Speaking as a guy who makes his living often filming things like a busy high street for a local advertisement campaign or something of the like i would be fascinated to hear a new way to do my job -or all the times someone whos committed a rape or stabbing has been caught on cctv when there are no witnesses around so they would have normally gotten away with it that doesnt involve cameras.
I mean i get what you mean, i do, but whats the end point of your position here? how many more human eyes see you every day compared to a camera? how much harder is it to get a person to forget your face than wiping a hard drive? if you are acting shifty and dont know it in a store is it an invasion of privacy if the security guard merely looks at you and reflects upon that event later in the day? I mean what is privacy outside our homes? its certainly not as binary as personal space on one side and a big brother police state where a guy looking at a wall of monitors writes down what you order for lunch in a notepad.
Plus its all just technology at the end of the day. Like i said i really do get what you mean, but a camera is just a lens with some machinery behind it. It has no motive or agenda, we colour our opinion of the technology by the people that use it, but that doesnt mean the tech itself is bad.

Hell look at the internet. Facebook, twitter, internet forums. Its all recorded and archived data about people, stuff most dont even think is personal. So whats the distinction here? You really think being a blur on a street camera is some true invasion of your personal space but your search results being archived by your provider arent?

I mean yeah its still bullshit that someone could be filming you directly without permission, thats straight up stalking when you come right down to it, albeit even for a brief time, but still i would complain more about my distrust in the people who are using it, not the system itself, because there are good uses for it with things like security cameras.

[shootemindehead]

...but still i would complain more about my distrust in the people who are using it, not the system itself...

Mike may correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that that is what he is actually saying here. The technology is generally fine, it is the use/abuse by people who may not have the best intentions at heart, that's the issue.

That said, I believe England is now the most closely monitored society on the planet. I have to admit, I wouldn't feel all that comfortable walking down the high street knowing that my every move was being filmed.

[LouCipherr]

Here's a question:

How did these McD's people know this guy was 'filming' or 'recording' anything? Just like the 'google glasses' these devices are not just "recording" instruments, and many of them may not even be used that way at all by their users.

Obviously, this guy caught the whole thing on his device, however, that was one hell of an assumption made by the McD's personnel. What if this was a new medical device that actually allowed a blind person to see out of one eye?