home about photos slide shows videos magicsauce twitter other blogs books contact









If You Love To Write

Cool Social Media Tools

Analyst Blogs

Around The World

On Spirit & Philosophy

On Culture & Food

On Marketing & PR

On Economics and More

On Fashion

All Things Green

Dance Links

Books: Life

Books: Novels

Website Links

FAVORITE QUOTES

  • Only Those Who See the Invisible, Can Do The Impossible
  • The Age of your Heart is the Age of what you Love - Marcel Prévost
  • Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I'll understand.
  • When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one opening before us. -Helen Keller
  • The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. -Leo Tolstoy
  • Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets. -Paul Tournier
  • They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. -Carl W. Buechner
  • Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • The foolish reject what they see, the wise reject what they think
  • Imagination is more important than knowledge - Albert Einstein
  • When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you - Lao-tzu
  • The world surrenders to a quiet mind
  • It is a funny thing about life: If you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it - Somerset Maugham
  • "At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you." Goethe


« The Show Must Bloat On | Main | McCain's Polls Dropping »

September 30, 2008

Malintent

Here's an interesting story from Fox News on Tuesday September 23, 2008.   The United States government is testing a program, called MALINTENT, that will monitor and analyze facial features and other physical data to evaluate an individual's intent to do harm to others.  The sensors would be used at airports, stadiums and other places where large numbers of people congregate or pass through.

It's a fascinating example of how the future keeps arriving more quickly and how our ability to digest these developments has a hard time keeping up.   Orwell and Huxley come to mind, of course, as well as the pre-crime in Philip K. Dick's short story The Minority Report, which was made into a Spielberg film.  (As far as we know, the government hasn't enlisted psychics into the program, so we still need to use scientific tools of measurement.)

If you want to feel more calm about this development, please ignore the name of the agency conducting the research: The Human Factors Division of the Directorate of Science and Technology of the Department of Homeland Security.   I think they managed to combine state fascism, communist bureaucracy and general dehumanization with that one.  A different kind of Triple Crown.

The best part of the story is the video link, which is six-plus minutes.  The first half is a pitch made by the folks selling the mobile facility in which to conduct the tests.  The second half is a few examples of the test in action. 

There is a funny moment (nobody laughs) when the interrogator asks the subject who is about to attend a conference whether he plans to detonate an explosive at the event and then whether he plans to illegally record the event.  So maybe this is really about copyright infringement rather than human safety.

The tension in the story and especially the video is that there is a point at which you think - I can't write about this, it's a joke or a skit.   But it's not.   

And the most interesting implication for the future has to do with the never-ending battle between offense and defense.   ICBMs vs. missile defense shield.   Spam vs. filters.   What kinds of implants, distractors and feedback scramblers will be developed to combat this technology?  Or are we approaching the end of the age of lying? 

September 30, 2008 in In the News, On Politics, On Science, On Technology, On the Future | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451c79e69e2010534cb44f0970b

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Malintent:

Comments

Post a comment


PARTNERS

Recent Posts

  • Flight Behavior: Kingsolver's Riveting Tale Makes Extinction of Species REAL
  • 5 Important Issues From 5 TEDxBerkeley Speakers: Help Us Pave the Way
  • Reflections: A Walk Into a Past & Present Estonia...
  • Lithuanian Start-Up Demos Cool GooGPS Travel App on Tablet PC
  • What a Trip to Helsinki Reminded Me About Life's Lessons...
  • Reflections on Community & HAPIfork's Kickstarter Campaign
  • Reflections While Boston, My Old Hood, Is Under Attack
  • HAPIfork on Kickstarter: Nearly 3 Days Into the Campaign
  • HAPIfork Launches Kickstarter Campaign: World's First Connected Fork Now Available for Pre-Order
  • Fourth Annual TEDxBerkeley Event To Kick Off April 20

Forbes Top 50





Favorite Blog Posts

Conferences & Events

    2012 Archives

    January 2012

    February 2012

    March 2012

    April 2012

    May 2012

    June 2012

    July 2012

    August 2012

    September 2012
    October 2012
    November 2012

    December 2012


    All Archives
Featured on BlogHer.com

Categories

  • America The Free
  • Arts & Creative Stuff
  • Belize
  • Books
  • Client Announcements
  • Client Media Kudos
  • Conference Highlights
  • Current Affairs
  • Entertainment/Media
  • Europe
  • Events
  • Fiji
  • Holidays
  • Humor
  • In the News
  • Israel
  • Magic Sauce Media
  • Music
  • New England
  • New York
  • On Africa
  • On Australia
  • On Being Green
  • On Blogging
  • On Branding
  • On China
  • On Costa Rica
  • On Dance
  • On East Africa
  • On Education
  • On Fashion
  • On Fiji
  • On Food & Wine
  • On France
  • On Geo-Location
  • On Germany
  • On Guatemala
  • On Health
  • On India
  • On Innovation
  • On Italy
  • On Japan
  • On Journalism
  • On Mobile & Wireless
  • On Money
  • On Nature
  • On People & Life
  • On Poems, Literature & Stuff
  • On Politics
  • On Robotics
  • On RSS
  • On Science
  • On Search
  • On Social CRM
  • On South Africa
  • On Spain
  • On Spirituality
  • On Technology
  • On the Future
  • On Video
  • On VoIP
  • On Women
  • Photography
  • PR & Marketing
  • Reflections
  • Religion
  • San Francisco
  • Science
  • Social Gigs & Parties
  • Social Media
  • South America
  • Sports
  • Travel
  • TravelingGeeks
  • United Kingdom
  • Videos
  • WBTW
  • Web 2.0
  • Web/Tech
  • Weblogs

Subscribe


  • Add to Pageflakes

  • Add to Google

  • Add to Netvibes

  • Subscribe with Bloglines

  • Subscribe in NewsGator Online

  • Add to My! Yahoo

  • FeedBurner



Add me to your TypePad People list

Enter your Email


Powered by FeedBlitz
Site Meter

Copyright 1999-2013 Renee Blodgett