The Governement wants to track us all!!!

[Pah]

Just a small point - NSA's mission is confined to all foriegn communications (or at least it is supposed to.). I would be worried, however, if NSA came under Homeland Security

 

[Melody]

In the U.K, there is talk of the introduction of identity cards (Cum passports); more than 50% asked for their views were quick to jump on the 'anti-big brother bandwagon' ( Why should the governament be able to track me ? etc....), they are finding any excuse to try and ensure that it will never happen.
What I'd like to know is what are they truly worried about being tracked for? Perhaps they have reasons to worry?

I've heard the same thing here from people who feel we should get rid of search warrants....after all, if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. And that might be true if you're white and affluent but go into the minority areas of L.A. and they'll probably give you a different take.

I'll pass on the tracking devices too.

 

[Valjean]

"First they came for the Jews. I was silent. I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no-one left to speak for me. ----- Martin Niemoeller.

Substitute animal rights activists, environmental activists, Greens, ACLU members, Wiccans, liberals...

It could happen here. Implants would only facilitate it.

 

[No*s]

To clarify my position on all of this, I'm not 100% all for it or anything....I agree with No*s that its not 'around the corner' by any means.

It would be an incredible convenience, and provide services that we can't even think up right now perhaps, but I can also see how it could be misused by the government.

Then again, WHY would the governement want to track everyone? This seems like something that would sooner be misused by companies, by way of sending you mail that relates to things your interested in, just like what happens on the internet.

The reality is that the governement has no reason to just sporadically track people. It just doesn't make sense. Also, the government is very capable of tracking people these days as it is--I don't really see what sort of difference would be made by a chip in those aspects.

Well, there are a few very natural reasons I can think of for this.

1). Parents are nervous about their children, so they want to have the government keep track of their locations at all time. Not only does this condition children that there is an all-seeing electronic eye watching, but it is currently a proposal on the table (I can't remember the city...).

People raised to consider this a good thing are less likely to have qualms with it elsewhere than we are...they are actually more likely to find other uses for it. All it would take is for a couple of high-profile kidnappings to occur for this to be implemented for children.

2). We could get hit by another terrorist attack. We've already seen that both Democrats and Republicans will barter away civil liberties on questionable legislation. If such technology were in place, it would be ridiculously easy to "fight the terrorists."

3). It could provide better law enforcement. After all, it would be simple to check who did a robbery, where they went in preparation, and so on. This would make the cops' jobs infinitely easier.

4). One-upping 2 & 3, it could be a preemptive to check for suspicious behavior. By monitoring a person's movements and patching it through an algorythm, we could be alerted at suspicious behavior in people (and the bugs in the system would be scary).

5). You mentioned corporations, and they would be the chief pushers for wanting to track people, but they also wouldn't be averse to having it work with the government, especially if it were profitable. Corporations aren't evil entities...they are amoral ones driven by the bottom line.

6). Another reason is that government would need to counter the rising problem of identity theft, which has already been mentioned. After all, these chips would probably be anything but fool-proof. They'll be blockable, and they'll also almost certainly be spoofable. The ability to track people could siginificantly cut down on this problem in particular.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are dozens of other justifications floating out there. Most of these would start with scared people, though, and not Government. They would simply be eager to make us more secure.

 

[Valjean]

When I first read Brave New World and 1984 (more years ago than I care to think about), I found them deeply disturbing. Today they've largely lost their impact, so closely is today's society coming to resemble theirs.

They say a frog in a pan of slowly heating water will not notice his predicament till it's too late.

Are we imperceptibly slipping into Borgdom?

 

[Valjean]

Rand, at least, was a champion of individualism and feared collectivism. Cf: Anthem.

John and Dagney would have been appalled at the idea of implants.

 

[linwood]

The reality is that the governement has no reason to just sporadically track people.

I agree with you entirely Ceredwen.
I`m not talking about sporadic observation I`m talking about the fact that I may do something one day that "someone" feels warrants my tracking or surveilance and I may not even be aware of it.

I do see how it could make life easier but I`ll do without.