Panoptic Society

Three things stuck me about Marc Smith's talk on Social Networking.

The idea of a panoptic society in which "very little of what we do will not leave a trace" reminded me of the movie, Demolition Man, starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock. With social control as the theme, both positive and negative effects are portrayed with humor in this movie about good versus evil.

As with other films set in the future, many new technologies are shown. Some of these have subsequently been invented and a few are even widespread.

• The addition of skills to the brain during the cryogenic process in order to aid rehabilitation

• Profanity Sensors which automatically print out tickets and fines whenever a person utters out a swear word. The typical responses include: '(name), You are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute.', '(name), You are fined one half credit for a sotto voice violation of the Verbal Morality Statue.', 'Your repeated violation of the Verbal Morality Statute has caused me to notify the San Angeles Police Department, please remain where you are for your reprimand."

• "Laser defibrillation" to remove people from their frozen state.

• Retinal scan

• CCTV (including audio) covering every location except the underground areas.

• Video conferencing and videophones

• Toilet paper replaced by "three seashells"
  

(Wikipedia)

Demolition Man (1993) - Trailers
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Also, the Collective Action Dilemma Theory makes a lot of sense, but I never really thought about it. The more information you have about other people's choices really do make a difference in your choices. You have a chance to see their outcomes, successes, failures, etc. It reminded me of the first guy who has to putt on the green. The others in the group get to see the break of the putt and the speed of the green. It's the same premise.

Finally, I have found some sense of sanity with Marc Smith's comment about technology ADD. There is a very specific difference between recency and relevancy. Understanding the difference is invaluable.

"A lot of social life goes on around us; we don't notice, but our computer will." - Marc Smith