How much privacy are you willing to give up to keep people safe? This is an endless debate that has been waged since, well, forever. I'm sure you all are tired of it but I found it interesting that in the wake of the tragic Colorado shootings the debate is reawakening quickly. It's funny because I watched a show about Target the other night where it talked about assigning a unique ID to every customer and they can track your purchases, enough to target advertisements to you before you even realize you need something. Would you support the government using algorithms to scan every transaction in the US?
Apparently the NSA was shot down a few years ago in an attempt to create a monitoring program called Total Information Awareness. Essentially, a nationally effort to corral and monitor all transactional data looking for patterns to try and help prevent crimes before they happen.
The anguishing thing about mass-shooting incidents is that patterns are indeed present. The person usually has a history of causing alarm in people around. The episodes themselves typically begin with a personal setback—a divorce, a firing, an investment failure, getting kicked out of school. And preparations for mass murder certainly leave "signatures" in the "transaction space."
At some point I think data mining becomes self defeating. There is simply too much data and too many potential patterns and options that witch hunts are inevitable. Privacy, to an extent, is part of the issue. At want point are you giving up too much for ever diminishing returns among the massive amounts of data out there. I Imagine at this point with all the companies having your data and certainly the government collecting it in some form, this might already be a moot point.
Does it make sense to dp this? Heck, is it even violating your privacy considering multiple different companies already have all this data available? I find it very hard to think that we can quantify and prevent violent acts such as this in a meaningful way. Any thoughts?
I think crimes like these will always happen until we get some Minority Report pre-cogs up in this bish. Even though this data mining might lower cases I don't know if its worth the trade off of being under a microscope 24/7.
I mean I appreciate security measures like the post-9/11 TSA, but I'm not trying to get my prostate examined every time I go to the airport either.
Y'know, I remember an episode - or, more accurately, pretty much a plotline - about this on the TV show Numb3rs. Seems like it'd be great if it could be worked out for real, but I'm sure people would just be bitching about how you're bound to get the bad guys sliding through the cracks, and good ones getting caught in the net.
Wake up, people. Shit like that's gonna happen whether you catch people via math or via good ole-fashioned policework. If data mining is statistically better at catching bad guys and not getting involved with good ones than current methods of preventing crimes, then we should absolutely try to encourage its use.
Hmm, I think I'd rather give up the right to bear arms.
This is insulting that rather than having an honest conversation about the right to bear arms, we think it appropriate to hand the government ever-increasing authority.
The two points MUST be considered together. The ONLY reason you can argue you need an extended mag, assault rifle, body armour, etc, is for the violent overthrow of the government. You can argue, persuasively, that this is a constitutionally protected right - "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." If you support this interpretation of gun rights, you therefore must oppose increased government surveillance and privacy violations, for they work to opposing ends.
If, however, you favour increased government surveillance, to what purpose do you support the right to bear arms? They are not, can not, must not be separate issues.
Always beware of Big Brother whittling away at your rights during times of crisis. Politicians never like to let a good crisis go to waste.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
"I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!" - Charlton Heston
I'm often of the thought (as an owner of only a few small firearms), that my aversion to relenquishing firearms is rooted in the lack of an ability for a governing body to guarantee that no one else, other than non-corrupt law enforcement are the only individuals with access.
Cars kill more people every year than guns no matter how you look at it. That doesn't mean we should remove cars or an individuals ability to own and operate.
My take is that this dude should have been flagged by the school, his shrink, his family, and the police for mental health outreach...he's one of many that crash and could be contributing if caught in time. This guy's particular pathology was homicidal fantasy, but the root cause was mental health breakdown. This country seriously SUCKS with prophylactic measures given our resources and knowledge capabilities, and now that there's a crisis everyone's got an opinion. Listen, crazy people will do this from time to time, and they'll do it with guns, suicide bombs, or get creative with how they kill people, so deal with this shit BEFORE the total collapse.
Data mining, as OP said, is self defeating after a certain point and will just result in the dipshits at TSA being called in to fondle grandma at schools, churches and every other public place in lieu of real reform. The obviousness of this enfuriates me, so I'm going to go punch the wall, break another phone, and then go back to hoping the retards at the PATH station don't search me for a bomb. Man, stupid fucking people in this country
No, but it does necessitate the gradual popularization of automated driving systems and eventual prohibition of manually driven ones except under particular and regulated circumstances.
Unfortunately the gun issue is monsterously more complex and subtle than the car issue.
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