Posted on 11/15/2002 10:17:28 AM PST by ksen
Edited on 06/29/2004 7:09:32 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Had Winston Churchill been alive in the months subsequent to Sept. 11 he might well have described U.S. intelligence agencies' performance prior to the attack thusly: Never have so many known so much and done so little.
On Wednesday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will begin awarding contracts for the design and implementation of a Total Information Awareness (TIA) system.
(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...
#5 isn't just looking at a crowd of people--it's looking at things like financial transactions ("Why is 'Islam Without Borders,' an group supposedly engaged in humanitarian relief efforts, buying enough ammonium nitrate to fertilize every farm state of Kansas, enough fuel oil to heat every house in Canada for a week, and renting 1,728 Ryder trucks, all at the same time?")
I don't know if this idea will work. Technically, it's a daunting challenge. Assuming the techies do their jobs...then the folks who OPERATE this system will have to know what they're doing.
Remember the FBI's Project Meggido? This could easily be turned onto the American people. All that would be needed is to classify groups out of favor with political leadership as terrorist groups.
Also, look up The Collected Short Stories of Vernor Vinge, published last year in hardcover and in quality paperback this year. (Your library should have it.) Again, lots of discussion of this issue, and it makes for some fascinating science fiction.
So do you think the IAO would identify a group of people and watch whatever they do for patterns consistent with potential terrorist activity, or would they look at everything for terroristic patterns and then see what group is behaving that way?
If we still have a society, and not small groups of nomadic hunter gatherer survivors, (or alternately half human borgs with numbers on their half composite foreheads).
It works a lot more effectively if you do the latter as opposed to the former.
Your concerns are very well placed, but they ignore the fundamental issue that any technology can be misused for good or evil purposes, and that if it can be done (which I am by no means sure will be the case), it will be done at some point. It's kind of hard to tuck the mushroom-shaped cloud back into the bomb casing and say "Whoopsie! Maybe we shouldn't've done that!"
It detects anomolous patterns that make utterly no sense on the surface level.
It is already used by catalog companies who on phone orders present you at the end with "specials" that the computer whips up just for you. Their acceptance rate on customers buying the spur of the moment "specials" has gone from under 10% to about 75% since they have begun using advanced algorithms which make seem to make no sense at all. That's just one example of how Mad Ave uses this technology to target specific consumers, and now this govt agency wants to take it to entire new levels in the war on terror.
The problem is integrating all of these different databases. That's a nontrivial problem. The next problem is the government being at all effective in putting those algorithms together. I just do not see that happening on as subtle a level as you describe.
If they hook the SinkEmperor up to their "truth maintenance" system, there'll be an explosion so big they'll think al-Qaeda smuggled in a nuke.
...that are in turn connected to the output from Grand Coulee Dam :o)
Personally, I don't have a problem with the Feds learning at least as much about the illegals or those with illegal intentions... ie, terrorism.
Going a step forward -- I think we will have to accept a VERY high tech National Identity Card... Think super Passport.
At present there are uncountable "aliens" in our nation - with more in mind than economic opportunity... We need some tools to work that problem... If you have been following the reports - most of the Islamic terrorists have MULTIPLE I.Ds, Passports, Driving Licensees - etc.....
This country will NEED a fail safe technique for KNOWING exactly who is who.....and are they legally in this country..
No country in the world has such unprotected borders or inviting rewards for the bastards from the Turd World that have already shit in their own sand boxes.
After the NEXT major attack on the U.S., with 100K+ killed - or vast territory contaminated with radio active material ----- there will be a bloody and mandatory requirement to get all "illegal or suspect aliens" out of the country.. Immediatly --- and to round up the "suspect citizens".
We're great at being "reactive"....time to be "proactive".. Mistakes in today's world, with today's weapons --- are VERY costly in lives...
Another "clinton" can't be elected for another 6 years if we're lucky or still here... Better do something now - while the Adults still in charge....
Semper Fi
A better plan would be to shove a 2" rod up his ass as the conductor...You can complete the circuit with battery terminal type clamp on his coke enlarged nose.....
Semper Fi
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