Comment on The Astronomer CEO's Coldplay Concert Fiasco Is Emblematic of Our Social Media Surveillance Dystopia
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
So this is what all this “kiss cam at Coldplay concert is about”. Pretty dull stuff.
One thing to note with facial recognition and security cameras is that you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
Another thing is that there are legitimate uses for extensive surveillance (catching spies, assasins and collaborators when your country is being invaded). While this is a somewhat extreme example, there are legitimate use cases outside of war time too.
It’s up to us as voters to elect governments that do not abuse surveillance technology.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Surveillance technology is only feedback.
There’s also the regulator which uses that feedback. It’s means of regulation are bots, properly formed news, law policies, and raw action. Probably even targeted murders.
That system together affects whom “we as voters” elect. Because we are too many to organize, while for regulation our numbers and diversity are actually favorable, to treat us all as one object.
Which means that electoral democracy is dead. Direct democracy with nationwide mandatory participation and rotational sortitioned filling of state roles requiring a working individual (like conscription where you can’t refuse or it’s a process requiring some proof of good reasons) may work.
To increase as much as possible the technical complexity of influencing a society like an object.
One can also (with reservations and limitations and very careful design) look at the Soviet system (one that really functioned in early 20s and late 80s).
The key is nationwide participation. Electing someone else to represent you is just too risky with such crowd control means as available today.
While the technology can be made public-controlled in the widest sense, so that not only a certain JD Vance could see where you are at every moment, but that you could see where he is as well. All state surveillance should be public. And there should be no state secrets.
Samskara@sh.itjust.works 23 hours ago
Swiss direct democracy is a better example than Soviet system.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Switzerland is small. Adapting its system for a bigger nation blindly might result in something like Turkey.
But I’ve just refreshed my idea of its system and it’s similar to what I’m describing, yes.
The main difference is actually that Soviet system had a few levels of councils, the lower level electing the next, while in Swiss system there are three levels all elected directly.
We know for sure that Stalin abused that property to gain power. And one can argue that Yeltsin did the same before dismantling it.