Mass Camera Surveillance Can Take Down Statism - NUTS! CRAZY! Or is it?steemCreated with Sketch.

in #politics7 years ago (edited)

Does that seem crazy to you? Bare with me. If we think about why people want a government and are afraid to live without one, maybe we could find other ways to make government obsolete, at least in some respects like the big issues of security and protection. Open public access mass camera surveillance is one way to head in that direction.

People want a government to protect them via police, and have other agencies to take care of things in society. Anything funded through tax-payer money is part of the federal government apparatus in some way, but the jobs that are 100% tax-payer funded are the core of what is part of the government. This ranges from judges, police, and other government institutions like NSA, Homeland, FBI, CIA, to some lawyers, construction workers and other areas like nurses and doctors.

Depending on the country there are various ways that tax money is spent by the governmental agencies. Focusing back on surveillance, this relates to security technology. Technology can be a great ally in a decentralized manner, or used against us by centralized authority to keep us under their thumb. Surveillance cameras are for security, and the state likes to have cameras and other surveillance to spy in on it's own citizens and other citizens of the world.

Centralized authority like police are often corrupt and abuse their authority and power. Many are even supposed to wear body cameras but often conveniently turn them off as they engage in violating the rights of others they are meant to protect as part of their job. Police and the government have access to so-called public surveillance cameras, but the public doesn't have access to them, only specific groups of individuals can gain access based on their jobs.

In some cases cameras end up mysteriously not working, or footage goes missing. The police often investigate themselves and most of the time clear officers of all charges of wrongdoing. Police officers even get paid leave while their crimes are swept under the rug.

How to eliminate most of the "security" forces that are hired to allegedly protect us, their corruption, abuse of power, etc? What if we could use that technology to surveil, for our greater benefit as a decentralized open society that was more self-governing and responsible?

Instead of using the centralized authority using the technology behind closed doors were only they have access, imagine if surveillance was a public open access technology. Instead of the police and government only having the eyes to watch themselves and everyone else, we would flip the switch on them where we would be the ones watching them and ourselves.

When people are being watched, and they know that they are being watched, they are much more careful about doing something that could get them in trouble. This is especially true for cameras that record, as opposed to simply eyeballs and unreliable witness accounts.

Total surveillance in public places with complete public access would allow anyone to go verify any crime that has been alleged to have been committed. Rather than rely on eyewitness accounts, or on the trust, faith, loyalty and belief in the honest authority and power of security forces like police, the whole population would become a self policing force. Rather than abdicating our personal responsibility to be eternally vigilant for our own safety and the safety of others around us, we would take up that responsibility.

Rather than the government and police acting as a mass surveillance state and watchmen, we would become our own watchers and witness the disintegration of the centralized authorities surveillance state.

Need proof of a crime committed? It will likely be seen and heard on camera. The government will not be able to abuse the surveillance by hunting for good people that the government lies about and portrays as bad, like in the Jason Bourne movies for example, or in whistleblower cases. Just go look at how the surveillance state has been used to spy on people and suppress truth from getting out, like in the Watergate scandal.

In no way do I support this for centralized authority or limited access. Everyone must be able to access surveillance to verify what wrongs were done and validate the forces that bring people to justice for their wrongs. These forces don't need to be hired, but can be a group of people in the area. Local citizens acting to stop violence against others. The ideal is not hired people, but people who care to unite and do what's right to stop the wrong, as a community in common-unity.

The real force for security needs to come from a community itself that will watch each other's backs and help others when wrongs are done against someone. That is where this ultimately needs to head to. Why pay people to sit around waiting to handle a crime, when crime will be so low? Why pay people to do what we should all be willing to do to help others out, as we would want to be helped if we were in their situation? It's truly our responsibility in our own local communities to watch over, guard and protect ourselves/each other.

People have fear of crimes being committed and the bad people getting away with it. Public open access surveillance reduces those problems, possibly to non-existence at some point down the road, as we develop more and more responsibility to deal with the issues in our own communities, leading us to become more self-governing and decentralized, and lessening the physical or psychological dependence on centralized authority.

I see open public surveillance as a key to ending statism. It's where we use technology to make our lives safer together, not surveilled through a centralized authority. If crime occurs, we can find out more about it and verify that you local or larger justice system is being honest. We can all know the evidence, not have it secretly presented in a court room away from the eyes of the public.

I really see technology and cameras everywhere as great potential to end statism. Yes, there are issues, like being able to know where anyone is at anytime I suppose, tracking people from one place to another. Spying is still there, true. But that doesn't increase the risk of someone harming you, because there are cameras to catch them, where they came from, where they went. People could report crimes as soon as they happen, watching live feeds. Catching bad people would be easier. Exonerating innocent people would be easier. While we still have security forces, private or public, we can watch them and make sure they don't abuse their power.

Hand-held cameras make great for security when being pulled over by police, or in protests, as a record of what happened. Instead of someone uploading their video to youtube or whatnot for everyone to see what happened, the public cameras would be accessible to anyone anytime. We can protect ourselves so much better this way!

If private citizens and companies can use cameras to protect themselves on their property, then we as a society should be able to as well. And that means not a centralized authority, but us actually having the tools like technology to do it, where we are all held accountable for our actions. Anyone can verify the evidence about what happened on camera, not just the police, courts, government or other authoritarian groups that have access the rest of us don't!

Public open surveillance can totally change the game. We can flip the switch and turn the tables to use technology to our advantage against the state, rather then the state against us. The technology will pressure people into more self-control. As we become more self-governing and responsible in self-control, there is less crime and less of a need for any security forces to stop crimes since we don't engage in them as much. Statism's hold on security, and the mass appeal for the state to provide it, will fade.


Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.


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One of the worst things about the NSA is that we, the people, do not have access to any of that. Like a person who has subpoenaed NSA for his phone metadata that would clear him in a court case. (The NSA has ignored it)

Anything you say can and will be used against you...
AGAINST you. Not we will bring all of your testimony to court, if it helps you or hurts you. No, its we will use your words against you.

How can we believe in "for our protection" when they are clearly against it?

Anything you say can and will be used against you...
AGAINST you. Not we will bring all of your testimony to court, if it helps you or hurts you. No, its we will use your words against you.

Indeed, well said. We need equal access to information, freely, openly, public access. That's how I see the future. That will create trust among people, as I see it. You can trust people to not harm you. It will make things better.

Yes, it is decentralized surveillance done by individuals. Combine residential and business security cameras that record public spaces and the streets around them with everyone having smart phones, and we create a web of protection.

As I mentioned below, I posted about this in the past. I would not share a link to one of my posts if it were not directly related, so I hope you do not mind the link.

I am a residential security expert and PI, and your post above is directly related to the work I do. I want to help people secure their neighborhoods and to make them safer. Imagine how much less crime there would be if the neighborhood watch signs were replaced with signs that said, "Smile, you're on camera!"

Upvoted, followed, and resteemed! It's a pleasure to meet another professional working on furthering a great idea.

Imagine how much less crime there would be if the neighborhood watch signs were replaced with signs that said, "Smile, you're on camera!"

Damn straight. We all can do this, and the government has no say about it. Community growth efforts to change from the ground, up. I followed you as well ;) Thanks for the feedback.

Podesta was recently spotted in Florida.

Yeh right dude...

I am unsure what your reply is in response to, or how to take it. Not enough information there.

I am aware at this point that all attempts to try and right the proverbial ship are futile within our government. However, when this one inevitably implodes we will always be in need of good ideas throughout society for the next attempt whenever that may be. As the author says the surveillance state will not be disappearing while technology exist so why not turn it against itself? Politicians and all government officials, in any capacity, need be fitted with pin cameras on the lapel all day everyday with a constant stream to public domains. If you want to record every aspect of our lives then we want constant access to yours while were paying you at the very least. If they want to have shady dealings with banks and companies (aka fascism) it will be publicised or you can do it on your own personal time during the night...with the neighborhood camera thats already in place showing who is coming and going during the night.

Yeah, the government needs to have body cams as part of being paid for rendering services that are there for our good and ensure their daily dealings are above board. Many jobs are pretty useless we would find out, with so much wasted time, or non essentials tasks. Thanks for the feedback :)

I love it when an idea is turned on its head...

I'll have to think through the privacy implications of this, but given the choice of having surveillance in the hands of an evil central authority vs. a decentralized, open to everyone mechanism... the choice is obvious.

😄😇😄

@creatr

As long as the cameras are recording public areas and are under the control of private businesses and individuals, they are in our benefit to have them. :)

Yeah, it might suck to play it as a dichotomy of choices, but essentially it's a good way of looking at it: a small group vs. everyone having access to public data.

Just imagine if this was the case on 9/11, How all that brainwashing would have been wasted from the first moment. We all would have live feeds from thousands of different cameras and angles as it all went down. I heard the Pentagon alone had some 900 high res cameras recording just about all areas that day. How many peope would have downloaded the last 1/2 hr from all feeds while the SHTF ? Same on every floor and stairway in the twin towers.
I've suggested on previous blogs that all people working for public funds should be periscoped live while at work. Many positions would fade away in minutes through outrage of public, or just resignations knowing the game is over.
Good thoughtful post my friend :-)

Just imagine if this was the case on 9/11, How all that brainwashing would have been wasted from the first moment. We all would have live feeds from thousands of different cameras and angles as it all went down.

Exactly! Hehe.

Yeah, all public jobs should be monitored. The more power, the more monitoring. Watch how long we tolerate their lazy asses lol. So many useless jobs and waste of money out there.

Exactly, the attrition would be so fast their heads would spin LOL

I also had a Meme Dream.... !

Life is Good

ah stupendous fascinating dream there :)

We would also see the people working their asses off too, and make sure they are paid right :-)
There are a few LOL
Cheers

There were countless videos of the Pentagon event, but the FBI confiscated them all. Funny how that works, ehh? They wouldn't want people seeing a plane fly away after all.

are you shitting me? Probably had a good excuse for that! We want to leave the Authority to the authorities, and let your favorite TV news tell you what happened and how to think about it. Now we return you to " The Simpsons " good night :-)

haha, ignorance is strength! ;-)

Your post really spur something in me. I think I might already had that idea before. I'm glad Dan also felt the same about it too. I actually send your post to other people because I wanted it to trend and so I'm glad to see it trend.

As a physical security professional and PI, I've been recommending this for years. Every business for example has a security system already. How much more would it cost to have them add street facing cameras if they don't already have them?

Each street would then have hundreds of privately owned and separate systems to watch public areas. There's no easy way for that evidence to disappear, it is decentralized, and it is owned by individuals, not the government. The idea was shared in one of my original posts too.

Interesting post. I think a lot of us could use camera on our body, like the governmental mafia do with their "peacekeepers".

That reminds me of Cody Drummond's app Peacekeeper. It was a competitor to Virgil's Cell 411. I was backing Cody's project, but it did not allow you to build your own network. You were limited to just the other people near you. It was also pro-government.

We are the peacekeepers. We are the militia. We are the ones who are supposed to "police" our neighborhoods. The more local the defensive force, the better off the people there will be too. You knew this all already though. :)

I'm fully behind Dan's idea of creating replacements to the tyrannical systems around us. Make them obsolete. Walk away from them. We are doing that here with Steemit, and we should also do it with apps like Cell 411, being our own First Responders, and rebuilding the militia.

I heard about Peacekeeper in the past. I never heard about Cell 411. I'll check it out.

I was always very thrilled by Peacekeeper. I didn't knew they were pro-gov.

I think we'll see some sort of Peacekeeper app fusion with Steem or EOS at some point, at least I'd really love to see it tried.

I know Virgil, the CEO and founder of Cell 411, and he's a fellow Liberty Professional and friend of liberty. I highly recommend that app for everyone.

It is very useful no matter where you are in the world. Build your networks, and use the app to protect yourself. I'm trying to get Virgil to join Steemit. He's over on FascistBook mostly these days.

Sweet, thanks for the support :) My work has been to evolve consciousness for people to learn to think better, and change the way we live. But since people aren't too keen on that, then we can use technology to pressure the change, as long as its decentralized and open to public, not a centralized control grid :P

The idea is ingenious, the only hurdle I see is with storage.
Then there's these:
http://www.opentopia.com/hiddencam.php
http://www.earthcam.com/

and other repositories exist of webcams.

Cool I've seen some of those before, thanks. Yes storage is an issue if the event is to be recalled. Maybe 24h, or a week, could be done? It would take a lot of resources for sure, start with the most crime related areas and cover what can be with the limits we have.

With enough cameras around a neighborhood though, you can imagine how police will feel if everyone has access to the system, not just useless but watched. What if people find that there is hardly any crime and mostly just cops fucking with people traveling in their cars, they could tell the cops to fuck of out of the neighborhood, or town, or city, and maybe come together and hire someone local who's interested in investigating and reporting to crimes.

The goal is to make them obsolete. We don't need them. We certainly do not need double standards and special protections. A lot of police abuse would have gone unreported too if it were not for people recording.

Yup. It can be a huge game changer.

Excellent point! I have long been saying that this technology will continue to burgeon, until it is not only the public that have no privacy, but those that most abuse their wealth and power.

I'm all for public surveillance, out of all the desperate measure that needs to be taken to eliminate crime these days, this one is actually more subtle. PS. I have just voted for you as a Witness, thanks for the good work! Please keep any eye open for me along the way, much love @sweetpea

Sweet! Thanks, you sweet pea :P

have you here about LIBERLAND ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberland

Yes I have, when the land was first claimed. Has it developed well?

I'm not sure, I have not read anything about it for a long time. But the concept and idea is interesting.

I signed up for the project but have not invested anything into it. The location is not a good one in my opinion. Eastern Europe in a swampy completely undeveloped area doesn't sound ideal depending on how bad things get in the world. Panama on the other hand looks very promising.

imagine if surveillance was a public open access technology.
yup...good idea. All surveillance cameras upload to the blockchain.
David Brin wrote a book about it a long time ago, BEFORE the blockchain.
I don't agree with everything that he says, but it's something to think about.
Transparent Society

Most security system surveillance setups use DVR's that overwrite automatically after so many days depending on your data capacity. It is not stored on other people's servers on the Internet. You control the data. If something bad happens, you stop the overwrite and offload the specific data needed.

It would be very easy to do since existing systems are already in use. The additional cost would maybe be a couple more outside cameras, but that's not much considering the safety and benefits the system owner would receive.

Edit: I have heard of businesses NOT wanting outside cameras however since it can cause them to be involved in criminal and civil cases that they would rather avoid. Still, the benefits outweigh the negatives in my opinion. Of course I'm biased in favor of improving personal security however!

that was then. This is now. cameras are CHEAP.
so is wifi

Exactly! Even the fancy entrance porch light replacement camera systems are under 200 bucks and super easy to install. They have all sorts of awesome features to beyond protecting you.

My advice would be to have several many inexpensive cameras that upload constantly to the cloud.
Even one in your sunglasses.

One thing I don't like about this is it has onboard memory. I'd rather it go to the cloud automatically.
I'd also just as soon there were no indicators that anyone else could tell if it's recording.

These are gen-1 I imagine....better stuff is no doubt on the way.

There are lots of apps that auto backup video and pictures. Cell 411 for example has a near instant video option. Ustream does something similar. It's best to overt and covert options at the same time. Just be careful how they are used. They need to be used in public, and different states have different laws.

if someone is doing something in my presence they KNOW that I am watching them do it. Assume recording.

Yep! It is best to assume you are being recorded when you are in public because you probably are. :)

Yeah, that's too much bloat for today's tech though lol. Maybe a few locations, but damn would that cost a lot to host lol. Thanks for the feedback.

I dunno how I missed that one! I thought I had read everything David Brin ever wrote.

Thanks for schooling me yet again =)

Edit: I just read through the provided synopsis, and was struck by how many predictions Brin makes that have either already come true, or are in the process of coming true.

The last bit I found quite enlightening:

"A Withering Away?: Activists have revived an old dream — of an era without nations or major governments. It may happen, but not in a manner that idealists expect."

I had no idea Brin was an advocate of anarchy, but he and I agree on this (and much more). States are simply becoming obsolete, and as they do, while they presently seem to be gobbling every resource in the world, people simply use better means of making decisions and financing improvements.

For example, @drpuffnstuff wanted to fund a library that advertised Steemit. I built it, populated it with books, and installed it.

installed.jpg

We don't need no stinkin' badges!

very interesting approach in theory. Never heard of that idea but it seems to make sense

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