Geoslave on CNN

[+Eswau]

Perhaps this has been covered before but it is currently on CNN.com Click Here for article.

[+VentureForth]

I've seen how CORPORATIONS have used GPS's to track their vehicles, and how employees have been upset because they were caught driving the company van to go out and buy a six pack off the clock.

 

I've seen how GPS braclets have been proposed to help keep track of kids who travel to and from school unsupervised.

 

I've heard of people getting tickets because they were speeding in a car that had the Onstar system.

 

So far, other than convicted felons, I have not heard of anyone being forced into wearing a tracking device.

 

---------------

Go! And don't be afraid to get a little wet!

[+Planet]

If someone forces you to wear one you can always smash it with a rock.

 

Cache you later,

Planet

 

I feel much more like I do now than when I first got here.

[+GOT GPS?]

If that should happen sometime, Hopefully somebody will have an electronic jammer that you can place next to the device, to make it look like you are somewhere else. Might look bad though if they ask what happened to the tracklog, when you bring the Truck back from a delivery.

[iryshe]

Sometimes university professors like Mr. Dobson need to step out of their stuffy offices, walk outdoors, and hit themselves repeatedly with a clue stick. Personal rights will never be violated in a free society in this fashion. There would be far too much opposition.

 

As companies are concerned, if you don't like being tracked in the company car, quit the job or use your own vehicle. You have the right to respectfully disagree with your employer. The employer has a right to safeguard their assets and protect themselves from unneccessary expenditures.

 

In other countries where their personal freedoms are restricted, there really isn't much other countries can do to impose their own moralities. Arguments of the merits of democracy over other forms of government aside, the expenses required to maintain a GPS police state would be shocking and certainly above the budget of most, if not all non-free societies.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location™

[+PI Joe]

They used to think I was strange when I lined my hat with aluminum foil to keep the government from easedropping on my thoughts!

 

TxHiPowr

[+Dave_W6DPS]

and I know 1984 was 19 years ago! DUH!

 

Seriously, this is a pretty extreme veiwpoint of what "could be". It actually reminds me of the TV commericials with Avery Brooks saying "where are the flying cars--they promised me flying cars!"

 

Academicians are supposed to keep the real world at bay, so inconvenient things like facts don't get in the way of their visionary thinking....

 

Dave_W6DPS

 

My two cents worth, refunds available on request. (US funds only)

[+Team Tecmage]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jeremy (Admin):

Sometimes university professors like Mr. Dobson need to step out of their stuffy offices, walk outdoors, and hit themselves repeatedly with a clue stick. [/OUOTE]

 

Actually, the wife drags me outside to Geocache. I'm trying to complete my PhD now. Seriously, there are some universities that have majors like "Technology and Social Change", and the goal is to look at the societal impacts of new technologies. Okay, his point is a little far-fetched, but someone needs to worry about how the technological aplications spread. Think back to when people actually believed their email accounts and web browsers at work were "private"?

 

Personal rights will never be violated in a free society in this fashion. There would be far too much opposition.

---

The PATRIOT Act went a little ways towards doing just that. I was reading about how Ashcroft and company drafted this legislation. The buzz inside Justice was that even they were surpised Ashcroft was willing to go so far. Even more surprising was how fast our representatives caved into passing that thing. PATRIOT II is on the drawing boards now. 9/11 scared a country that really did not understand the fear associated with terrorism. To make matters worse, we made a distinction between domestic and international terrorism (like one is less threatening than the other).

 

Okay, it's time for the wife to drag me outside for a little Geocaching.....

[+Search1128]

This should have been saved for a few more weeks, until April 1. Does the author of the article seriously think this way?! OR is this just a sarcastic jab at technology?!

LOL

[hostetter]

And I came to this site to see if anyone posted it. My favorite part is this: "What we are suggesting," Dobson said, "is that we are only one technological step from placing a transponder in there that burns or stings a person if they step off a prescribed path by a meter. Or if they stay too long in one place. Or cross the path of another person they are prohibited from seeing, or if they congregate with other people."

 

ROFLMAO!!! If a transponder was placed under or against my skin to shock me if I was a meter off target, I guess I'd have to get used to being permanently shocked. At least until the batteries ran out (or mine did). "One technological step away..." oh please. I have learned from experience that a cell phone sized receiver is sometimes up to 100 feet off. He thinks a transponder small enough to be integrated into my body would know to a meter where I am, accurately? I'd say that's a few technological leaps away at least, LOL!

[+Renegade Knight]

I can just see the National Park Service using these devises to keep you on the trails. "Here strap this on. It will taze you if you step off the trail, and no you can't see Old Faithful if you don't strap this on, that will be 12.00 please"

 

Wherever you go there you are.

[Data Lynx]

Well here is a rather murky topic which has the capacity, as many other such issues, of being discussed along a multitude of extremes. From the capacity to track individual movements to biometric technologies enabling personal dossiers to be contained on micronized ID cards or as imbedded chips in humans, from Eschelon to Carnivore... Technology itself has indeed developed to the capacity where abuses of civil liberty can be perpetrated. I think the professor was really addressing the moral and ethical implications of how the technology can be put to use. His views, though rather extreme, bare some merit in that we as a people need to always be vigilant in our own actions and the actions of our government, assuring the integrity of the ideals of freedom expressed so perfectly by our founding fathers.

 

Now I'm not suggesting becoming an activist or anything along that sort. I'm merely suggesting that as a people, we stay informed and educated concerning issues such as this and if technology begins to be abused in ways depriving people of their freedoms and liberties, we call our senators and our congressmen and take them to task. Fortunately, I think most people, even those in the highest order of power in our country are still trying hard to work for the best interest of the people. I take courage in the fact that even in a corrupt world, there are those who would seek to ensure that our personal civil liberties and freedoms are maintained and if something like this were to ever be deployed in an unethical or immoral manner, we would become aware of it fairly rapidly and those whom would do such a thing would be put to task by the justice system.

 

I can only hope and pray for our administration and for the people in power that make decisions on where to draw the line with utilizing technology in a manner where such difficult decisions may effect the nation as a whole, make wise decisions and always bare in mind the interest of the people for whom they are meant to serve.

 

It is a scary world in which we live. The balance of security and liberty is in a process of being redefined as we speak. Anyway, I'll avoid boring y'all with a whole lot of ranting on this subject as I can go on for days playing devil's advocate and Daniel Webster back and forth. There is no inherent evil in the technology itself, only in the use and application of it. Like any tool, from firearms to torque wrenches, it is how it is used that defines the nature of the people and powers behind it.

 

And now, back to geocaching...

 

Data Lynx

[+seneca]

Democracy is the source of our civil liberties, not an absence of technology. The Orwellian world of 1984 could only exist in a state that lacks democracy. Dictatorships, through history have done, and today continue to do, a very good job of supressing civil liberties without the use of any sophisticated technology. In the democracy in which I live, advances in technology greatly enhance my civil liberties by allowing me more complete access to information and easier methods of communication.

 

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.