Reply #26: Anonymity is a thing of the past. Pass the ID chips, please.

[Hekate]

Why do I find that so creepy?

I think culture is a kind of barometer of peoples' response to this idea. People from small towns, villages, and tribes are never anonymous in their own cultures -- they are always known, and that's security and comfort for most.

People from the highly mobile modern world, big cities, a lot of Americans generally -- we think of ourselves as individuals, and when we drive about or walk in the cities we do not expect to be stopped and greeted by everyone who passes us by. We are known at either end of our journeys, not along the way. We expect to be anonymous in crowds, and there's an expectation of freedom that goes along with it.

Most of us who operate in that world are not even aware of how little true anonymity there is left. Cameras have proliferated inside and outside of buildings. My son was chatting with me long distance while working on his computer the other day, and suddenly told me he was seeing our house as viewed from satellite. :wow:

Your pets can have tiny ID chips the size of a rice grain -- how long before people will be demanding their children be similarly outfitted, or even, to push it further, how long before some ballot proposition called Timmy's Law goes through? TV ads of tearful mommy: "If only our Timmy had one, the EMTs would have known who he was and that he had diabetes. When they finally identified him, It Was Too Late. Protect your child. Pass Timmy's Law."

The idea of continually being monitored creeps me out. The auto industry is apparantly planning to make On-Star or the like standard eventually. It's very easy to track cell phone usage. A thousand miles from home I used my Von's grocery store card and the clerk addressed me by name.

The Global Village used to sound warmer than the above makes me feel.

Hekate
considering becoming a Luddite