What I write below does not represent or express my opinions on this subject. This is a thought experiment I put forward to help progress the debate.
Abstract: Society could be rendered 100% safe according to the laws of physics and dictates of science. The brain chip could simply be given to all children from birth in the same way circumcision is given today. In one specific version of this future, parents will be able to read the thoughts of their children at all times, as the government will give parents this access. Employers will be able to read the thoughts of their employees at all times. And all government officials will be able to read the thoughts of all people in society.
If no one can get away with thinking about anything wrong then crime can be stopped at the source.
Year 2039: privacy made illegal as a means to end crime once and for all
Keeping secrets is now made into a crime. In a society where no one can have a privacy experience there cannot be crime or criminals. So politicians quickly figured out decades earlier that the path to ending crime is to end privacy. The push began with the successful banning of encryption. The push continued with a requirement for backdoors in every CPU sold to allow government authorities to access. The push of course did not end here, because this allowance of backdoors for government officials encouraged more parties to want more backdoors and more access. The eventual chipping of criminals opened the door to parents chipping their children.
In the 2020s crime was still a problem. Criminals still were able to commit crimes because the mental illness behind criminal activity could not be detected. This all changed when a technological breakthrough occurred allowing for the first brain to computer interface chip to be designed. This chip was first used on convicted criminals as a way to replace prisons.
All convicted criminals were offered a chance to participate in a chip and release program. Criminals who agreed to have their brains chipped were released for prison immediately while prisoners who refused were given natural life sentences. Of course it did not end with criminals and by the early 2030s, every brain in society was chipped. Parents were being encouraged to chip their children just as parents have had the option of circumcision or as parents in the past used pharmaceuticals for ADHD.
Year 2040 and beyond
By 2040 crime is a thing of the past. In fact, privacy no longer exists in society. Parents are able to read the thoughts of their children, as all children are chipped, and all brains are connected to networked computers whether blockchain or other paradigms. Every employee's mind can be read by their employer. Every citizen's mind can be read by government officials. And a random selection of your neighbors are given access to monitor your thoughts at any moment by the network as well. In this future there is no crime because crime is stopped at the source.
Thoughts are policed at the source before they can progress into criminal activity. Plots are thwarted at the source because no one in society has the privacy of thought to plan anything in secret. The last veil of privacy has been removed, as thoughts are no longer private. How was this justified?
Politicians justified removing privacy of thought as far back as the 1990s
The push to remove privacy of thought began in the 1990s. The idea was originally intended to apply to computers, where some bad actors were using encryption in ways which authorities could not break. The authorities pushed for backdoors such as the clipper chip in the 1990s, and when this failed, in the later 2000s the authorities began calling for a complete ban of encryption. This ban of encryption is something people believed in because most people had no secrets to hide.
For more on this topic:
A dangerous but sadly plausible sequence of events.
The majority of the worst crimes crimes are committed by agents of Government, like politicians and order followers in the military! In the past century over 100 Million people have been murdered by their own governments not including government wars!
Great opinion you discover here
I understand the logic of giving free access to one's thoughts and machines to ensure 'transparent' thinking - which avoids crime. However, would such 'transparent' way of working also thwart individuality to some extent? I am not sure but if someone is 'watching over my shoulder' all the time, would I be able to think creatively and in an unrestrained manner? Hmmm - what an interesting supposition.
Certainly needs more thinking on my part. Thanks. Upvoted full through Steemfollower.
Regards,
@dana-edwards - @vm2904
"If no one can get away with thinking about anything wrong then crime can be stopped at the source."
If we could agree about what is wrong, maybe. Even starting with the basics, like murder, we don't all agree on who is a human and when killing one is justified.
Resist the dismal reflex to answer modern problems with secrecy. There is almost always a solution that works better by applying transparency and accountability to the mighty.
i love your steemi
i love your steemi @bijoy123
Crimes cannot be stopped, but it can be curtailed. With appropriate policies put in place.
Good post @dana-edwards
If you cannot have a private thought how can you get away from the consequences of any of your actions?
come on dana, eventually you will have to admit that power is the enemy of decentralization, crypto or not. The ball game will not change as money is centralized in the hands of a few.
with 80% of americans going paycheck to payckeck, how many do own cryptocurrencies, do you think ???
AI slavery is around the corner
Not sure what any of what you had to say had to do with what I wrote. Not able to connect the dots.
I have a lot of thoughts about crime. But I don't actually commit it. My slogan is keep calm and fantasize about killing my enemies. It would suck if that was illegal
participate in a chip and release program sounds like the way they really would get it out and accepted.. This sounds like another crazy episode of Black Mirror. We would all be hive minded. Also though different countries have different laws and punishments. Morals vary to much between countries and continents.. not to say that wont be overcome. Interesting thoughts though, thanks for sharing yo
thank you for sharing useful information
great analysis
Corruption will never stop. But this will stop if the conscious citizens of a country perform various programs against it. Thank you for providing awareness information @dana-edwards
This would be the death of individuality. Without individuality there would be no progress. Think about the genetic consequences if people only procreated with direct blood-relatives. If this plays out the result will be a psycho-spiritual version of what I just described.
Progress would stop. Individuality would stop. Creativity would stop. People will be overloaded with mostly worthless information and majority of a person's mental energy will be used on self policing instead of anything productive.
This will be the end of times., Mark of the Beast scenario.
Great post. Resteemed.
What is more important to you? Individuality as you know it, or safety from murderers, rapists, thieves?
If you think parental rights could survive the death of privacy, think again.
Sounds terrible, but the blockchain is actually a step in that direction. The steem blockchain offers no privacy. I remember being quite surprised when I registered to see so many people talking about verifying your account, demonstrating that it's you with a selfie and text and using your real name. I came with the expectation that the cryptocurrency folk would be much more sensitive to giving up their own privacy, but surprisingly they weren't. As technology all around us is developing, having privacy is getting harder and harder and the steem blockchain is actually drilling us to learn to give it up.
I'm not trying to criticize blockchain technology or steem, I'm just pointing out one of the side effect I'm personally not a huge fan of.
This should be a movie.
Interesting forecast. Hopefully this will not happen)). I don't want to read the thoughts of my children or someone to read my thoughts. Sometimes we all get angry, get angry and our thoughts are black in these moments. Although once the emotion subsides we once again think positively. I wouldn't want anyone to know my dark thoughts. The more often they do not correspond to the reality of my feelings.
Politicans are the motherfuckers of this world. They are the real mafia
They are public servants. Politicians are puppets like others who are in positions of centralized authority.
great futuristic post my friend... what you predicted about 2040 is surprising... every human chipped with the networks... great...
Instead of via the implanting chips, what about if humanity evolved the ability to read each others thoughts. If it was an evolved ability, like sight or thinking. Surely everyone would use their natural ability.
Some people are better mind readers than others - maybe they are more intuitive or maybe they have a degree in psychology. Some of us are bad at poker whilst others are better liars. There is no equality in privacy even without considering the state.
Not much a fan of the dystopian version you describe - controlling and limiting, the stop bad angle. I can't see privacy being able to make a positive contribution to creativity or freedom. It can try to protect us but it can never know how well it has succeeded. Absolute privacy is certainly a type of freedom albeit a lonely one.
Openness must surely be a foundational premise for collective freedom. But could openness provide something more? Could openness help to find synergies, compatibilities and so be a positive as well, enriching, symbiotic? Could openness and trust be an opportunity? That's the position that I'm leaning towards anyway, not 100% sure yet...
If radical transparency was a universal natural ability or an opt in scenario like identity on the blockchain then I am pretty sure that I am in. It would be a courageous experiment in the very least.
This would obviously be a bad idea. But I wonder how it would work if anyone that had authority over us was chipped. Basically flipping the idea. Our leaders don't see our thoughts, we see theirs! Might work better... but I still don't like it...