Robotic Nation Evidence

Extreme monitoring

Mood Ring Measured in Megahertz

From the article:

Your computer -- that auxiliary brain that lives outside your skull -- soon may be issuing public updates on what's happening inside your body.

Using tiny sensors, transmitters and some software, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have turned personal computers into advanced polygraph machines that they say are capable of monitoring people's emotions and abilities.

Here's how it would work: You're in a meeting, and each person in attendance is hooked up to a computer that's monitoring their perspiration and heartbeat, reading their facial expressions and head motions, analyzing their voice tones and then presenting them with a running account of how they are feeling. This information will also be transmitted to everyone else in the meeting.

This seems like it would be a logical extension of Manna in white-collar environments. In minimum-wage environments, it would be a way for Manna to infer that the employee might be performing in a sub-par way or is doing something wrong. On airplane flights it might be a way to detect that someone is thinking evil thoughts.

There is a quote later in the article: "I honestly can't see corporations daring to use this monitoring system on their employees. People would not accept this -- it's just plain spooky." This quote neglects the "power of situation". For example, if you are told, "you will lose your job unless you let us wire you up," or "you cannot fly on airplanes unless you let us wire you up", then you will comply.

How many people in 1980 would "accept" the security measures seen in airports today, where you are required to take off your shoes and belt, you are told to unbutton your pants during personal screening, etc.? We accept it today because it happened incrementally and we have no choice -- no one can fly unless he/she submits to this level of intrusion.

Or think about what is happening in Utah. According to
Dossier program alarms Utahns:

It sounds like a sci-fi thriller: a super computer program that gathers dossiers on every single man, woman and child — everything from birth and marriage and divorce history to hunting licenses and car license plates. Even every address you have lived at down to the color of your hair.

It sounds surreal, but former Gov. Mike Leavitt signed Utah's 2.4 million residents up for a pilot program — ironically called MATRIX — that does just that.

This is happening now, and the citizens of Utah appear to have little or no control over it.

As robots and automation control more and more human systems, it becomes easier to implement these types of systems. This section from Manna describes one logical conclusion of the process:

Manna informed me on Friday afternoon that I was to be fired. But the Manna network also knew that my bank account was close to zero and there was no way I would be able to make the next rent payment. The Manna network also knew that there were no job prospects for me, since it knew the employment status of everyone. Like most people, nearly everything I owned was leased. I wouldn't be able to make the payments on any of that either. I was unmarried and all of my relatives were in Terrafoam already. Manna knew that. No one I knew in the city had offered to take me on as a guest, so that was out and Manna knew it.

So Manna put it all together and took the liberty to unplug me. As I finished the dismissal interview and left the building, I had two robotic escorts. The robot on my right addressed me as a robotic bus pulled up. The bus looked to be about half full.

"Jacob Lewis105, you are now unemployed. Do you have other means of employment?"

Of course it knew the answer, but this formality could not be avoided. "No."

"Do you have guest status with any resident?" The robot asked.

"No."

"Do you have means of support unknown to me?"

I suppose I could have stashed a cache of gold under my mattress, and this question allowed me to declare it. Such a cache would, of course, be grounds for arrest, so I was screwed either way. "No." I was without any means of support.

"In accordance with ordinance 605.12b, you have been assigned room 140352 in building 16, resident quant C. This assignment provides you with suitable housing and nourishment to sustain your life. Please board the bus."

That was how you ended up in Terrafoam. The system knew you had no means of support, so it "gave" you one. You could leave terrafoam once you regained a means of support, but there really was no way to do that unless Manna gave it to you.

See Manna for details.