Robotic Nation Evidence

There are a number of recent articles that all point to one thing: In a very short period of time, every public space will become a place controlled by electronic surveillance. Look at these recent articles:

Smile! It's LAPD camera:

Touting a 45 percent drop in crime at MacArthur Park with the aid of video cameras as "virtual patrols," the LAPD is seeking funding to expand the program to crime hot spots in the San Fernando Valley and other areas of the city.

Critics see the specter of Big Brother, but Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said he is so impressed with results from MacArthur Park -- once known as a flourishing crime zone in the city's center -- that he believes the cameras are an essential part of fighting crime in an era of dwindling budgets and strained police personnel.

Surveillance targeted to convention:

An unprecedented number of video cameras will be trained on Boston during the Democratic National Convention, with Boston police installing some 30 cameras near the FleetCenter, the Coast Guard using infrared devices and night-vision cameras in the harbor, and dozens of pieces of surveillance equipment mounted on downtown buildings to monitor crowds for terrorists, unruly demonstrators, and ordinary street crime.

For the first time, 75 high-tech video cameras operated by the federal government will be linked into a surveillance network to monitor the Central Artery, City Hall Plaza, the FleetCenter, and other sensitive sites. Their feeds from cameras mounted on various downtown buildings will be piped to monitoring stations in the Boston area and in Washington, D.C., and officials will be able to zoom in from their work stations to gather details of facial descriptions or read license plates.

With Boston Harbor just a few steps from the arena, the Coast Guard will be using its new ''hawkeye system" -- in place in one other port in the nation -- to watch area waterways. The network of infrared imaging, radar, and cameras that operate in both day and night conditions will give security officials a real-time picture of the harbor, and provide agencies an early warning if an unexpected ship enters area waters.

$9.4 billion network
to secure Saudi borders:

For a decade, Saudi Arabia has been examining proposals for a border surveillance system that would use patrol aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, and early warning systems to detect intruders and border crossings. The report said Riyad has sought a 12 kilometer-deep security zone around all 6,500 kilometers of the land and sea borders.

Such a system would integrate acoustic, seismic, radar, magnetic, and infrared sensors to detect movements of people and vehicles in the border area. In 1990, Thomson CSF, the predecessor of Thales, completed a $5 million feasibility study.

There is also a growing trend toward tracking individuals. For example:

• Satellites will track 5,000 of the worst criminals in Britain:
  Satellite technology will be used to track 5,000 career criminals who are responsible for one in every 10 crimes in Britain, the Home Secretary David Blunkett will announce tomorrow.
  
  The radical new technology, which has been developed in the US, will enable law enforcement officers to pinpoint the exact location of criminals who have been released early from prison and fitted with electronic tags.
• School to put electronic tags on students to monitor safety
  
  
• Invention beaten by bar code gains widespread use: "A Barcelona nightclub scans RFID chips implanted under a patron's skin when he or she want to pay for a drink wirelessly."

In the short term, these systems will be manned by people. But as vision systems improve, more and more of them will be "manned" by robots.

In theory, these systems will have one extremely beneficial side effect -- there will be a large reduction in crime. Stores and casinos have been using this kind of technology for decades, and it definitely has an effect on crime.

On the other hand, it will allow the creation of huge bubbles designed specifically to exclude people. It is easy to imagine subdivisions, towns, and even entire cities where only the "right people" are allowed in. Imagine going to a city like Washington DC, New York or Palm Springs and being told you may not enter. We cannot imagine it today, but that day will be upon us in the very near future. See also:

• Isreal to build robotic borders -- robotic bubbles
  
• Red light cameras spreading rapidly