The prediction component of the machine is not currently on the radar or even the real problem. That's 'minority report' grade stuff and doesn't need to be explained or given wider distribution.
What is the problem is that given this mountain of data and a dollop of selective enforcement could mean the end of democracy as we currently know it. It doesn't have to happen overnight, it doesn't have to happen everywhere. But it might be enough to tip the balance in favor of a world that we'd all recognize as something to avoid. And how to illustrate this without pointing to horrors past and without seeming to be undue alarmist is becoming harder and harder.
Having 'nothing to hide' is the mantra by which many people make their decisions and cast their support, and programs like 'earnest voice' are seeding the crowds with distracting talking points.
> as for your second point -- i'm not sure it's not happening right now.
That's both the curse and the beauty of it. As the perpetrators of such a scheme you could totally get away with it and we'd all be as oblivious about it as could be.
Johnny has ambitions to go and make some real and unfortunate changes, let's give him a really well paying job and shower him with toys until he's distracted to the point of giving up his ambitions. Manipulation works better the more subtle it is and the longer before a certain course of action the smaller the deviation from the path to avoid the course of action entirely.
and i agree and tell my friends who ask "so, AI this year?" that in fact we're a long way away. in fact, potentially infinitely long, if you think that while we may create simulacra of consciousness, without understanding what it means to be human (at least cognitively), we may never be able to create its digital parallel.
What is the problem is that given this mountain of data and a dollop of selective enforcement could mean the end of democracy as we currently know it. It doesn't have to happen overnight, it doesn't have to happen everywhere. But it might be enough to tip the balance in favor of a world that we'd all recognize as something to avoid. And how to illustrate this without pointing to horrors past and without seeming to be undue alarmist is becoming harder and harder.
Having 'nothing to hide' is the mantra by which many people make their decisions and cast their support, and programs like 'earnest voice' are seeding the crowds with distracting talking points.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-ope...