[Genuine Realist]

I note today that the police reform bill passed by the House bans the use of facial recognition software. Good Lord. Facial recognition software, like every other kind of technology, EXCLUDES - it doesn't include. In combination with other technology, it makes false arrest and inconvenience to the uninvolved LESS, not more, likely - and this is obvious. To the extent that it is crude now, it will be refined at exponential speed in the months and years to come. And this too is obvious.

So how does this relate to Covid-19? When I excluded South Korea from comparison to the US in Covid-19 reaction, one of the reasons is because the uninhibited use of advanced technology - contact tracing through credit card tracking, cctv, GPS patterns, and the like - are absolutely impossible in the current legal and social climate of the US. Worries about 1984 and the like inhibit us. But while we are lamenting the lack of contact tracers and so on, we should remember we are ignoring a vast quantum of information ready at hamd.

That reluctance is absolute nonsense. Information technology is neutral - no matter what a society wants to do, it will do it faster and more effectively the more information it has at its disposal. If it wants to determine which of its citizens is exposed to a dangerous virus, it will do that better. If it wants to determine which of its citizens may have distant Jewish or African ancestry, it can do that as well. It's not the technology that makes a society racist. It's the social values.

Right now, you could use even crude facial recognition technology to identify people in a large crowd who are not wearing masks. (Ironically, mask wearing would make the technology less useful.) You could send them a letter or email politely reminding them that mask wearing is required, etc., etc. And if there is an ordinance, statute, or regulation that criminalizes non-mask wearing? I don't think we extend the use of the technology to issuing an actual citation and fine, because it isn't refined enough to provide probable cause. That's the sort of legal system we have.

But we don't discard the tool, either. It's useful, and it is going to get more useful. We can't march ignore the progress of information technology, as much as some would like to.

[Genuine Realist]

I note today that the police reform bill passed by the House bans the use of facial recognition software. Good Lord. Facial recognition software, like every other kind of technology, EXCLUDES - it doesn't include. In combination with other technology, it makes false arrest and inconvenience to the uninvolved LESS, not more, likely - and this is obvious. To the extent that it is crude now, it will be refined at exponential speed in the months and years to come. And this too is obvious.

So how does this relate to Covid-19? When I excluded South Korea from comparison to the US in Covid-19 reaction, one of the reasons is because the uninhibited use of advanced technology - contact tracing through credit card tracking, cctv, GPS patterns, and the like - are absolutely impossible in the current legal and social climate of the US. Worries about 1984 and the like inhibit us. But while we are lamenting the lack of contact tracers and so on, we should remember we are ignoring a vast quantum of information ready at hamd.

That reluctance is absolute nonsense. Information technology is neutral - no matter what a society wants to do, it will do it faster and more effectively the more information it has at its disposal. If it wants to determine which of its citizens is exposed to a dangerous virus, it will do that better. If it wants to determine which of its citizens may have distant Jewish or African ancestry, it can do that as well. It's not the technology that makes a society racist. It's the social values.

Right now, you could use even crude facial recognition technology to identify people in a large crowd who are not wearing masks. (Ironically, mask wearing would make the technology less useful.) You could send them a letter or email politely reminding them that mask wearing is required, etc., etc. And if there is an ordinance, statute, or regulation that criminalizes non-mask wearing? I don't think we extend the use of the technology to issuing an actual citation and fine, because it isn't refined enough to provide probable cause. That's the sort of legal system we have.

But we don't discard the tool, either. It's useful, and it is going to get more useful. We can't march ignore the progress of information technology, as much as some would like to.