The scariest part of the future will possibly be the elimination of privacy through the state’s facial recognition program in cameras strewn throughout the United States in apartments, grocery stores, and parks.
And it’s already started.
Over 700 private businesses, churches, and gas stations, over 500 traffic lights in Detroit participate in Project Green Light, which has cameras providing 24/7 live stream feed to the Detroit Police Department.
On January 9, 2020, The Detroit Police Department arrested Robert Williams in front of his wife and daughters from an investigation using a matchup from faulty facial recognition software.
Williams was detained for over 30 hours, because of a shoddy investigation lacking verifiable evidence.
The facial recognition system compares photos from the live feed to drivers’ license photos, social media, and more.
That data is downloaded into the State Network of Agency Photos (SNAP), a Michigan State Police database with about 50 million photos, including driver licenses, state IDs, and Department of Corrections images, to allow digital lineups for criminal investigations.
And this is just the beginning. If you want an advanced look, you’ll have to switch continents.
China has the “largest video surveillance network in the world and plans to expand it to more than 600 million cameras over the next two years,” according to a Vice documentary.
You can pay for your food with your face. Your face automatically recalls past food orders and doles out toilet paper in public bathrooms.
Your face replaced your apartment key– meaning the government can track when you’re home when you leave, and who visits.
In one year, the program helped nab over 3,000 so called “criminals”
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, society has evolved (or devolved) to the state using robot Hounds with a form of facial recognition and smell to kill or capture what they are told are enemies.
Montag, declared an enemy of the state, drinks a bottle of fluid that changes the chemical index of his perspiration so the Hound can’t find him.
And when those enemies escape, they’ll just kill someone in that person’s place to cover for their tracks, after humiliation that the state lost.
When Montag escaped, the government sicked the Hound on a random stranger they claimed was Montag.
“The Hound appears and pounces on him, and the announcer declares that Montag is dead and a crime against society has been avenged,” the Sparknotes summary recounted. The homeless men reflect that the police probably chose the man to be their scapegoat because of his habit of walking by himself—clearly a dangerous and antisocial habit.”
Police will also lean more heavily on technology, including facial recognition drones and police robot dogs.
This is just a few steps from Black Mirror’s “Metalhead” episode in which robot dogs kill victims.