only P via 1984 as 1984 becomes the Brave New World

[Mark Kohut]

A response from someone who knows some tech:
 
"Not only did they offer him a photo linked to credit card etc.  
They tracked every bit of his activity at the site, and in the near future will actively shape his experience by steering him toward activities which fit his (dynamically emergent) profile, all the while optimizing traffic flow and profitability; a higher-order process will actively shape the activities to improve his experience. All of this generates activity in the social-media and gaming spaces which are tailored to his (dynamically emergent) profile.

And he will like it."
 
 
 
 
 


________________________________
From: Tom Beshear <tbeshear at att.net>
To: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>; Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> 
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: only P via 1984


To keep us in our places?

As for the story below, did the fellow pay for his Disney tickets w/ credit card? That's probably how the credit card info came linked to the photo -- which, of course, still means they're using facial recognition software (I'm just trying to understand the whole mechanism of the thing). Disney is private property; they can do pretty much whatever they want -- fine print on the ticket probably says something to that effect but in vaguer, lawyerly terms.
----- Original Message ----- 
>From: Ian Livingston 
>To: Mark Kohut 
>Cc: pynchon -l 
>Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:40 AM
>Subject: Re: only P via 1984
>
>Yeah, that story is creepy at every level. I remember scoffing at the notion of a 'cashless' society and I'm still creeped out using a debit card, wish I'd never consented to acquiring credit. It may be paranoia, may not, but why does anyone need to know about me? about any of us lesser pawns? 
>
>
>
>On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 8:03 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>Naomi Wolf ponders the new "totalitarianism of surveillance": A software engineer in my Facebook community wrote recently about his outrage that when he visited Disneyland, and went on a ride, the theme park offered him the photo of himself and his girlfriend to buy – with his credit card information already linked to it. He noted that he had never entered his name or information into anything at the theme park, or indicated that he wanted a photo, or alerted the humans at the ride to who he and his girlfriend were – so, he said, based on his professional experience, the system had to be using facial recognition technology. He had never signed an agreement allowing them to do so, and he declared that this use was illegal. He also claimed that Disney had recently shared data from facial-recognition technology with the United States military.Yes, I know: it sounds like a paranoid rant.
>
>
>
>-- 
>"Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant
>
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