In Ira Levin's book "This Perfect Day" the computer was more of an economic and transportation recorder than a personality or agent program that its top level users accessed. The need for a centralized system is no longer necessary nor great concentration pf computer resources, merely the collection and storage of sufficient data.
It seems that the packet analysis systems deployed by the security forces to cover and collect digital network traffic has resulted in a tremendous advance in law enforcement capacity. Public safety has never been better and stands only to improve by leaps and bounds as digital devices expand into all levels of the public space.
The reduction of interpersonal violence from advanced digital forensics and surveillance means that perpetrators are nearly always caught with a high degree of precision, and may increasingly be expected to be intercepted through advanced "real time" intelligence. The possibility that interpersonal violence, which is the most egregious form of (possibly preventable) human suffering is on the decline has been noted by philosophers such as Steven Pinker, for example. That interpersonal violence is on the decline in western countries is perhaps increasingly attributable to this trend in lawful intercept surveillance technology, increasing penetration of mobile devices, and the almost exponential process of increasing transistor density.
Violence as a means to an end or an end in and of itself is increasingly being disclosed as an impossibility (or an irrational one-off event at worst) in technologically advanced western countries. The use of violence as a means to some end is almost always invariably contrary to the stated end desired but that is a philosophical topic to be discussed else where. The securitization of suburban and urban space and ensuing enhancement of public safety is a great achievement akin to a rocket program or nuclear power. Just as nuclear power and rockets, surveillance and expert analysis monitoring programs require adequate safeguards in place in order to prevent this network management style from degenerating into a myriad of dystopian possibilities.
We must admit that the technology of Orwell's 1984 has been deployed as a means to enhance public safety without necessarily devolving into a dictatorship of repression, at least in the US. The neo-conservatives and the neo-liberal factions have steered a careful course so far. They deserve at least to some extent the benefit of the doubt from a historical perspective by, for example, inheriting and not using the cold war nuclear weapons complex.
We (US and European citizens) may encounter ( if we are not currently already experiencing ) a computer-ized analysis which examines the individual behind the IP address that their networked devices and workstations pull. These individuals are examined through an automated process such as a special forensic psychologist social monitoring "expert AI" system perhaps like IBM Watson for law enforcement.* These systems are increasingly sophisticated and nuanced in the execution of their tasks. They may also be useful for detecting the operation of foreign intelligence and espionage agents or cells operating within a give you geographical area. Not only is this network capable of sniffing out the would be violent actors, but it is also able to detect and unmask the spys. The only persons who are not subject to this regime of monitoring would be those persons who are working under the false identity of under cover domestic spy and Leo agents.
*Of course we may reserve a more narrow definition. For "expert" in the sense that the computer or server cluster is a natural language capable engine capable of limited hypothesis testing and so on.
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