J/K

Most of human history we haven't been able to see what we actually look while we live our daily lives.

What could you use before?

Reflective water, a polished metal or mirrored surface, early film was more on demand but the feedback loop was longer, home videos and CCTV cameras sped things up but we didn't really see what we looked like while were living, point and shoots almost bridged the gap but it was the mass adoption of smart phones that first allowed us to see ourselves while we lived, to visually tell our own life stories, little screens abound. 

When I moved to London in the Fall of 2018, I was struck even more by my image.

My ghost lingers just after I've lived, looking back at me with everything I just felt.

The cat's out of the bag. 

I don't know if it will go back in, or even if we should try. Maybe we're better off disentangling the hunt for profit in every aspect of society.

Some politicians don't know the difference between a web browser and a search engine. Should they be making decisions about AI or Facial Recognition Software?

Should police officers in Detroit be able to use FRS to stalk their ex-girlfriend? Should the Metropolitan police in London use FRS in King's Cross Station without  telling anyone? Should we just accept most FRS have a racial bias which as of 2023 disproportionately mis-identifies black women as suspects, aka false positives?

Does anyone else remember President Sisi of Egypt? Gaddafi? Saddam? Stalin? Hitler? Dare I say Herbert Hoover? What do people with violent beliefs towards specific demographics do if they have a political or physical monopoly on violence and have access to Facial Recognition Software? What tools do everyday citizens really have to resist such a situation right now?

I feel like if we as citizens want to have a chance to resist the expansion of these technologies into solidified avenues of power for corporations or governments we need to understand them inside and out, collectively that is.

There's billions of us, we don't need to solve it all on our own. But together we can. And this is one small part of doing that, I'm showing myself, us, what it looks like.

The cat's out of the bag, and if it won't go back in we should put a fucking bell on it.