Post
Re https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116566769169532822
In the replies my use of the word ‘assault’ here is not liked. That’s fine. (It really is: https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116567123720335643)
But let me elucidate the ways in which I perceive ‘assault’. An incomplete narrative…
The 12 megapixel camera and 5-mic array in the Ray-Bans are designed to be easily missed. The artefact in which they are embedded, a pair of sunglasses, is normalised as a thing to be worn in everyday settings…
…This is different than things like a Go-Pro being attached to a bike helmet. People with bike helmets tend to take them OFF when not on a bike – i.e. when they are in a more everyday setting.
But… I also think that recording people without consent is a dangerous slope to be on, and yes that includes bike cams.
The incremental normalisation of there is no privacy to be had anywhere at any time is an assault.
But the assault does not just stop there…
@urlyman people recording on their bikes often do it in order to report crimes against them to the police, don't they? Certainly that's why I looked into it. I wish we lived in a different world...
You've noted that it happens in very different places. I do think intent matters as well (and drives design features, eg locking video when the camera detects a fall and being robust to such events, vs trying to be as small/light as possible).
@RadtkeJCJ agreed. Which is why I said “slope”, not “cliff”.
Everything is contextual, and the macro context we are in is one of advanced overshoot and burgeoning fragmentation and polarisation.
We have to make our own judgment calls, and mine is pretty much to not make video of any kind in any context 😒 … while continuing to watch videos made by others 🤦♂️
@urlyman that's fair.
Being one of those who make videos, I do need to record them 😊 but being privacy aware is important. And as you allude to, so is awareness of climate and the other impacts of all we do...
…The assault also embraces the acceleration of micro electronics being added to everyday commodities which have previously not had them. And that accelerant is an assault on habitability.
Electronic waste is among the most pernicious discharges from a culture addicted to non-metabolisable waste.
But that’s just the glasses themselves.
It’s also an acceleration of video storage into a ‘Cloud’ context being endlessly reappraised by LLMs. And they are an assault on what it has meant to be human
…The whole fucking thing is an accelerant of accelerationist thinking, which is degrading the viability of life.
And that is not so much an assault on the senses as it is an assault on sense-making.
So I make no apology for my choice of the word ‘assault’
…Postscript: I shouldn’t have to say this, but it appears maybe I do.
Please don’t use this thread to pile on the person with a different opinion in the linked thread. We can and should disagree respectfully
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