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Comment by techwiz137 | Hacker News Reader

This is coming one way or another and is pretty frightening. Mass surveillance is one thing, but also personal interrogation. You can extract the deepest darkest secrets of any one individual.

The thin line of privacy will disintegrate into nothing.

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That’s not true. We don’t need to do this. Absent intervention, sure these technologies are likely to be introduced and invade our lives. But we are humans, not computers, and despite the decisions of the last several decades, we are not required to allow market forces and the profit motive algorithm to make all decisions in our society. We can make whatever rules and decisions we want. It won’t come without a fight, but this horrifying development seems a pretty good place to start.

What government is going to turn down these capabilities? Even if they banned "private sector" development, you can bet they're still gonna go down this road.

And frankly, that might be for the best. Imagine whatever country is most antagonistic toward your own, and now imagine their military fully develops this and yours doesn't. How safe/secure are you feeling?

> How safe/secure are you feeling?

I don't think I'd feel (or be) much less safe/secure if an antagonistic nation developed such a thing and mine didn't. I would certainly feel less safe and secure if my nation had this capability regardless of whether or not others did.

Your point is well-taken. But also worth considering is that people with, say, ALS might have quite a different perspective on this.

Or even arthritis.

Everything has two sides. Chemotherapy discovery was aided by chemical weapons.

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