Large Fierce Mammal

Source: WIRED

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)

Modern technological society is obsessed with surveillance, both the doing of it and the having it done to you. And so it has come to pass that on any given day on any given street, even in small rural towns, it has become impossible to scratch one’s ass without the act being recorded from multiple angles to greater or lesser degrees of advantage, and as often as not absent context. Was the ass in question actually itchy? If so, why? If not, was the scratching a signal to someone else, unseen by the camera? Stay tuned!

Video surveillance is the most prolific and (literally) in your face expression of surveillance, the mere presence of a visible camera aimed more or less in your direction is just the tip of the iceberg beginning with who is or can observe through it? What capabilities does the camera possess that might enable it to “see” outside the visible spectrum, detecting body temperature or what might be hidden under clothing? Beyond who “owns” the camera and the data it collects, who else may have access to what streams from it, now or at any future time?

Recent events highlight how far this has gone, both centered around Chinese “tech giant” Huawei. For most people, this began with the much hyped expansion of wireless communication into its 5th generation (5G) leading to a rather late breaking public exposure to Chinese domination in such a critical area of daily life. Then there’s this:

“A document signed by Huawei representatives — discovered by the research organization IPVM and shared exclusively with The Washington Post — shows that the telecommunications firm worked in 2018 with the facial recognition start-up Megvii to test an artificial-intelligence camera system that could scan faces in a crowd and estimate each person’s age, sex and ethnicity.

“If the system detected the face of a member of the mostly Muslim minority group, the test report said, it could trigger a “Uighur alarm” — potentially flagging them for police in China, where members of the group have been detained en masse as part of a brutal government crackdown. The document, which was found on Huawei’s website, was removed shortly after The Post and IPVM asked the companies for comment.” ~ Huawei tested AI software that could recognize Uighur minorities and alert police, report says

My 40 years of professional involvement in the security and public safety fields that include surveillance and the countering thereof find all of this to be of great interest, but enough shop. Let’s move on to tonight’s Dark Sentiment which deftly leverages its effects from the same roots.

Dark Recess is a production house that describes its mission as, “Uniting writers, directors, cinematographers, actors, editors, composers, make-up and visual effects artists, we explore the many sub-genres of cinema’s darkest depths and bring you the very best of original horror, terror and fear!”

SEE SEE TV tells the story of a man who has commissioned the installation of a video surveillance system and soon succumbs to the temptations of an “accidental” extra.

I wish I could say that creepy buggers like the installer we meet in the opening scenes were uncommon in our industry, but it attracts all kinds and people persist in hiring them, mostly because a disappointing percentage of the population have either forgotten, or never learned, what TANSTAAFL stands for.

Close the blinds (that far too many people don’t have) and enjoy the next eleven and a half minutes.