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JohnFenyesterday at 12:08 PM4 repliesview on HN

I don't think people want this. I think people want the other benefits that those things bring, and increasingly feel that it's impossible to escape being surveilled anyway so do their best to ignore the whole issue.

Being resigned to something is not the same as wanting that thing.


Replies

margalabargalayesterday at 8:59 PM

> I don't think people want this

There was a comment made here a month or two ago, about someone from a SE Asia country (I forget which; maybe Bangladesh?) talking about how their government installed AI traffic enforcement cameras all over, and they went from one of the deadliest, most chaotic road systems in the world to Singapore-level rule-following in the space of just a couple months.

As a result, the cameras have become quite popular because there's less traffic, travelling is easier and more predictable, and road deaths have plummeted.

I imagine there are a number of similar situations in every country, where the deployment of AI surveillance has a sufficiently measurably positive impact that it becomes popular.

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cosmic_cheeseyesterday at 2:21 PM

Sometimes it’s also a pain to opt out.

The outrageous prices of used (low telemetry) cars make them a poor value proposition, for example. Depending on the model, a used car can be a decade old with half of its lifetime miles on it already and the seller will still want $14k or something crazy like that. When you factor in the parts of its history that carfax doesn’t cover and the stream of repairs you’re likely to be saddled with, finding a 0%-2% financing deal on something new at ~$20-24k begins to look a lot more attractive.

ColdStreamtoday at 12:14 AM

All successful negative things have a claim to virtue that they hide behind.

bamboozledyesterday at 12:19 PM

Agree, you’re either a digital hermit or you’re part of the problem / system

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