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Less than five months into the new year, and 2010 is already getting pretty intense. It’s as if around every corner there is some new gadget that knows everything about me. And though society is slowly accepting that privacy is becoming a thing of the past, will people remain open-minded when they find themselves in a mediocre Tom Cruise film?
Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice is implementing a new computer program that studies data to predict which offenders will remain criminals in the future. The program, offered by IBM, is meant to replace Microsoft Excel as the Department’s primary data analysis software.
England’s Ministry of Justice also uses predictive analysis to determine the likelihood of criminals becoming repeat offenders. Sure, this is only one step toward the future of crime prevention, but England isn’t content stopping there.
According to an article in the London Telegraph, an American company called PIPS Technology has invented a system called “SpeedSpike” to catch speeding vehicles using cameras on the ground and an orbiting satellite.
England is fast on its way to becoming a neat little police state. Soon, people will be arrested before they commit a crime, satellites will make sure everyone is behaving properly and a masked freedom fighter known only as “V” will create mayhem in the streets to raise awareness about political irresponsibility.
It makes sense that technology would evolve in this direction. As it gets easier for law enforcement to monitor people, it would be irresponsible to pass on new opportunities to find criminal wrongdoings.
However, the greatest danger is not the technology itself, but what people do with it. A computer program might guess that someone will commit a crime, but a skilled psychiatrist could probably come to the same conclusion. A satellite can monitor someone speeding, but a competent police officer could find out why — which could actually be more important.
While it’s doubtful that future crime prevention technology will completely replace human involvement, let’s not forget that people love to be lazy and foolish. Wall-E takes place in the distant future, but what kind of person wouldn’t want to live like that now? Getting fat and flying around on a hover-chair while computers look after all of life’s problems would be a dream come true for many people.
No one system of catching criminals is perfect, but as law enforcement agencies are presented with new crime detection technology, it’s easy to imagine people abandoning compassion or common sense to make their lives a bit easier.
I am optimistic that the world will become a better place from advances in technology. Science fiction movies might reveal the scary side of technology, but that doesn’t necessarily have to befall actual people. However, as reality continues to move toward science fiction, maybe those cheesy movies actually have something to teach us.
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