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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

  • Author Author King_Oni
  • Create date Create date
  • Blog entry read time Blog entry read time 2 min read
And for anyone not familiar with latin, history and/or philosophy... it roughly translates to; "Who will guard the guards themselves?"... or of course a more popculture related reference "Who watches the watchmen?".

With that quote in mind I'm beginning to think that that bit of "paranoia" going on in my mind is not that far off anymore. Nowadays, I read way too much stories about supervisors that are corrupt, politicians, police officers that are being reprimanded, teachers that do not act "responsible" and the list goes on.

Yesterday whilst standing at the counter to grab a burger (at a big competitor to the one with the yellow arches) a manager was fiddling around with the ATM at the cashregister. I as a customer have no idea what he's doing, but I just guess the thing broke down. Now, let's put in a bit of paranoia, shall we? What if... he was messing around with the machine in order to steal my code and number? Sounds weird? Not so much, as I've heard stories where people had their code, as well as their cardnumber "stolen" IN a store. How was it done? Exactly, an employee was messing around with the machine.

So really, who makes sure that this doesn't happen? Add in that even my therapist noticed I have trust issues with people in general and think people act suspicious easily. What if I'm right?

And truth be told, I have been right quite a few times... even if the scenario was so far fetched people could not have guessed it like that. I recall situations where I was chatting with people and I kept a chatlog, only to figure out they weren't real and ready to frame me down the line. Just on a hunch... The entire story of that, totally different deal, not going into it right now.

So all in all, paranoid yes, clinicically a problem, no... but with experiences had, as well as collective societal experience (ie. the stories you read and hear), I can see how being paranoid as a reality check is becoming more... well, real... and suffering paranoia as a clinical thing is dying out...

But I'm quite sure this hunch still is paranoia...

Or is it?

You can sleep safely again ;]

Comments

S
King Oni--whatever you do, DO NOT read the novel "The Fear Index". It will make your paranoia go right through the roof! It's about artificial intelligence and the stock market and what happens when the two are combined. The scary thing is while the novel itself may be fiction I don't think the concepts behind it are.

This is why I am utterly baffled when I see people encouraging other people to bare their secrets on the computer, especially sexual secrets. Do you really have any control over who sees those posts? Yes, we are all supposedly anonymous here--but are we?
 
King_Oni
Spinning Compass;bt931 said:
King Oni--whatever you do, DO NOT read the novel "The Fear Index". It will make your paranoia go right through the roof! It's about artificial intelligence and the stock market and what happens when the two are combined. The scary thing is while the novel itself may be fiction I don't think the concepts behind it are.

This is why I am utterly baffled when I see people encouraging other people to bare their secrets on the computer, especially sexual secrets. Do you really have any control over who sees those posts? Yes, we are all supposedly anonymous here--but are we?
Click to expand...

I wrote some papers on artificial intelligence for my philosophy classes I had in college, so I am quite aware of the "implications" it brings. In general, fiction about AI is amongst my favorite science fiction I read about, so chances are I might read that book, lol.

Don't think it'll get me more paranoid... only the idea of AI controlling the stock market gives an interesting scenario, even without reading that book.

Also; I don't believe in total anonimity if you're online. But some people don't have a clue what an IP adress is, thus people think they're A. anonymous and B. "who is gonna use that data". It's the same people that wonder why facebook gives them personalized ads based on their status updates.

I'm always a bit weary in sending confidential email already, just because I might mess up the mailadress and my information ends up with other people.

But like I said, I don't think my paranoia will go any higher, but it's things I've been wondering, and I still wonder why a lot of people aren't aware of what might happen with their information. No I don't live in a totally secure digital fortress with firewalls up and everything blocked, but I try to make sure that some information stays off the web as much as I can. Some things you're fine with not putting anywhere, especially since data on the web, retains for a looooooooooong time, and might at some point end up places you don't want. But I try to not let it influence my way of life too much
 
Loomis
AI and the stock market is happening right now and its called high frequency trading. Basically a machine with algorithms is moving in and out rapidly skimming fractional cents from each trade. The machines can see what the real bid and ask prices are for stocks and it matches them up. At the same time these machines rapidly trade in and out for their own profit thus the moniker high frequency. Since they know all of the real bid and ask prices are they can easily buy and sell profitably using this inside information. It is all perfectly legal. The stock exchanges sell access to these data to the corporations who own the machines giving them a few milliseconds advantage over everyone else.

The solution to fixing this obscene system is simple: just put a small tax on each trade but it is not going to happen unless there is a catastrophe because of the huge financial lobby that is making billions off the current system. Nice work if you can get it.
 

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King_Oni
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