Augmented Reality Face Recognition

Update : Answering Ben and John's comments :

Ben: I guess the question is, now the tech. is out there, how long does it remain "opt-in". Let's suppose it was, say, Facebook that bought this technology and incorporated it into their iPhone / Android client ... ie. see which people around you have FB accounts.

Then, one day, they find that not enough people opted in, so decide to make the system opt-out instead.

John : Yes, I love Github; and the social aspect of Github is very cool. ( http://github.com/interstar )

I use it for work, and will start putting social projects up there. But you have to be careful with making too many inferences (eg. about code quality) : sometimes I check-in code written by colleagues, and they check-in my code ...

On the broader point, I'm more convinced than ever we're heading into netocracy. And one of the symptoms is when people start making inferences from the social graph itself as opposed to using just navigating the social graph and then analyzing. Ie. when people start saying "X is probably a good potential hire *because* he's connected to these people and worked on those projects" rather than "I found X via these people, now let's see if he's a good hire".

What I really think is that there's little chance for society as a whole to retreat from netocracy.

And when we arrive, there'll be no way for individuals to opt-out. We could try to avoid making our social network explicit and publishing it, but it will become increasingly difficult to function in society without doing so.

In a real netocracy, not being in a social network will be as debilitating as not having any money under capitalism.

What is much more likely though, is that smart operators will work through secret or more private social networks (much as smart operators under capitalism have Swiss bank accounts or use otherwise dark payment schemes)

However, such secretive individuals and organizations will need to break cover and become partly visible, in order to operate at all in netocracy (witness this story about a criminal gang, who court certain kinds of visibility and connections)

Theo Jansen Inspires YouTube Robot Creature Revolution (video)

:-)

Britain's detention without trial.

Talented Friend Watch #18 : Tulio launches his CD, listen on LastFM.

Sweet :

Residents have overwhelmingly said ‘yes’ to the idea of having a wind turbine on Hackney Marshes to generate green energy.

In response to Hackney Council’s recent public consultation, 87 per cent said they were in favour of the proposal.

Not massively enthused by this racist and classist "exoticisation" of Brazil's "otherness" (poverty, urban squalor, ugly / animal people, cockroaches, crude sexuality) and the contrast being made with white, male, middle-class, hi-tech, artist qua space-explorers.

Horrible.

And the music is dull-as-ditchwater too. Go listen to where the real innovation is happening in Brasilian music.

Talented Friend Watch #17 : Scribe's book A World of Corners is available to buy or download free.

Beautiful images.

So does the "device swarm" (or "splinternet" as Josh Bernoff calls it) spell the end of the web's golden age? (And help Apple to trounce Google into the bargain.)

As Apple prepares (allegedly) to reinvent the book publishing industry, pay attention to Lawrence Lessig on the micro-chunking of copyright.

January 1st, Gisel and I passed through Zurich, calling in at the legendary Cabaret Voltaire, where we found them celebrating the passing-out-of-copyright of, amongst others, Ravel. And we got invited to join in a rousing chorus of Dada Bolero.

Snow covered trees in Austria

Railway siding, somewhere on the Swiss / Austrian border.

Meanwhile, read Dariush's account of Copenhagen.

Was it really China that sabotaged Copenhagen?

Cool looking new multi-"touch" gesture tracking screen.

Let's hope its not racist.

This is majorly damning. HP computers are racist.

There's a real danger, that moving into a world of ubicomp, some groups are going to be systematically empowered or disempowered by generalizations built into video recognition software.

More pictures from occupation in Brasilia.

Bloody hell!

There are major protests going on in Brasilia against the current governor, Jose Roberto Arruda, who's been caught in a corruption scandal. The Arruda government is definitely a can of worms which I saw up close when I was working, providing software to the Health Ministry, a couple of years ago. We were constantly being undermined by a rival company who's boss had allegedly donated millions to Arruda's campaign. There was ongoing political manoeuvring to have us replaced, some of it within our own partners, and some protected by high-level political figures within the ministry.

To the best of my knowledge, the people I worked for, weren't actually buying influence (at least, if they were, they didn't seem all that successful at it). But it's a constant, pervasive atmosphere throughout companies supplying the government, which tends to breed a kind fatalism. The assumption is that only those who play this game can ever succeed.

Anyway, some of my friends are involved in the protests and occupation of some local government buildings. Seems like the police have now been set on them.

Update : a video. Does this show police brutality? I'm not 100% sure I can see how the fight breaks out, but once it's triggered, they certainly start reacting aggressively.

Awesome! Pinwall from Urban Screen.