re: all sorts of things:
The military is asking for input from the public, on creative new ways to find people in remote, difficult places, and the deal with the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Researchers in ecology are currently using rock-sized/shaped sensors, scattered over a test area, sensors that can detect various things in the environment, and uplink the data via radio. In some places (like London's Financial District, in response to IRA bombs), video cameras are so ubiquitous, that public behavior is being affected (minor crimes, kissing in public, going to a restaurant with your "other woman"). Every human constantly sheds pheromones and skin cells, which contain chemical markers unique to that individual. So......imagine a billion pebble-sized sensors scattered (by plane) throughout Afghanistan. Imagine that each one can smell Bin Laden, or recognize his face, and instantly notify us via satellite uplink. We are moving, for better or worse, towards a world where being in a public space means being recognised, and your actions recorded and available for review, by anyone else on the planet. This isn't OT; I'm thinking, "what company is going to make the components in those pebbles"? |
