On Being a More than Number

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With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.  -Abraham Lincoln

A friend of mine happened upon me while I was reading an article on IPv6 and asked what it entailed.  I went on to explain that the present internet was running out of numbers (with network address translation I can’t see how, but let’s take that another place) and that this new system would give electronic things their own number to which they could then be found.  I don’t know why I said found, it just seemed logical to me to be able to “find it.”  Each number, individually married to a person, and perhaps even non electronic things. 

 

She was aghast.   

 

I was confused by her repulsion, which is the risk of men as myself, we “oppenheimer’s” of technology, so I pointed out that she was already tracked, and that she had willing agreed to it about 5 years ago.  I further went on to explain that she agreed to it by being a consumer. 

 

She of course pointed out her social security number, and I shook my head and pointed at her cell phone.  live, instant, updatable tracking of her person. 

 

Ignore the GPS chip, or the google Triangulation method; few people today go anywhere without a cellphone.  I’d estimate very little of them have the GPS off, so of all the people with cellphones, lets just make up a high number, 80% can be found by their cellphone carrier within a good 2-6 hour window. 

 

The benefits are astronomical.  Missing Hikers have been found by cellphones that barely register with their networks.  I was going to link to a few stories but just google: “missing Hiker and Cellphone” and you’ll see what I mean.  Most hikers today wear GPS chips, and yet carry no navigation devices.  This keeps the purity of the sport.  “I can still get lost, but I won’t die because I made a mistake.”   Man is still conquering his environment.  He just doesn’t want it to conquer him. 

 

Let’s see what else. Cars with numbers , IP of home computers, work phone numbers,  driver licensees, Credit cards. et al.  The list of numbers that keep track of us was once small, and then it exploded, but all still linked , individually, by the unique Social Security Number used in America.  Run someone’s social in almost any system and you could find out about them in that particular subset of information.  The data was not however linked.  Now, with convergence and data mining and public databases, it is all linked.  

 

The dual paradox’s hit. The need to keep things together and yet, the need for privacy. 

 

IP6 is just a different numbering system;  we’ve already been marked.   What we should seek control over, is how others can use, abuse or work with our numbers.  It’s not going to go away, we’ve already submitted, but it’s our number, yes?  Then we should have complete say over how it’s used. 

 

As for escaping, aka “falling off the Grid’, like that guy did in that movie;  gave away all his savings, left for alaska?  If you think you can do it, go ahead but I have news for you, we all can’t go to alaska either. It ceases to be the wide open space when a million people move in. 

OceansOfThought @ February 11, 2008