We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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I have had a number of responses and suggestions (most of them polite) on how to deal with smart tagged money. Dale Amon even provided a recipe for dealing with the pesky things. While I’m sure it will work, that’s not the point.
On the money issue, I’m betting that once tagging becomes common place, non-emitting currency will be treated as counterfeit. At best not accepted, at worse generating a call to the authorities. Foil lined bags and wallets will probably be one answer. There will be others. My point was there will be a cost in time, effort and/or finances to achieve the anonymity we now enjoy gratis.
Taking the whole counter-measures idea one step further, I’m sure you will be able to cleanse yourself of smart tags on, in and about your person. When emiting is the norm, however, non-emitters will be regarded with suspicion. It will be seen as attempts to hide your identity. As a modern analogy, you can wear gloves and a full-face ski-mask into a mall, but don’t expect people to treat you normally.
Technology is a very double edged sword, and the ways it is applied are often vastly different from what the inventors intended. Witness Alfred Nobel and dynamite. He was a pacifist who saw the power of dynamite as a way to help cash poor, resource rich countries access the wealth trapped inside the earth. Within a few months of introduction to the world, it was applied to the military and the destructive effects of war increased exponentially. In a similiar vein, how many people involved in the discovery and production of smart tags do you think foresaw the use by the US Army of tags on bees to locate landmines?
The applications of smart tags will be limited only be our imaginations. Literally the stuff of dreams. The tricky part will be ensuring that the dreams in our heads don’t become nightmares in our waking lives.
This morning, January 16th at my home in London, I received a Christmas card from Greensboro, North Carolina. The post mark was dated December 10th 2001.
Now it has often been my observation that the US postal service is not unlike the Bermuda Triangle: a fabled place where the spacetime continuum does not quite work the way it does in the rest of the universe. However what made the letter more interesting, in fact the only thing that made it interesting, was the odd indigo stamp on the envelope:
MISSENT TO
JAKARTA SOEKARNO-HATTA
They sent the letter to Indonesia?
Now I will grant that the address was handwritten rather than printed, but the writing was extraordinarily clear and precise, so I can only speculate that some US postman was just not concentrating, perhaps he was pondering the chore of impending Christmas shopping or contemplating homicide against his colleagues in a shooting spree or some such matter to which US postal workers seem prone, and thus mis-read ‘London SW3, England’ as ‘Jakarta, Indonesia’.
But whoever you are, you little misshapen cog in the vast shuddering machine of the US postal service, I thank you.
One of my absolute pet hates is the ‘Round Robin’ pro forma ‘family up-date’ letter sent by people I met only once many years ago. As they always do, it starts ‘Dear Friends’, followed by an interminable wodge of fascinating details about children I have never met, places I have never visited and have no desire to and strange revelations that
Yes, we have joined the ACC mania for the second year in a row. Surprisingly enough, I can even quote a few stats… that’s scary
Scary? It is bloody terrifying. What the hell is the ACC? And why am I supposed to find that interesting? And why should I care where your children, whom I was only vaguely aware even existed, are going to school? At least I am told Jamie is doing well: good for him…ah, no… later in this interminable missal I discover that Jamie is a she, not a he.
So once again, Mister Distracted Postal Worker, I thank you. There was at least something interesting about this letter… on the envelope.
The whole principle is wrong; it’s like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can’t eat steak.
– Robert A. Heinlein on censorship
The USA will possibly face the most punitive trade sanctions in the history of the World Trade Organisation if the European Union is granted the right to act on a WTO ruling that US tax breaks for exporters are a violation of global trade rules.
This is entirely a self inflicted wound for the USA. Unlike the vast majority of the rest of the world, the USA claims tax from companies based on their global activities. Quite apart from the fact this is manifestly iniquitous, it is also pretty damn stupid economically. Although EU nations do not attempt to tax globally, the European states tend to subsidise their favoured companies in various ways (which is also stupid from a macro-economic perspective). This in turn has lead the US to deduce for the last 31 years that certain businesses operating in competition with subsidised EU companies should be given tax breaks to help them compete more evenly. There is just one problem with that: making special cases in that manner violates WTO treaty rules.
The solution for the US is of course simplicity itself: just abolish all US taxation at the water’s edge like the rest of the world does… no special cases therefore exist. Result? American businesses overseas flourish without the absurd and wildly expensive accounting gymnastics needed to avoid actually paying very much tax to the American IRS on corporate operations in Mongolia (or wherever).
The fact is, of the medium and small businesses I know of run by Americans overseas, the reality is that they successfully shelter the vast majority of their operations from the US tax man. So why not just recognize that there is no justification for this very hard to enforce ‘taking’ by the IRS… what reasonable pecuniary interest does the US state have on economic activity beyond its shores? Scrap this extraterritorial intrusion and not only is justice served, the WTO problem simply disappears with a loud ‘poof’!
There have been numerous mentions recently of electronically tagging money, the latest of which was by Walter Uhlman below in Sergeant Stinger reporting for duty. But there is no need to worry folks. Follow this simple recipe and your privacy should be restored:
Take 1 wad tagged money.
Mix denominations and national currencies to taste.
Place on Microwave oven tray.
Set microwave to high for 30 seconds.
Enjoy the sparkles of frying microcircuits.
Remove and apply as desired.
No need to bend over and take it. Resistance is not futile. In fact, it’s a lot of fun.
There’s Pork in Their Horoscope, The Guv Replies
Reader Neil Eden contacted the Inspector General’s Office and received the following reply:
After careful review of your complaint, it appears that the appropriate office to contact within the U.S. Department of Education concerning this matter is the Office of Postsecondary Education. You may write to this office at the address listed below:
Accreditation and State Liaison
Office of Postsecondary Education
U.S. Department of Education
K Street, NW, Room 7106
Washington, D.C. 20006
Telephone # (202)219-7011
I trust that this information is helpful to you.
Keep us informed of the responses you get. The fun has only begun.
The U.S. Army is using smart tag-equipped bees to detect landmines, the Financial Times reported recently. Bees have a liking for the explosive TNT. Smart tagged bees, returning to the hive, land on special mats that can detect TNT and identify individual bees. The direction of a bee’s flight and its flight time are used to calculate the approximate position of any landmines. I’m assuming these are surface mount Claymore style mines, not the buried kind. Even so, the application of the technology is astonishing!
Smart tags are radio wave emitters. They come in all shapes of tiny sizes and in a wide variety of frequencies with a range of a few millimeters up to several kilometers. They are similar to the anti-theft tags common in many retail stores, but they have the added ability of also sending data. Smart tags can be built or embedded in anything. With the advent of polymer electronics (plastic microchips), they may one day replace the ubiquitous barcode.
Meanwhile, look for them to turn up in ever-widening circles. Benefits will be as enormous as the potential for abuse. Security and anti-counterfeiting are the two most obvious applications. Governments are especially interested in the movement of money. That metal detector you walk through on your next trip may soon also report just how much cash you’re carrying, right down to the denominations and serial numbers. Got a nest egg squirreled away at home for unforeseen circumstances? With embedded chips, would-be thieves (government sponsored or private entrepreneurs) could drive by outside and use their receiver to count up how much you have and get a good guess about where you’ve hidden it.
Warehousing and inventory is another area to benefit from smart tagging. Parts for everything from toasters to tanks will have embedded chips. After the finished item leaves the factory, the combination of tags will produce a unique radio frequency fingerprint like a remotely accessed serial number.
How about food that tells you when it’s spoiled, makes preparation suggestions, or even programs the microwave? When tagging gets commonplace, we will soon be able to know from afar if that really is a pickle in your pocket.
Personal convenience could also be greatly enhanced. A door could open or your car could start up as you approach. Subway and underground turnstiles could let you pass as long as the card tucked in your wallet is up to date. You can know where your children are at all times. Where they are, whom they are with, what toys they are using, and even what they are eating.
Think about it. The ability to remotely track anything or anyone at anytime and anywhere. A parent’s’ – or secret policeman’s – dream come true.
The widespread use of smart tags will lead to a much more open society. Open in terms of knowing who is going where with what or whom. Personal privacy will become a question of how many counter-measures you can afford, but individuals paying for the privacy will be regarded with suspicion. Intrusive governments and envious neighbors will especially want to know, “What are you trying to hide?”
Hmmm. Come to think of it, it’s not too much different today, is it?
Reader Martha Lane e-mailed me to ask what was a typical libertarian position on ‘hate speech’ in a free society. I referred her to In Defense of Hate Propaganda (Sort of) by Pierre Lemieux (pdf format: requires Acrobat reader or similar).
I often recommend stuff found in the Libertarian Alliance archive of publications. It has over 650 mostly short and to the point pamphlets from a wide range of genuine libertarian view points. The Libertarian Alliance does not have a manifesto or a single ‘party line’, choosing instead to showcase the full range of libertarian views, from anarcho-capitalists to minarchists to Old Whigs to libertarian-conservatives… and everything in between.
Pierre Lemieux’s two page article that I recommended above is typical of most of the LA’s on-line publications, which is to say brief, easy to digest and free.
Suman Palit over on The Kolkata Libertarian has been prognosticating with considerable plausibility on various nightmare scenarios for the Indian sub-continent. His view on where some of those scenarios could lead are:
In 2050 A.D., Sudan and Botswana surpass the Indian GDP, organize pop-rock concert to deliver food aid to Calcutta.
Not vastly optimistic then, Suman?
The British government has promised to tackle Britain’s underachieving railway system head on and build a brand, spanking, new, spiffy, super-duper, hi-tech, luxurious, efficient rail network for the 21st Century
According to HM Government this miracle of modern transportation will be so generally splendiferous and commuter-friendly that, not only will the trains run on time, they will actually call at your house, wake you up, get you dressed, make you a cup of coffee and kiss your kids goodbye before whisking you off to your destination in hitherto unimagined levels of opulence and comfort
Sounds great, doesn’t it? There’s only one teensy-weensy little snag: er…there’s no money to build it. Nada. Zippedy-doo-da. Not a bean, a sou or a red cent
See, you can forget all the guff you may have heard about the alleged privatisation of Britain’s railways. The railways were never privatised. They were leased off on state franchise and bound hand-and-foot by regulations. A few years down the line (scuse pun) and the government is shocked, SHOCKED to discover that the main operating company, Railtrack is running at a huge loss and promptly takes it into receivership
Now the government is saddled with responsibility for rebuilding a decaying transportation system, mollifying an angry public and dodging lawsuits from even angrier Railtrack investors who have lost all their money. Boy, do these guys know how to make a rod for their own backs or what??!!
Still, ever mindful of the next election, the government has promised the above-mentioned whizz-bang new railway system with the money that they ‘hope’ to raise from private investors
Fat chance!! After watching the government send the Railtrack investors home with nothing except a kick in the pants, I know what my response would be if the government asked me for my money. I can’t print it here but it would consist of two words the second of which would be ‘off’
So, this weeks competition is to find a solution to this problem: How can the British government build an envy-of-the-world, state-of-the-art railway network for the 21st Century with no money whatsoever?
Please send your answers to:
The Right Honourable Tony Blair PM
10 Downing Street
London SW1
The winner will have the honour of having his or her idea credited to the aforesaid Tony Blair for PR and re-election purposes
FARC off
Colombia’s marxist rebel army has meekly agreed to dismantle its checkpoints, vacate its strongholds and return to negotiations rather than face an onslaught from the Colombian Army
Do these people imagine that they are geniune, bona fide marxist rebels? They’re nothing but a bunch of lily-livered, yuppified, namby-pamby WIMPS!! Now I remember the days when marxist rebels really were marxist rebels and could be counted on not to stop fighting until they were streaming up the steps of the Presidential Palace shouting Viva La Revolucion!!!, pouring El Presidentes finest single malt whisky all over the cobblestone streets and waving his mistresses silk panties on the ends of their bayonets
I don’t know. Marxists just ain’t what they used to be
Osama Bin Laden has all but admitted responsibility for the GWB attack in a grainy video partially released by the FBI
On the tape, Bin Laden can be heard boasting to colleagues that “…We have thousands more pretzels willing to die..”
Security forces worldwide have been put on high alert for a new wave of terror which could include Banzai Bagels and Kamikaze Canolies
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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