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Thank you, Mark.
And thank you for dropping by to listen.
Episode 48: “We See Your Face.”
Those who know me, know that I love technology.
I am absolutely fascinated with the things that man has created through the years.
Cars, planes, phones, refrigerators, radio, TV, spaceships, and even social media.
I can remember watching TV as Neil Armstrong walked around on the moon. It was a live broadcast! Of course it was delayed a few seconds because of the distance and because it had to be relayed from earth stations that had massive antennas. But it was live!
In my lifetime, I’ve seen the development of microwave ovens, wireless phones (which are more powerful than the computers NASA used for the moon missions), heart transplants, and …
The list could go on and on.
In case you don’t know, man did not evolve from a primordial soup (I’ll save my evolution talk for another day).
The Bible clearly teaches that man was created in God’s image and he was intelligent from the beginning.
If you know the story of the Tower of Babel, you’ll know that God chose to confuse the languages and scatter the people around the world because man was so intelligent.
“And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Genesis 11:6-7
Think about that.
God said since they could speak the same language “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
We’ve seen that demonstrated through the centuries of human history.
ARTIFICIAL BODY PARTS
“… nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
I am reminded of that truth with every step I take.
Walking was almost an impossibility for me because my knees hurt so much.
Then a doctor put me to sleep, cut out my bad knees, and put in new ones.
Now I walk without pain.
I love technology.
HOME SECURITY SYSTEMS
“… nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
I am also reminded of that truth every time I leave my house.
Before I go out the door, I turn on my home security system.
It can tell if someone opens a door or breaks a window.
Its motion detector can even tell if someone just moves inside my house.
And if my system detects an intrusion, my security system will contact the police.
I know the system works because I was taking care of my daughter’s dog one day and I left the house, forgetting to set system to allow for the dog’s presence.
Well, my security system’s motion detector picked up on the dog’s movement and when I returned home there were a couple of police officers at my door.
They wouldn’t even let me enter the premises until they had checked the house.
Still, I love technology.
TALKING TO ALEXA
“… nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
And then there’s my personal assistant — Alexa.
I think Alexa is a “she” because she sounds like a she, but then I’m not very woke so I could be terribly wrong and needing to grovel before the truly woke and beg for forgiveness … which probably wouldn’t be given, but that’s another story.
Not wanting to become a phobic something or other, I asked Alexa what her personal pronoun was and she responded, “I’m an AI so I don’t have a preference.”
Since she doesn’t have a preference and since I bought her … she is a she.
Back to Alexa and how I use her.
If I wonder what the definition of a word is, I just ask Alexa and she tells me.
If I want to translate a phrase into another language, I just ask Alexa and she gives me the translation.
If I want to know if a local store is open, I just ask Alexa and she tells me the hours of operation and offers to call the store for me.
My wife and I have devotions each morning and one of the things we do is read a section from the Bible. We have our Bibles open and then I ask Alexa to read aloud to us. She does.
One script I am working on is set in the 1920’s and 30’s. To help get me get a feel for the time period, I ask to Alexa play songs from those years. It’s the music my characters would have listened to.
During the day I often ask Alexa to play “inspirational hymns.”
Sometimes I just run through a list of songs I remember from my younger days — classics like “Purple People Eater,” “Beep, Beep,” “Love Letters in the Sand,” “When I Fall in Love,” “Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini.”
You know, the really good stuff.
And sometimes I’ll ask Alexa to play the songs from a musical — Oklahoma, Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof, or one of the other musicals I remember from my youth – back in the time when I was considering acting as a possible career.
At night, my wife and I like to read a book together. We get comfortable and I ask Alexa to read the current Audible selection we are working through. Alexa picks right up where she left off the previous night.
Before I go to bed, I ask Alexa to turn off the lights in the house and set the alarm for the next day. When the alarm goes off in the morning, Alexa gives me an encouraging phrase and tells me the weather report for the day.
It’s amazing.
Yep. I love technology.
But … there are some concerns with Alexa.
She listens all the time. To everything.
Now Amazon promises that she only listens when she “hears” the keyword. But that means she has to be listening all the time to hear the keyword.
Which begs the question, what does she do with what she hears?
Amazon says not to worry.
And I can trust Amazon … can’t I?
Which brings me to today’s topic.
WE SEE YOUR FACE
“… nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
You’ve probably heard of facial recognition, but it is amazing how far that technology has come in recent years.
A camera — and there are cameras everywhere — captures a picture of you and almost immediately knows who you are and a lot of stuff about you, some of it very personal.
Perhaps your phone requires you to take a picture of yourself so you can access its features.
Perhaps you have to take a picture of yourself and submit it online in order to use certain products, especially those dealing with your finances.
Perhaps you work in a place where facial recognition is used to allow you to enter certain parts of the building.
Some of the uses of facial recognition seem helpful.
WE SEE YOU COMING
One company, Cloudastructure, has a product that was particularly useful during the pandemic. Not only would it recognize who was heading into a business, it also would detect if the individual was wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, and it also used a thermal camera to detect the individual’s temperature.
Pretty nifty, huh?
(NOTE: I did invest in the company.)
GOTTCHA!
“… nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
Another company, Clearview AI, has used it’s tools to scrape more than 20 billion images from the internet and tied them to names of individuals. The company sells its services to several thousand agencies - mostly law enforcement - around the world.
In the U.S. that includes the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Suppose a local police department has a fuzzy picture of a crime being committed that was captured on a business’ security camera.
If the department is a user of Clearview AI, they submit the image and, if the individual in the picture is in one of those 20 billion images it gathered from the internet, the police department would receive back information about the person in the picture.
You can see why law enforcement agencies like this product, but some people are concerned this technology puts our individual privacy at great risk.
If you would like to find out more about this company, there is an interview with the founder on YouTube, “Controversial Facial Recognition Founder Opens Up - Clearview A.I.” It’s about an hour and one-half, so it’s only for those of you who have a lot of time.
MAKING TRAVEL EASIER
“… nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
And it’s not just identifying bad guys.
In Moscow’s Metro system, they are testing a face recognition system to pay for a ride. All a traveler has to do is look at the camera near the entry gate, their credit card is charged, and they can board the Metro.
Check out the 7 minute video below.
Convenient isn’t it?
No credit cards to pull out of your pocket, or passes that you have to display. Just look at the camera and board the Metro.
Isn’t technology wonderful?
Which brings up the question.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
Well, China is using the technology to monitor their entire population.
Check out the 6 minute video below. This video is almost four years old so you can be certain the technology has become much more powerful.
Notice what kind of control facial recognition gives to a government.
“… nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
They know when you leave your house, who you hang around with, if you leave an area where you have been told to stay, if you belong to a certain group, when you go to the market.
The technology has developed so it can even read a person’s emotions.
The citizens are under constant surveillance.
“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” the government reassures its citizens.
But one writer who was fired from his job says, “You can’t do anything the government dislikes.”
The government even uses the technology to name and shame individuals who break any law.
How would you like your name and photo displayed on a large monitor on a building for everyone to see because you took more toilet paper than you were allowed to use at a restroom, or if you jay walked?
That’s one of the ways the government tries to discourage crime.
STOP AND THINK
It’s time to stop and think now.
If a government, any government, has access to facial recognition technology, do you think it would use the technology to control the population?
“Population” is just another word for you.
I don’t care if you are Republican or Democrat or Independent.
Would the government use such a tool against you?
I may have mentioned that I love technology.
But I am also terrified about technology as I see the power it can give to a government.
TRANSITION for Reviews
I have a recommendation for you.
“Created Equal” is a documentary about Clarence Thomas.
Most people only know what the media has told them about Clarence Thomas, which is just another way of saying they know very little that is true, if anything at all.
Whether you like or dislike Justice Thomas, I would encourage you to watch the movie or read the book or listen to the audible book and learn from Clarence Thomas’ own words what it was like for him to grow up in a poor neighborhood, what it was like to experience racism, and many of the experiences that helped him develop as a young man, a lawyer, and eventually a Supreme Court Justice.
I love to share some of the articles I read with you. Here are some stories I found interesting recently. I have links to the original sources in the show notes.
“War on words: Left seeks to redefine terms like female, pedophile and even recession” by Natalia Mittelstadt. We see this almost daily. If a word makes a “politically correct” action look disgusting, you can solve the problem by changing the definition of the word.
“Multiple-Abortion Survivor Says God Helped Her Forgive Birth Parents Who Did Everything to Abort Her” by Louise Chambers. An adopted girl sets out to find her birth parents and why they didn’t want her.
“Why College Degrees Are Working Against Many Job-Seekers” by Isaac Morehouse. As a former high school administrator, I’ve counseled many students about their post-high school plans. If you or a friend or family member is considering college, you might want to read this article.
Before I go I’d like to share a blessing with you from the Old Testament.
“May the Lord bless and protect you; may the Lord’s face radiate with joy because of you; may he be gracious to you, show you his favor, and give you his peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 (The Living Bible)
Until next time … be the reason someone smiles today!
Clint
048 "We See Your Face"