The last of the Nano Futures scenarios compiled to date involves tracking the movements of individuals within a city through the application of nanotechnology to sewer systems.
The basic idea involves placing a DNA detection and coding system within the sewer system of a large metropolis – using nanopore technology. In theory, this system could be so advanced and work on such a short timescale that people in this city could be located by authorities within a matter of minutes.
A previous blogger objected to this scenario because he or she thought that it was a disgusting topic and that more interesting applications of nanotechnology could be discussed.
Objectively, it really does not matter whether topics relating to human waste are regarded as disgusting or not; this exists as, possibly, a real application of nanotechnology and, clearly, the point of including it in this discussion was not to disgust readers or to present them with what might be an amazing advance in technical science. Without a doubt, the significance of this subject is the extremely high level of surveillance that the full development of these nanotechnologies would allow for law enforcement or, say, anyone with the means to produce and install such a system.
So, we must ask ourselves, is it morally acceptable that the government – or really anyone – might possess such intimate knowledge of members of society? This is not merely a question of whether or not the location of different individuals will be known, but their DNA, presumably, will be known as well. This is because the process by which possibly fugitive individuals would be located would be based purely on their DNA sequence. Naturally, this would mean that the government – or who uses this technology – would be in possession of perhaps millions of people’s genetic codes, regardless of whether or not it knew whom these codes belonged to in particular.
Should this trouble us?
Personally, I am not sure. From a certain point of view, it is always a good idea to implement measures that should ensure the more rapid and accurate administration of justice to those who have broken the laws of society. Yet the cost of this particular technology, again, is the surrendering of a certain level of privacy for apparently law-abiding private citizens – by giving the government a copy of their DNA codes. There are also the further concerns that this technology might not only be used by law enforcement agencies, it could be misused by law enforcement agencies, or that it could start civilization down a slippery slope leading to the knowledge, by some agency, of the locations and doings of every member of society simultaneously.
I find the final outcome of such a scenario highly disturbing. This is because the question should not really just be, “Where are our citizens and are they abiding by the laws of society?” but also, “Who is our government and how can we justify giving those in power such supreme levels of control over the rest of us?”
Let them know what you think: http://cns.asu.edu/nanofutures/blog-sewersurveil.php
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