I had not heard of this potential program until now. Especially not that it has been discussed up to the White House level.
Basically it's:
Last week, the Washington Post reported that the White House had been briefed on a plan to create an agency called HARPA, a healthcare counterpart to the Pentagon’s research and development arm DARPA. Among other initiatives, this new agency would reportedly collect volunteer data from a suite of smart devices, including Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echos, and Google Homes in order to identify “neurobehavioral signs” of “someone headed toward a violent explosive act.” The project would then use artificial intelligence to create a “sensor suite” to flag mental changes that make violence more likely.
https://gizmodo.com/the-plan-to-use-fitbit-data-to-stop-mass-shootings-is-o-1837710691A few of my takeaways from the article:
1) Of course TDS Gizmodo has a photo of Trump, as if he and the Republicans are behind it all.
2) The article's author, and many (most) of the comments, make the same arguments we do about gun control: "It's not fair to label everyone a potential criminal, and to take away rights of those who have done nothing wrong."
3) The article's author, and many (most) of the comments, also say we should just have strict gun control - that way the author and the commenters aren't affected by any laws, because hey, they've done nothing wrong. Those gun owners are all potential criminals though, so we need to take away their rights.
Beyond the scariness of the proposal, the hypocrisy of those against it (at least the Gizmodo crew) is astounding.
