Next Up for Big Brother: Recording and Transcribing Public Conversations

[The Straight Story]

Next Up for Big Brother: Recording and Transcribing Public Conversations


Matt Lease, a computer scientist at the University of Texas, is working on ways to literally record all human conversations no matter where they take place. But his research is being funded by the Department of Defense, raising the question of how such a technology might be used in the hands of the government.

Lease’s plan is to utilize crowdsourcing, voice recognition software and everyday devices like smartphones to gather human speech, whether in a business meeting or on the street, and store it somewhere so people could access what they said anytime.

He told Wired’s Danger Room that he saw the work as both a “need and opportunity to really make conversational speech more accessible, more part of our permanent record instead of being so ephemeral, and really trying to imagine what this world would look like if we really could capture all these conversations and make use of them effectively going forward.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) liked Lease’s idea so much it gave him a $300,000 grant to support his efforts.

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/next-up-for-big-brother-recording-and-transcribing-public-conversations-130305?news=847264

[Vincardog]

1. I have a plan to record and transcribe every thought anyone has anywhere in the world.

"and really try to imagine what this world would look like if we really could capture all these thoughts and make use of them effectively going forward.”

I just need a $10,000,000 grant to get started.

[Bandit]

5. I'll see if I can get you a check off right away

I need to know what I am thinking because I always seem to lose track....

[arcane1]

2. I'm missing the "need and opportunity" here

[magellan]

4. The DoD isn't missing it

The part I missed was when our government decided that emulating police state regimes was the "American way". I only know it goes back many decades to defense hawks in both parties.

[sibelian]

3. "...need and opportunity..."

What?