Been a little busy last two days.

As I type this, I am staring into Siri’s eyes. Or eye. I wouldn’t have given that a thought, if not for the story circulating today that the Chinese Government is using facial recognition technology to troll for fugitives at pop concerts.

20,000 people went to see a Jacky Cheung concert in China, at the Jiaxing Sports Centre Stadium in Zhejiang. He’s a big star. Been called the Chinese Michael Jackson. I guess that’s a compliment maybe.

Everyone who entered the venue was scanned by facial recognition cameras. Guy named “Yu” was wanted on charges of stealing potatoes 3 years ago. A lot of potatoes. They cuffed him, and he’s the third fugitive nabbed at a Jackie Cheung concert.

That’s a cute story.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine posted an old photo on Facebook. It was a softball team he played with, 30 years ago. He playfully asked, “Can you find me?” It’s fun to see how much or how little we’ve changed over the years. I spent a few minutes studying all eleven players, looking for someone whose face looked like a 30 years younger version of my buddy.

I was stumped.

Then I noticed the little tag in the upper right-hand corner of the page. I selected it, and bingo. 10 out of the eleven were identified by Facebook. And no, I never would have guessed. The eleventh guy was probably either dead or a digital recluse.

I have a few friends who refuse to participate, worried about being vulnerable to “Digital Big Brother.”

Social Networks don’t just know your face. They know the history of your face. My granddaughter is almost 4. Facebook knows her face from birth. And there’s a lot about this that’s cool. We’re social creatures. We take a zillion pictures. We text a lot. It’s fun to reminisce. Nostalgia will always do big business.

In the future, historians will have a treasure trove of data.

As you go through your minutes, hours, the months, and years of your days, you are leaving a digital fingerprint on nearly everything you do. Imagine how fun it would be to study George Washington’s Instagram? Elvis Presley’s email?

Back to crime solving. Who doesn’t want law enforcement to catch the bad guys?

It’s all good right?

Up to a point.

As long as you never make a mistake or break any laws. Or do anything stupid. In other words, as long as you are perfect. Because this information will be collected and sorted by computers, no violation will be too small to be prosecuted.

Many of us use toll roads and have the EZ Pass, that allows your car to be charged automatically when you drive a pay highway. That’s convenient.

Let’s say you drive 10 mph over the speed limit. Your connected car automatically reports you to law enforcement and the speeding ticket is charged to your account. Oh sure, you could opt out, but your insurance rates would go up.

It’s not far-fetched. This is how society operates. We pay a penalty for mistakes. Fines.

Maybe none of this will matter when cars are self-driving, and we live in a cashless society. Everything will be accounted for. Every minute, every transaction, every communication recorded. And in theory, it will be almost impossible for anyone to commit crimes. They will simply be nabbed by a grid of information kiosks, all tied together to keep us safe.

That sounds pretty utopian.

Until you factor in human nature. We’re a tribal species. It seems to me that mankind is not very self-aware. Because we are at the top of the food chain and have cool toys and inventions, we tend to forget that we are also animals. Why is it that each generation has to start from scratch and be potty trained?

It’s cute now, this new technology. But it has the potential to enslave us.

I’ll try to be more cheerful tomorrow. 🙂

And deepest gratitude for everyone who has served their country on this Memorial Day Weekend.