We wouldn't want to confuse the computers
The computers behind the emerging US surveillance state apparently don’t deal well with happy people, according to an article for RT America. Those cameras that are now on nearly every US red-light and building (and coming soon to school bathrooms and lockers), watching your every move in the ‘land of the free’ are better able to identify you if you are not smiling.
Tyranny is not a laughing matter
When the friendly photographers at your local DMV office ask you to look at the camera next time you pose for a Garden State-sanctioned license, don’t be surprised if they ask you to put away your pearly whites. New Jersey no longer allows residents to smile widely on state driver’s licenses, and it isn’t because being blissful is against the law. The state says that their database of drivers becomes hard to manage when images start to include more and more grins and smirks, so banning smiles will streamline their process of being able to positively identify someone by simply sending a photo of their face back to the government’s computers.
…Smiling widely or making other exaggerated facial expressions, DiFilippo writes, might confuse the computer.
…Earlier this month, RT reported on the FBI’s ramped up efforts to implement a vast state-of-the-art face recognition project across the entire country, a system that has so far cost the Federal Bureau of Investigation at least $1 billion and has involved no fewer than seven years’ worth of development. Defense contractors Lockheed Martin were awarded the contract in 2008 and with that were tasked with creating the Next Generation Identification (NGI) program, an intelligence infrastructure that the FBI insisted must be able to identify subjects in public databases, conduct automated surveillance and track personal movement from place-to-place.
(Laughter)
If things continue along the same vein as they have, I think this look will be the “new norm” in the 22nd century.
If mankind makes it that far…..