Surveillant anxiety is always a conjoined twin: The anxiety of those surveilled is deeply connected to the anxiety of the surveillers. But the anxiety of the surveillers is generally hard to see; it's hidden in classified documents and delivered in highly coded languages in front of Senate committees.
Interpretation
The anxiety experienced by both the surveilled and the surveillers is interconnected, yet often obscured.
This quote by Kate Crawford highlights the dual nature of anxiety in surveillance contexts, suggesting that those being watched experience a palpable anxiety, while those doing the surveilling harbor their own anxiety, which remains largely invisible to the public. The hidden nature of the surveillers’ anxiety, shrouded in complexity and secrecy, calls attention to the broader implications of surveillance on society and individual psychology, indicating that both parties are affected by this dynamic in profound ways.
In practice
In a discussion about the implications of government surveillance on citizens' behavior.
If you're not thinking about the way systemic bias can be propagated through the criminal justice system or predictive policing, then it's very likely that, if you're designing a system based on historical data, you're going to be perpetuating those biases.
We need to be vigilant about how we design and train these machine-learning systems, or we will see ingrained forms of bias built into the artificial intelligence of the future.
As we move into an era in which personal devices are seen as proxies for public needs, we run the risk that already-existing inequities will be further entrenched. Thus, with every big data set, we need to ask which people are excluded. Which places are less visible? What happens if you live in the shadow of big data sets?
Only by developing a deeper understanding of AI systems as they act in the world can we ensure that this new infrastructure never turns toxic.
It is a failure of imagination and methodology to claim that it is necessary to experiment on millions of people without their consent in order to produce good data science.
The fear isn't that big data discriminates. We already know that it does. It's that you don't know if you've been discriminated against.
Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason.
What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?
The unyielding army will not win.
Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
Every vice has its excuse ready.
And so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.
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