Yes. This.<p>As much as I like ranting about the security and surveillance state, the real problem with automation is that even if you somehow implement it perfectly according to our traditional values, it takes all the slack and human judgment out of the middle tiers of the system. You&#x27;ve got just one guy at the top at the steering wheel.<p>We&#x27;re already in a situation where we&#x27;re all guilty of felonies; it&#x27;s simply a matter of whether the executive wants to go to the trouble of enforcing the law or not. Now imagine a scenario where the proof of our guilt was automatically generated. Where we&#x27;re all observed, tried, found guilty -- all without any cost at all.<p>That makes the executive for all intents and purposes a modern day absolute ruler, a king. (I know it&#x27;s popular to accuse the executive of being a king as part of political rhetoric, but I&#x27;m talking about real, objectively-measurable political power.)<p>When I look at the lack of any real third party challenge, the absence of real policy changes no matter who takes control, the regular, almost clockwork change of power at the executive level between parties, and the apathy both parties seem to feel when they lose big at the polls? This may already be reality. It&#x27;s just the common man hasn&#x27;t felt the stick yet.<p>ADD: You want a real nightmare scenario, imagine President Bozohead walking around with a set of VR googles hooked into a national surveillance system. He could walk up to anybody, point at them, and the system would review that person&#x27;s previous decade&#x27;s worth of records. Speeding tickets that were never given. Misstatements on tax forms. When they picked up that rock to take home on their trip to the Grand Canyon. The pond that formed in their backyard due to poor drainage. The time they fudged the truth about whether or not they were camping to that park ranger -- remember, lying to a federal employee is a felony.<p>He could just point at the guy, think the right thought, and the appropriate subpoenas and summonses would be electronically generated, and auto-signed by a judicial official. Or perhaps it&#x27;s all administrative. Hell, they can always pick you up for 24 hours just on good measure -- the automated system can figure out everything you&#x27;ve done while you&#x27;re cooling your heels. With ten years of detailed records, the government can create trouble for you faster than any team of lawyers could hope to defend.<p>Add in a little civil asset forfeiture if you want to complete the picture. Do you really need that house?<p>This puts the president, and his agents, completely outside the law. The <i>only</i> thing preventing abuse in such a scenario is public opinion and the personality of the guy in office. And there are lots of ways to deal with public opinion.<p>Scary stuff.<p>ADD2: Might be a good time for some science fiction writer to re-do Kafka&#x27;s The Trial, this time with the crime hidden by computational complexity. (We could tell you, but there&#x27;s actually 4,749 charges, 117 of which your AI thinks we could get lifted....)