CCTV: A View on Surveillance From Britain

CCTV: A View on Surveillance From Britain

British citizens may be the most visually surveilled people in the West, with an estimated one camera for every ten people. Critical awareness may slowly be dawning, but will it make any difference?

By Lorenzo Migliorato | January 3, 2018 | Defense, Government, Human Rights, Law, Policing, Privacy, Safety, Security, Society | Authoritarianism, Britain, British Parliament, CCTV, China, Crime, Cybersurveillance, Democracy, England, Facial Recognition, General Data Protection Regulation, Jeremy Bentham, License Plate Readers, London, Orwell, Panopticon, Privacy, Richard Thomas, Security, Slavoj Žižek, surveillance, Surveillance Cameras, Terrorism, The Centre for Information Policy Leadership, UK

US Finally Washes Its Hands of Antibacterial Soap

After years of arguably no benefits and known risks to antibiotic resistance, antibacterial soap is finally pulled from the shelves.

By Lorenzo Migliorato | August 16, 2017 | Economics, Environment, Health, Safety | Antibacterial Soap, Antibiotics, Bateria, Consumer Products, Environment, FDA, Germaphobia, Hand Washing, Hospitals, Johnson & Johnson, Mark Webber, Market Diversification, Pathogens, Stuart Levy, Timothy Burke, Triclosan, Unilever, Wastewater

The Care in Healthcare May Not Be So Easily Automated

Cost pressures are pushing doctors and hospitals to explore automating healthcare in various ways. Results thus far are mixed.

By Lorenzo Migliorato | June 7, 2017 | Automation, Health | Aging, Algorithms, Assistive Technologies, Automation, Care, Data, eConsult, Health 2.0, Healthcare, London, National Health Service, Robots, surveillance

Culturing Boundaries: The Right to be Offline

France recently passed legislation that’s being billed as a “right to be offline.” What’s behind it, and can we learn something from the French conception of work/life boundaries?

By Lorenzo Migliorato | March 22, 2017 | Culture, Employment, Law, Well-Being | Email, France, Free Time, Internet, Kate Carruthers, relationships, Right to be Offline, Thierry de Baillon, Volkswagen, Work-Life Balance, Workplace Culture

Computo Ergo Sum: Should AI Be Self-Aware?

Artificial intelligence is often portrayed in fiction as having consciousness. In reality, making AI self-aware may not be useful. Unfortunately, that doesn’t preclude things from going horribly wrong.

By Lorenzo Migliorato | February 1, 2017 | Artificial Intelligence, Law, Safety | 2001: A Space Odyssey, Accountability, AI, AlphaGo, Asimov's Laws, Autonomy, Consciousness, DeepMind, Dystopia, Eric Schwitzgebel, HAL, Intelligence, Isaac Asimov, Mara Garza, Morality, Nick Bostrom, Robots, Self-Awareness, Stanley Kubrick, Steve Omohundro, Steve Petersen, Virginia Dignum

A&Q: Search’s New World Order

Online search has already been framing the way we look at the world. Now it’s starting to anticipate what we’re looking for.

By Lorenzo Migliorato | December 21, 2016 | Automation, Knowledge, Media, Prediction, Society | Algorithms, Confirmation Bias, Facebook, Fact-Checking, Fake News, Google, Headlines, Holocaust, Polarization, Search Engines, The Guardian