You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Privacy vs Justice

Copernicus February 05, 2026 at 18:47 400 views 10 comments
Imagine if our every move was monitored and recorded with pinpoint accuracy with the latest tech in 2060. Every criminal act would be caught in 4K. People would have zero privacy and full and swift justice.

Would you allow it to champion justice, or would you choose privacy instead?

(Imagine if Epstein Island had 4K cctv footage from 500 angles)

Comments (10)

kindred February 05, 2026 at 18:53 #1039120
I think the right to private life is a basic human right which should not be denied. It’s probably not too improbable to have devices in the future where we can see read each others minds and thoughts.

I would opt for privacy at the risk of injustice because sometimes good or neutral deeds can be open to misinterpretation. Although transparency is trust as well because if all intention could be inferred from the beginning crime rates would dramatically drop.
T_Clark February 05, 2026 at 20:06 #1039138
So, 8 billion people x 24 hours x 500 angles. How does the video get processed? Where does it get stored? Who decides what is criminal and what isn’t? Who judges whether a particular behavior constitutes a crime?
Tom Storm February 05, 2026 at 21:27 #1039171
Quoting T Clark
So, 8 billion people x 24 hours x 500 angles. How does the video get processed? Where does it get stored? Who decides what is criminal and what isn’t? Who judges whether a particular behavior constitutes a crime?


I imagine AI woudl be able to do it based on parameters set up by some committee /government

Reply to Copernicus Too many quesions inherent in this small sketch. I'm not all that interested in privacy or freedom as a themes so these sorts of scenarios don't set me off the way they do libertarian types.

What does:

Quoting Copernicus
People would have zero privacy and full and swift justice


mean?

If you are talking about a dystopia with instant death sentences, then perhaps not, hey?

Copernicus February 06, 2026 at 04:53 #1039245
Reply to Tom Storm i mean every act of crime is on live feed, no need for trial to prove it.
Copernicus February 06, 2026 at 04:54 #1039246
Tom Storm February 06, 2026 at 05:40 #1039249
Reply to Copernicus Cool. There should still be a process. At least I would like one. There are still situations and facts behind any action that would not be gleaned from a video alone: history, situation, etc. if you’re saying that an AI can oversee all this with no mistakes and based on human values then I might be skeptical.
Tzeentch February 06, 2026 at 06:15 #1039251
No, it'd be awful for a very simple reason:

States can be and often are wrong. This type of surveillance would give states an enormous amount of power to enforce their preferred flavor of wrong.
Tom Storm February 06, 2026 at 06:21 #1039252
Reply to Tzeentch Yes and this too. :up:
LuckyR February 06, 2026 at 07:02 #1039256
Reply to Copernicus
At first glance, since the vast majority of folks are not Professional criminals, it might seem like a win, since: "it won't impact me". But 24/7 means, adultery would be found out immediately, no tax cheating, no speeding, no parking 10 minutes beyond what you paid for, no badmouthing your boss behind his back, etc. Everyone is subject to that sort of thing, perhaps many times a day, every day. I'll pass.
Copernicus February 06, 2026 at 08:45 #1039265
Reply to LuckyR sounds like a win. forced holiness.