But I want double meat!

July 19, 2004 5:29 PM

Ordering pizza in a surveillance society. [Flash, via Crooked Timber.]
posted by homunculus (19 comments total)

A little over the top for sure, but it is feasible that organisations could gather this data, I guess. Probably the only thing stopping them is the cost of gathering and collating all the information in a central database. One day, though ...
posted by dg at 5:36 PM on July 19, 2004

That's so fake. Nobody uses libraries.
posted by sharksandwich at 6:02 PM on July 19, 2004

By the time anything like this happens, we'll only be 2 or 3 years shy of Armageddon anyway. So what's the worry? Pretty funny though.
posted by Witty at 6:13 PM on July 19, 2004

This is why I pay cash for everything.

And pizza makes you fat. *runs*
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:21 PM on July 19, 2004

But surely putting stuff like this animation out there gives unscrupulous programmers and marketing people the idea to put this kind of thing into motion? A bit like that Skynet programmer guy who had Arnie's arm in Terminator II.
posted by tapeguy at 6:22 PM on July 19, 2004

*Off the grid, accessing MeFi only through open WiFi, cash, camping in the park, living like the proles, without oversight...*

What a fantasy privacy is anymore. "1984" is just, so 1984. The loss of privacy is now a given. Control comes through your peers, not your police state. We are headed not for 1984, but for "The Handmaid's Tale."
posted by caddis at 6:47 PM on July 19, 2004

Ordering pizza in a surveillance society.

At first I thought you were linking to Pizza Monthly Quarterly's PizzaVision page.
posted by gluechunk at 6:54 PM on July 19, 2004

no wonder nobody takes the ACLU seriously.
posted by angry modem at 7:39 PM on July 19, 2004

Geez...in the words of Sergeant Hulka, "Lighten up, Francis!"

Two things:

First, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun, once remarked something to the effect of "You have no privacy - get over it."

Second, the scenario depicted in the ACLU Flash bit just won't happen. I'm sure some privacy-weenies will be scared by it, though.
posted by davidmsc at 8:14 PM on July 19, 2004

"You have zero privacy anyway"
posted by Kwantsar at 8:34 PM on July 19, 2004

"Probably the only thing stopping them is the cost of gathering and collating all the information in a central database." - and that cost is dropping every day.

"First, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun, once remarked something to the effect of "You have no privacy - get over it." - and Scott McNealy is who again ? Privacy or the lack of it is relative.

"I'm sure some privacy-weenies will be scared by it, though. " - Does that mean that your "Sixty seconds of davidmsc's latest bowel movement" video is still cleared to go ? Wonderful. Can Pizza Hut distribute it along with it's food, to opting-in clients ? OK, good !
posted by troutfishing at 9:31 PM on July 19, 2004

---

Now all I need is a pic of the 'deliverator' from Snowcrash.
posted by delmoi at 9:32 PM on July 19, 2004

Official pic of Hiro.
posted by Kwantsar at 12:28 AM on July 20, 2004

Just don't order the Ham and Mushroom Cloud Special
Privacy died a few years ago.
posted by fullerine at 12:52 AM on July 20, 2004

Heh. Would serve you right for ordering a "double meat" anything. *Doesn't Run*
posted by ed\26h at 2:09 AM on July 20, 2004

First, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun, once remarked something to the effect of "You have no privacy - get over it."

Second, the scenario depicted in the ACLU Flash bit just won't happen. I'm sure some privacy-weenies will be scared by it, though.


Hmmm, so you're arguing that Americans have NO privacy BUT the corner Pizza restaurant won't have access to all that information, so it's foolish to worry about it?

Perhaps you should think that through a bit more carefully.
posted by sic at 3:03 AM on July 20, 2004

I'm so glad to know that only weenies worry about privacy. I sure don't wanna be a weenie. I will write my congress critter just to make sure they know I am NOT a weenie! Privacy is a myth! Not mentioned in the constitution!
posted by Goofyy at 4:45 AM on July 20, 2004

sic, davidmsc agrees with F. Scott Fitzgerald that "the true test of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time."
posted by octobersurprise at 7:22 AM on July 20, 2004

No, not quite. Just pointing out the disparity between the two sides. People will always have *some* privacy. People will always decry losing privacy. People can't expect, realistically, to have total privacy. It's a matter of balancing ideals with reality.

And the comment about privacy-weenies was aimed at those who are sure - positive - that the scenario depicted in the ACLU clip is going to happen *tomorrow* - gasp! It won't --- and non-weenies know it.
posted by davidmsc at 6:29 PM on July 20, 2004