coming for us while we sleep

December 23, 2002 10:38 AM

Apparently "Total Information Awareness" doesn't extend to the TIA project's own website.
posted by artifex (13 comments total)

They find out that people don't like some things about the website, so they take those parts down. They're probably revising them and will put up new ones.

This isn't a conspiracy, they're just responding to constructive criticism.
posted by Erasmus at 11:08 AM on December 23, 2002

erasmus - you mean, people don't like that the project is run by a convicted felon ... so they take his bio down? that's their response?
posted by donkeyschlong at 11:30 AM on December 23, 2002

This isn't a conspiracy, they're just responding to constructive criticism.

I can just see that meeting...

"Yeah, our numbers are telling us that people really don't respond well to being spied on 24 hours a day. They really don't like our logo with the 'all-seeing eye', it tends to be a little off-putting to be reminded that they're just powerless cogs in our information machine, access to which is restricted to an elite few. So if we could just scrap that logo and the motto, and take down a few of the scarier bits of information (while leave the entire underlying structure unchanged, of course) we really think people will start to get behind it."
posted by RylandDotNet at 11:33 AM on December 23, 2002

... so they take his bio down? that's their response?

Wouldn't be the first time for this administration.

Winston Smith would be so proud.
posted by briank at 12:04 PM on December 23, 2002

This is verrrrrry reminiscent of that "disinformation" office that doesn't *cough* exist anymore.
posted by soyjoy at 12:33 PM on December 23, 2002

A spokeswoman for the Information Awareness Office, which runs the TIA project at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said she had no details on the deletions.

Apparently those details have disappeared as well. Hurrumph.
posted by Dick Paris at 12:55 PM on December 23, 2002

The people don't care, artifex. A whopping 7 replies. Halleleujah! Poindexter is King! Yes I fret.
posted by Zoyd Wheeler at 9:51 PM on December 23, 2002

The people don't care, artifex. A whopping 7 replies.

It's the night before Christmas Eve. There's also no one online on my buddy list. People are busy.

All this TIA stuff has me wondering what the latest conspiracy theories are on the whole Illuminati thing. Sometimes I think there might be something to it.
posted by endquote at 11:08 PM on December 23, 2002

we're ALL suspects now...especially people on this post...live it up, boys and girls, before that knock on the door in the middle of the night, and then the rat-cage..."WHAT did I say? Come on now - we all say things we don't really mean...it was late at night, and there was that extra cheese and anchovy pizza for dinner...."
posted by troutfishing at 11:51 PM on December 23, 2002

Endquote - a friend of mine, of professional historian, said this about my rehashing to him of the "Bush family made their fortune funding the rise of fascism in Germany" (along with Henry Ford and many, many others) historical summary: "well, I know this story...it's true as far as I know, but you know this may just be what human beings do. It's not so much about conspiracies (though they definitely exist). It's about the fact that many humans, not even a majority, will take advantage wherever they can. We've been doing this as long as we've existed as a species."

I was both comforted and disturbed by this obvious, but profound, observation...
posted by troutfishing at 12:02 AM on December 24, 2002

All this TIA stuff has me wondering what the latest conspiracy theories are on the whole Illuminati thing.

Illuminati angle RE: TIA

BOO
posted by Zoyd Wheeler at 12:12 AM on December 24, 2002

Oh man, this TIA, what's next, telescreens in everyone's house? This is very sinister. OIA=Minitruth, no?
also, why the hell does the mefi title bar change when I am in a thread? Look, now it says "coming for us while we sleep".
posted by ac at 7:16 AM on December 24, 2002

Ac - "telescreens in every house": you don't KNOW, do you...they're watching us already. They have ways....*looks over shoulder, out window, suspiciously at a small bug crawling on the floor*...or, at any rate, they will soon. Cameras on radio controlled cockroaches, for example. (People are really working on this! - with some success): the new terahertz scanner can actually peek through walls and clothes!: Your computer activity, and screen, can be read at a distance: NASA had even considered an airport brain scanner to detect terrorists (they can pick up the brain waves, but they don't yet know which brainwave signature patterns - if any - are common to terrorist with muderous intent). I could go on and on.

Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho, bwah ha ha ha!

Re: Title bar. You can choose to title your Mefi post: this choice pops up on the title bar of the thread.

"Minitruth" - I LIKE it!!
posted by troutfishing at 7:33 AM on December 24, 2002