"Phones, Drones & Self-Driving Automobiles": Pervasive Technology And The Rise Of The 'Surveillance State'

[Paul Mobbs]

    --++ please forward! ++--

The Free Range "Weapons of Mass Surveillance" Tour, March 2013
Organised by The Green House and the Free Range Network


"PHONES, DRONES & SELF-DRIVING AUTOMOBILES":
PERVASIVE TECHNOLOGY AND THE RISE OF THE 'SURVEILLANCE STATE'

http://www.fraw.org.uk/fwd?pervasive

Programme:
SWANSEA -- Friday 14th March 2014
BRECON -- Monday 17th March 2014
LLANDEILO -- Wednesday 19th March 2014
(all 7.15pm for 7.30pm start, full venue details below)


The 'pervasive technology' workshop is a new event created by
environmental consultant and campaigner, Paul Mobbs -- supported by the
Llandeilo-based environmental fundraising shop, The Green House.

The event doesn't simply look at the mean and nasty hardware of military
drones, as so many other review have done. Instead we try and look at
the issue of "why?"; what policy/political and industrial agenda are
driving this process. This workshop looks at official policy documents
from the USA and Europe over more than fifteen years. These show how
certain agencies have incrementally created the structures whereby mass
state surveillance has been enabled -- largely with the unwitting or
uninformed consent of those who are the subject of it.

States are collecting large amounts of data on our communications and
financial transactions, where mobile phones are located, and even the
progress of car number plates down major roads. The military are
experiencing a major shift in technology as "unmanned" surveillance and
weapons systems take over security tasks (and those systems will be
tested in Wales). In the civil sector, self-driving cars and
self-service shops are projected to take over the High Street in the
next decade. These are not unrelated trends!

It would be easy to dismiss such visions as techno-fanaticism by certain
technology corporations, politicians and the military. But it is
representative of a much greater strategic/philosophical view of the
modern world... one in which "the public" are more mistrusted by their
governing state, and where the no/slow growth created by ecological
limits challenges the validity of conventional politics and economics.
Understanding that world-view is the key to understanding the logic
behind both military drones and the rise of the mass state surveillance.

This presentation will look at the recent revelations about mass
surveillance, state meddling in communications technologies and consumer
gadgets, and the issues surrounding the use of drones. More importantly
it will look at where these trends are taking us next, particularly in
relation to employment and inequality; and ask whether this is really
the future world that we want to create -- or that technology promised
us!


For more information see the information page for the tour at -- 
http://www.fraw.org.uk/fwd?pervasive

This page contains links to both the official policy reports referred to
in the presentation, as well as a selection of informative/education
videos to extend your knowledge of these issues.



DATES FOR THE TOUR

SWANSEA
7.15pm for 7.30pm start, Friday 14th March 2014
Swansea Environment Centre, Pier Street, Swansea SA1 1RY
Map - http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=266048&Y=192838&A=Y&Z=106

BRECON
7.15pm for 7.30pm start, Monday 17th March 2014
Crug Room, Castle Hotel, Castle Square, Brecon, Powys, LD3 9DB
Map - http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=304285&Y=228730&A=Y&Z=106

LLANDEILO
7.15pm for 7.30pm start, Wednesday 19th March 2014
The Function Room, 62 Rhosmaen St, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire SA19 6EN
Map -
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=262953&Y=222401&A=Y&Z=106&ax=262953&ay=222401



For further details contact:
# Tim Shaw, 01558 685353; or 
# email Paul Mobbs, mei at fraw.org.uk




-- 

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are
for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with
God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864
email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/index.shtml
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/mobbsey_public_key-2013-2.asc