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I live in a smart city, can I be concerned yet?

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Really? You were offended by commercials? What about the advertising signs on top of the pump? Are you offended by those as well? What about television commercials? You know you can turn your back and not look at them, right?

Or one could always just go to a different gas station which doesn't have that. On the other hand, if they were offering a significant price break in exchange for watching commercials while pumping gas, then it might be worth it.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
No. It is advertising made far more intrusive by means of moving images designed to catch the eye (we all know how annoying moving sidebar ads are on a web page - you can't stop your eye being drawn to them. This is biology: the eye and brain are wired to focus on motion, as a basic safety feature.).

They may also have sound, which you can't escape even by turning your back. It is the muscled intrusion into your private world that makes them so offensive.
I get where you are coming from... but my standard M.O. is to turn the pump on auto and sit back in my car. Regardless... I ignore the ads entirely on principle, even if I stay out of my car during the duration of pumping for whatever reason. If everyone were like this, I can tell you easily that those companies who installed the TV screens in gas pumps would have done just as well to flush the money it cost down the toilet. Point being, we have a choice - and the choice is to let those companies waste their money by having their advertising pump TVs provide them absolute zero return. Obviously there is someone "running the numbers," and the only way to send the message is to make sure "the numbers" turn out to be crap.
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Now, I’m naturally a paranoid guy, but this whole thing really freaks me out. Am I right to be concerned/weirded out? Like, nobody in my city cares that we are under literal 24/7 surveillance like China. Literally. Nobody cares.
When will this stop? When people start caring.
Vent over, thanks.

It's not a huge surprise to me. Many intrusive policies were implemented and justified by the "war on drugs," which many people supported and continue to support to this day. People who support such measures would probably say that they do care, although I never agreed with the "war on drugs" mentality anyway.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Really? You were offended by commercials? What about the advertising signs on top of the pump? Are you offended by those as well? What about television commercials? You know you can turn your back and not look at them, right?

It's just technology.

I'm offended by how loud those commercials are. I'm just trying to fill my car with gas and these things are *yelling* at me about stuff I don't care about.

It is one of the things that will make me choose a different station the next time.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
I get where you are coming from... but my standard M.O. is to turn the pump on auto and sit back in my car. Regardless... I ignore the ads entirely on principle, even if I stay out of my car during the duration of pumping for whatever reason. If everyone were like this, I can tell you easily that those companies who installed the TV screens in gas pumps would have done just as well to flush the money it cost down the toilet. Point being, we have a choice - and the choice is to let those companies waste their money by having their advertising pump TVs provide them absolute zero return. Obviously there is someone "running the numbers," and the only way to send the message is to make sure "the numbers" turn out to be crap.
Yes, I find ads annoying. I always turn off the sound and read the paper when they come up on Youpube. As we don't have TVs on fuel pumps here in Britain, it's not an issue there. Yet. But it gets harder to ignore ads. In the London Underground we are now starting to get moving ads, which play on the wall opposite the platform. Again it is the movement that makes them so intrusive, elbowing their way into one's consciousness without permission. If you haven't brought a newspaper to read, it's damned difficult to ignore them - though those people obsessed with their smartphones can keep their eyes down, I guess.

Advertisers know perfectly well the biological programming of the brain to pick out motion, which is why they so often make them move on internet screens. I think exploiting this is a filthy trick.
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
I can mute the TV commercial.

I was at one gas station which had commercials, but fortunately, there was a mute button on it.

And at least TV commercials are paying for the program I'm watching. If and when they want to pay for my gas, I'd happily sit through their commercials.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
I was at one gas station which had commercials, but fortunately, there was a mute button on it.

I've yet to see one at a gas station with a mute button. maybe it is well hidden?

And at least TV commercials are paying for the program I'm watching. If and when they want to pay for my gas, I'd happily sit through their commercials.

I might still go elsewhere just for piece of mind.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
My city is the first smart city in the US. Without naming my location specifically, what this means is that the city is under complete audio and video surveillance. This is no conspiracy, they added the microphones and cameras to all the light poles a couple years ago, and the city government website has a handy webpage on our smart city status, proudly claiming that we are the first “full smart city”. Obviously, someone is watching and listening, they wouldn’t install millions of dollars of equipment and simply not use it.
Point is, all of my lightpoles now listen to me. Now, I’m naturally a paranoid guy, but this whole thing really freaks me out. Am I right to be concerned/weirded out? Like, nobody in my city cares that we are under literal 24/7 surveillance like China. Literally. Nobody cares.
When will this stop? When people start caring.
Vent over, thanks.
Sounds like there might be something wrong with unfettered capitalism.
 

Hermit Philosopher

Selflessly here for you
My city is the first smart city in the US. Without naming my location specifically, what this means is that the city is under complete audio and video surveillance. This is no conspiracy, they added the microphones and cameras to all the light poles a couple years ago, and the city government website has a handy webpage on our smart city status, proudly claiming that we are the first “full smart city”. Obviously, someone is watching and listening, they wouldn’t install millions of dollars of equipment and simply not use it.
Point is, all of my lightpoles now listen to me. Now, I’m naturally a paranoid guy, but this whole thing really freaks me out. Am I right to be concerned/weirded out? Like, nobody in my city cares that we are under literal 24/7 surveillance like China. Literally. Nobody cares.
When will this stop? When people start caring.
Vent over, thanks.


This sounds awful, my friend. If I were you, I’d move as far away from wherever this is as I possibly could.

Humbly
Hermit
 

an anarchist

Your local anarchist.
Sounds like there might be something wrong with unfettered capitalism.
I would disagree that this is unfettered capitalism as it is the state which creates the market for smart cities. It is the state that is the customers for this technology.
 

an anarchist

Your local anarchist.
This sounds awful, my friend. If I were you, I’d move as far away from wherever this is as I possibly could.

Humbly
Hermit
I’ll be living in the hills one day... as long as I haven’t been domesticated enough. who knows, it may be too late for me already! Before we know it, I bet all of US cities will have smart city technology.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
I would disagree that this is unfettered capitalism as it is the state which creates the market for smart cities. It is the state that is the customers for this technology.
If it is the state who creates markets, then that doesn't spell a lot of hope for anarcho-capitalism does it.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
I'm not much concerned about public surveillance. Such human interaction will be safer for it in most instances. But I do worry about the acceptance of it 'creeping' into more and more corners of our lives. Employers using surveillance to "ensure and increase productivity", or landlords using it to spy on tenants, and advertisers using it in every and any way possible to force their lies into our brains.

**Mod Edit**
 
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Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
My city is the first smart city in the US. Without naming my location specifically, what this means is that the city is under complete audio and video surveillance. This is no conspiracy, they added the microphones and cameras to all the light poles a couple years ago, and the city government website has a handy webpage on our smart city status, proudly claiming that we are the first “full smart city”. Obviously, someone is watching and listening, they wouldn’t install millions of dollars of equipment and simply not use it.
Point is, all of my lightpoles now listen to me. Now, I’m naturally a paranoid guy, but this whole thing really freaks me out. Am I right to be concerned/weirded out? Like, nobody in my city cares that we are under literal 24/7 surveillance like China. Literally. Nobody cares.
When will this stop? When people start caring.
Vent over, thanks.
The people's Republic of New York is like that.

Maybe not everywhere yet, but you can see the writing on the wall.

More and more moves are being taken now that emulates Communist China's surveillance and control methodology every passing day.

Scary part is you can now see it clearly in infrastructure and policy. They don't try to hide it anymore.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Yes. But do you want TV commercials to start following you around when you are not in front of your TV?
That's a big part of my argument.


Imagine someone following you closely each and every day peering over your shoulder and thing you what you can and cannot do and won't leave you alone for any reason.

Eventually the feeling arises to a point where you want to literally punch that person's lights out.
 

JustGeorge

Not As Much Fun As I Look
Staff member
Premium Member
I don't use it as I found it a bit inconvenient and I'm not great with computers, but I have heard that ToR is very good at anonymising your browsing history online.

Luckily, my browsing history is intensely boring... "George checked her email, and visited Religious Forums today..."

So they did it in the end. :(

When I was working for Shell in Houston, at the end of the 90s, I recall a group from Las Vegas made a pitch to us about TV advertising on the pumps. I vividly remember them saying the great thing was the customers had no choice but to watch, since they were holding the nozzle to fill up the tank. I was appalled. After the meeting I drew my colleagues' attention to the retail brand image they were trying to cultivate, which was "quick and hassle-free", pointing out that such a thing would be the absolute epitome of hassle! I also discovered that, in one trial in California, carried out by a competitor, people had got so annoyed they started vandalising the screens! In the end I persuaded my boss to send these guys packing, with a firm "No thanks." But that was over 20 years ago.

Thankfully, ours are equipped with mute buttons. I utilize that, and turn my head.

As I see it, if you're doing nothing wrong and have nothing to hide, why be concerned?

Clothing malfunctions, of course.

I feel treating people as they're guilty all the time leads to guilty consciousness. It did for me, anyways. Because I looked so fun, security guards used to follow me around when I was shopping. I've never stolen a thing in my life, but I found myself always feeling like I did. Hell, I even checked my own clothes once or twice, just to make sure I didn't. I fear by always watching people as if they're doing something wrong may lead to people fearing they're doing something wrong, and that's not a healthy mindset to live with.

I've yet to see one at a gas station with a mute button. maybe it is well hidden?

We have Kwik Stars here, and they mask the mute button with another 'all purpose' button on the side of the screen... you kind of have to look for it.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
That's a big part of my argument.

Imagine someone following you closely each and every day peering over your shoulder and thing you what you can and cannot do and won't leave you alone for any reason.

Eventually the feeling arises to a point where you want to literally punch that person's lights out.
The thing is NO ONE wants to follow you around all day because NO ONE cares what you do. Honestly, NO ONE cares.

Be honest; what really irks you is the idea of being held responsible and accountable to the rest of humanity.
 
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