Big Brother isn't the only one watching.

You hear all these stories today about people using technology for the wrong reasons, or using technology for "evil".  For instance, the other day, I don't know how true this is, but I heard about a sort of famous man down in New Orleans got shot on the sidewalk outside a restaurant, and all of the people around him started taking pictures and videos with their cell phones instead of using them to dial 9-1-1.  The man died of blood loss, something that could have been stopped had someone summoned help even just minutes before.

Now, I am in no way endorsing or justifying what those people did by letting that man lay on the ground and die, but there is something to the idea that had the man lived, he would have been able to later view himself knocking on the door of Death's penthouse and bleeding from a gunshot wound.

Just the other night, I was out with a few friends of mine, and one of the girls just got completely, blind drunk.  She went off to the restroom, and after she didn't return for some time, a couple of us followed to check on her.  We found the girl face down in her own vomit.  It was terrifying.  Taking a photo was probably about the last thing on my list of things to do in such a situation, but now I wonder if it might have been a good idea.  My friend probably won't remember that night very well, and she certainly has no idea how she looked, but what if she could see herself as we saw her, lying there on the bathroom tile?  I have no doubt that it would change the way she felt about that night.

We all sometimes wonder how we appear to someone other than ourselves, and the results are often surprising.  Think of the first time you heard a recording of your voice - you probably thought the same thing that everyone else thinks when they hear themselves: "Goodness, do I really sound like that?"  Now multiply that reaction by every time you use your voice - what if we could hear everything we say as an outsider hears it?  And think about pictures and videos you see of yourself, which often produce the same reaction.  What if we could see ourselves all the time?  That would probably beg the question, would we still be ourselves if we are able to accurately apply the gaze of the other?  Hm.  Philosophy.  Maybe I'll try to answer this question later.

I realized about midway through writing this that it makes a strong case for both a revival of the television show Candid Camera, and increased government funding for surveillance on civilians.  I prefer to think that you will lean toward the less sinister side of the spectrum, whichever one you believe that is.