orrible images of the events of 9/11/2001 keep running through our minds, and we wonder how a free society can protect itself from that? It can be done, without losing any of our civil rights. And this same system provides absolutely the only way of catching serial killers and those who successfully hide the body where it is never found. It means converting our financial system to all electronic money. It means issuing an unforgable id to every citizen and every visitor, and tying it to an identification database. In the identification database, fingerprints are stored, and indexed. DNA is stored and indexed. Infrared photographs of the face are stored and indexed. Likewise with irisprints, voiceprints, signatures and visual light photographs. Such things are called "biometrics." There are ways of indexing all these things, so they can be rapidly found in a computer search.
ot an invasion of privacy? How so? Because the databases would be strictly private. Even government officials could not search them. The identification databases would have only one use, and that is to verify that the person presenting a money card is the one who owns it. The card itself would have no picture or other visible information, except for a bar code across one end, and a 5 character sequence of any of the 256 different signs and symbols which may be generated on a computer keyboard. Those 5 symbols allow more than 1 trillion unique combinations, and yet, would be easy to remember. People would mainly identify their own cards by the 5 symbols. The person could not use someone else's card, if it is lost or stolen, unless they can also provide the correct fingerprints, irisprints, infra-red prints, signature, voiceprint and so forth, with a DNA print being the most conclusive. The bar code would be for low tech devices. All other information would be encoded by a secret encryption technique in holographic format. There might be only a very few places where one would have to provide all the proofs of identity, but many places where one would have to provide at least a thumbprint. Surveillance cameras could identify individuals in a crowd by doing an index of the face. An even better identification could be made in the dark, with an infrared image of the face.
uch an unforgable ID card could be used to make secure transations. In other words, you could use it to transfer money or other property. Indeed, it is important that this be the only lawful currency, so that all monetary transactions are made with the card. Thus, every time someone buys something, or uses a telephone, or goes into or out of their home, or their neighborhood, or a place of business, or a mall, or a city, they would leave a trail on the location databases. Walls and checkpoints make it impossible to do otherwise.
ocation databases would be the other half of this system. There would not be one central location database. Rather, every neighborhood or shopping mall would have their own location database, and it would be necessary to organize all commercial and shopping areas into open air malls. Individual stores or firms would have their own checkpoints for going in and out. So we would constantly be leaving tracks on location databases.
ut how can that not be a violation of civil liberties? Because the location databases are private. Not even government officials or the military or the FBI or CIA could look through these databases. They would only be activated when someone was reported missing, or a crime was reported, with suitable margins of error about place and time. All appropriate location databases simultaneously search for the missing person, or victim, as well as all those who could possibly have been at the same place at the same time. It would also track all those could-be-present people backwards and forwards in time. This would always provide a list of suspects for police. Studying the output would also allow police to distinguish a runaway from a victim of foul play in the case of missing persons. It is every American's right to run away, without notice to friends and family, and that right must be respected by the government. On the other hand, if a person's use of their card simply stops at a certain place and time, police must suspect foul play, even if no body is ever found. It is only the location database that can connect a serial killer to his victims, especially if he is good at hiding the bodies. The location database tells us who could have been there then, and the criminalist interview of each suspect tells us who did it. They cannot lie without being detected.
atanic terrorists could be kept out of the country if we were much more strict about who can enter the country, even as a tourist or student, and especially strict about ejecting them when their visa ran out. No one could come into the US without a visa and a money card. A tourist or student would have to get an ID card, with money deposited in an electronic account. They would have to give all the required indices as well as provide a paper trail of where they were born, where they have lived, or worked, or travelled, who can vouch for them, who knows them. All the information collected on them must be checked against police and other records. If they have ever left DNA or a fingerprint at a crime scene, this fact would become known before the money / ID card would be issued. As I write this, a prudent policy might be to deport all non-citizens of Middle-Eastern descent currently in the nation, who have expired visas, and bring the rest in for close questioning.
ow can we put walls around neighborhoods or "malls?" Or to be more precise, how can we guarantee that everyone would have to come in by the checkpoints rather than over the walls? A twenty foot stone wall with smooth surfaces would keep small children from accidentally wandering across. Pressure sensitive tiles on the top and sides could detect ladders. Heat sensitive infrared detectors on top could detect objects which somehow pass over without touching, and surveillance cameras could be rewound to see what it was. Sound detectors in the base of the wall could detect sounds of someone tunneling underneath.
et all these fortress-like innovations would in no way restrict the movement of ordinary citizens. If someone had a protection order against them, they could be kept out of the neighborhoods and "malls" where the victim lives and works. A neigborhood could decide who they wanted to allow in, and who they wanted to keep out. That is every community's right, according to the public/private ideal. Vagrants who refused half-way houses or shelters might be excluded from a metroplex, and so might all those convicted of felonies for violence. Naturally, the same rules apply to border crossings. So we might build a second border, away and out of sight of the actual border with Mexico, a border with all the protections of the wall described above.
anada's long border presents a different problem, in more than one way. The simplest solution would be to persuade Canada to convert to the same electronic money as the US, as well as creating the location databases, and creating walls and checkpoints too. There would then be just one currency throughout the US and Canada. Perhaps someday we could make the same arrangement with Mexico.
o new principles or ideals have been introduced in this chapter. The ideals of justice and self-preservation govern these attempts to catch criminals and terrorists. Now we can turn to the application of other ideals.
Copyright © Dr.H 2003
Home