People can sense the system is rigged against them. They may blame different parties, policies, races, etc. But there is a lot of anger in the air. The US is quickly becoming a polarized powder keg more so than I can remember at any time in my life.

Flock cameras and AI are seen as tools of those whom they blame (rightfully so). It’s a rare physical manifestation of this rigged system that is pointed directly at you as you go about your life.

If we as a society were really against surveillance there would be a huge movement against Ring doorbells, microphones in TVs, our phones recording us, etc. But those devices are mundane and we interact with them. Which puts people at ease and placates the majority of people.

Flock has none of that, it’s a symbol of oppression from a system that wants to control us.

All of that is already in play and more.

They know your income, spending habits, outstanding credit balances, browsing history, etc. They know if you are employed, had a child, had a divorce or death in the family. They know your health and how active you are.

With all that data, AI knows what you are willing to spend on an item or service.

There are HR services that use AI to look at all of this meta data to determine how desperate you are for a job and how low they can offer a salary/wage.

You’re the product.

I like my thirst traps old fashioned. Give me a Hooters or seedy strip joint any day.

I think I read somewhere that about 20% of the population spends money foolishly. Constantly buying premium cars, electronics,fashion, food, boats, etc. etc. while racking up debt to a point that they aren’t saving any money and live month to month.

If it wasn’t for that 20% out economy go into recession and millions would be out of work. Products the rest of us use would likely increase in cost as manufacturing would need to make the revenue somewhere.

If someone wants to spend their money on stupid shit let them. It keeps others employed.

This above all things. The number of inputs required to build a microchips is insane. There are probably 2 to 3 thousand separate vendors who are part of this process all of which produce highly specialized products. Not to mention the fact that all silicon used to produce chips is currently mined in a single quarry in South Carolina.

China might be able to make a fab, but the inputs required to make chips are too diverse for any single nation to build 3 or 4 nm chips at scale by themselves.