In a world where paranoia It seems like the norm now, it was to be expected that someone would invent PaintCam Eve: a security camera equipped with artificial intelligence, facial recognition and (heard) the ability to fire paint or tear gas at “suspects”. A system that seems to have come out of a dystopian nightmare, but for some strange reason there are those who consider it a brilliant innovation. Have we really reached this point?
More than a security camera: a trigger-happy high-tech guardian
Let's start with the "merits", if you can call them that. PaintCam Eve it is undoubtedly a concentration of technology: thanks to AI and facial recognition, it is able to identify unwanted visitors, day and night. So far, nothing new: it's not the first security camera capable of doing the same. But this is where PaintCam Eve stands out, in a disturbing way to say the least: once the "suspect" has been identified, this angry camera orders him to leave and, if he does not obey within a certain period of time, opens fire with paint bullets to "mark" him in view of a possible police intervention.
As if that wasn't enough, for the more demanding (or paranoid) there is also the option of using tear gas projectiles. In short, a sort of robotic policeman always on duty at the doorstep, ready to enforce the law with paintballs and tear gas. How about? Quite a step forward in the steady erosion of privacy and civility, isn't it?
When justice becomes on demand
Beyond the ethical implications of a system that effectively authorizes anyone to take justice into their own hands, there are also very concrete issues to consider. For example: what happens if PaintCam Eve identifies the postman, a neighbor or the grandchild who came to visit you as "suspicious"? Are you ready to compensate them for the damage caused by a hail of pepper bullets? What if an attacker decides to hack your security camera, turning your porch into a target shooting range? Scenarios that are anything but unlikely, given the fragility of cybersecurity.
Not to mention the potential dystopian tendencies of such a system: Brooker, do an episode of Black Mirror in which every house is equipped with a PaintCam Eve, transforming our cities into hi-tech fortresses where every movement is monitored and every "deviation ” punished without trial. Coffee paid for the idea.
A security camera, or an insecurity one?
There is a fundamental question we should ask ourselves: are we really willing to give up every shred of privacy and humanity in the name of presumed total security? Because this is the message that seems to get across with products like this security camera (so to speak). The message is that it is right and normal to treat anyone who approaches our property as a potential criminal, to be repelled by force if necessary. If you are interested, Paintcam has started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, which will start on April 23rd.
It is a dangerous message, which fuels the culture of fear and mutual distrust, eroding the social fabric. Of course, we all have the right to feel safe in our home, but at what cost? That of living in a world where every interaction is a potential threat, every stranger an enemy to be defeated? Stuff that Clint Eastwood in "Gran Torino" is Nonno Ciccio.
A necessary reflection
Let's be clear, I don't want to demonize the technology itself. The vision of this site, you know, is prototypical. We don't support technology regardless, and we don't consider it the devil. Security cameras, if used wisely and with respect for the privacy of others, can be a useful tool for preventing crimes. But there is a limit to everything, and PaintCam Eve has far exceeded it for me.
More than a step forward in home security, this shooting security camera seems like a worrying symptom of the paranoia and exasperated individualism that pervades our society. A “democratic” society that teaches children How to act in the event of a school shooting (any reference to real countries is purely intentional). An invitation to close ourselves more and more in our little private fort, distrusting anyone who approaches and delegating the decision on who is trustworthy and who is not to an algorithm.
Perhaps, before rushing to arm ourselves with paint-shooting cameras, we should stop and reflect for a moment. On the society we are building, on the values we want to defend, on the kind of world we want to live in. A world made of open and dialogue communities, where security arises from mutual trust and solidarity. Or a world of individuals barricaded behind armored doors and armed cameras, ready to wage war on each other at the first sign of a "threat"?
The choice, as always, is ours. But one thing is certain: products like this security camera, however "brilliant" or "innovative" they may seem (with two pairs of quotation marks as high as a mountain) represent a dangerous drift that we would do well to avoid. Because a society that shoots at its own members is not a safer society. It is a society that has lost its compass, and perhaps even its soul.
