Japan explores using cell phones to stop pandemics

Japan explores using cell phones to stop pandemics

www.google.com

A few months from now, a highly contagious disease will spread through a Japanese elementary school. The epidemic will start with several unwitting children, who will infect others as they attend classes and wander the halls.
If nothing is done, it will quickly gain momentum and rip through the student body, then jump to parents and others in the community. But officials will attempt to stymie the disease and save the school — using mobile phones.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This story, because of its nature, could reside in the technology, pandemics, and/or the conspiracies forum. However as this broke over AP news just a few hours ago I thought I would split the difference and place it in the BAN forum.

This is all about tracking children, and eventually the general population via GPS.

Many think that this is already happening covertly, however what could be a better premise for a government to condition its people to being GPS tracked, than under the guise of pandemic prevention.

The thinking:



Of course the above may be true but it doesn't help explain how this program would work beyond experimental stage.

For a program such as this to work the vast majority of the population would have to either voluntarily or forcibly participate.

We are told:



So what happens if only let's say 10% of the population signs up?

The program becomes effectively unworkable, but what the government is left with is 10% percent of the population willingly conceding to be tracked at all times for whatever declared or undeclared intentions the government has.



You think?

At worse this kind of project is borne out of the thoughts of a cloistered mathematician/statistician, at worse, well, you know ...

www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, statistically this is the most effective way to approach any epidemic - most mathematicians I know tend to view society in terms of effectiveness, and maybe this holds for statisticians too. I can't help but identify myself with this kind of thought - I know it's implications can be too totalitarian to tolerate, though tantalizing the thought remains of having absolute control over the spread of a disease. (Yeah, I just had to mess up the grammar to get those t's aligned ;D)

As long as they keep it based on voluntary subscriptions, I'm actually pretty ok with it, I guess..

This is how they sneak these things on us, use a disease, throw children in the mix and people won't think twice. That is why i never would get a car with OnStar, forget that, i'll take my chances. Of course, if they really wanted to be able to track us, who's to say they haven't already done so?

Thanks for posting this. I was thinking about all the things one could use a Pandemic for, in problem-reaction-solution style. Control-freaks will instill fear so that they can control some more. And unfortunately, you´ll be the lone CT-voice as everyone desperately grabs for the "solution".

Eventually, if a severe infecteous disease is introduced globally, governments worldwide would stamp a RFID chip in your forehead with the capability to collect vital signs remotely. The technology is very cheap, it exists already and it can be done quickly, just like a standard vaccination. Who knows what kind of virus we will face this fall, if its severe enough they must take actions to ensure public safety and health. The swine flu can possibly mutate into something nasty for example, WHO is tracking it and its now present in 69 countries.

As of 06:00 GMT, 5 June 2009, 69 countries have officially reported 21,940 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 125 deaths.

Originally posted by reugen
The swine flu can possibly mutate into something nasty for example, WHO is tracking it and its now present in 69 countries.

As of 06:00 GMT, 5 June 2009, 69 countries have officially reported 21,940 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 125 deaths.

makes you wonder if this wasnt all planned

Originally posted by Darth Lumina
This is how they sneak these things on us, use a disease, throw children in the mix and people won't think twice.

My thinking precisely.

Especially when the plan is so flawed to begin with that it can only in actuality aim to achieve much more nefarious objectives.

Originally posted by scraze

As long as they keep it based on voluntary subscriptions, I'm actually pretty ok with it, I guess..

But think about it scraze ...

What are the odds of 100% compliance?

And without 100% compliance the math falls apart and the program fails. So what we are left with is a crippled system insofar as its declared/intended use but a good chunk of the population that is now willingly tagged.

Or do we think that when they realize the flaws in the system they will just drag and drop all the names into the "trash bin?"

If you are wondering on what sort of platform this sort of tracking system might operate, there's apparently a recently released one.

Potential Pandemic Alert System? --New AED Platform - GATHER(TM) - Improves Real-time Data Collection, Analysis, and Sharing in Remote Regions

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Well yeah, that's the whole problem with those statisticians/mathematicians I mentioned - their ideas basically only work if other people think in terms of effectiveness like they do, and forget about all the 1984 stuff. So as long as their plan is executed in the same silly way as the thought was brought to life, it will just fail and all is good: and that's the type of thing I'm ok with ;]

Of course if people do decide to sign up en masse, even though the plan doesn't ask for it, it's still a bit/quite creepy. I guess as long as the creepiness of the plan does not exceed the creepiness of the disease (Black Plague #2 ;D?), it's a safer bet.

Yeah, I got images of our Big Brother in my head as well, now . Still, every type of global plan has this effect when it tracks stuff. When it comes to large processes like an epidemy - some part of me is just saying those are adequate measures; either we do this on a large scale, or we got nothing.

I fell in a spiral here.. am a bit too tired I guess ;] hope you get what I mean!

Is it possible they are trying to scare us with all these new viruses and sickness'?

Originally posted by Veritas26
Is it possible they are trying to scare us with all these new viruses and sickness'?

It's as good a theory as any other.

If you are interested in that angle you might enjoy this thread:

H1N1 as a 'Mass Hysteria' and 'Moral Panic' experiment

And surely one would have to create enough fear to get people to voluntarily "tag" themselves.

Also for your consideration:

Did you ever stop to think how silly and also how dangerous it is to live our lives with absolutely no monitoring of our body’s medical status? Years from now people will look back and find it unbelievable that heart attacks, strokes, hormone imbalances, sugar levels, and hundreds of other bodily vital signs and malfunctions were not being continuously anticipated and monitored by medical implants. We can call this concept body 2.0, or the networked body, and we need it now!

Body 2.0 - Continuous Monitoring Of The Human Body