« Links for the day 04-25-2007 | Main | Links for the day 05-01-2007 »
April 27, 2007
Searching for Hate
Robert X Cringely has one of the oddest columns on the Virginia Tech massacre I have seen. He comments on his own experiences with disturbed students, and then states that
People fail just like machines do. We break for any number of reasons -- mechanical failure, fatigue, bad programming. But unlike machines, people are not subject to statistical quality control, though maybe they should be. There are probably signs of impending failure we could see if we were looking. Only we don't look, because it never seemed necessary.
Now, he argues, some form of looking may be necessary since the consequences of failure have become drastic. A solution:
There are Internet start-ups scouring the web by the hundreds right now looking for every imaginable form of content or commercial intention, but I'm guessing there isn't a single spider program specifically dragging back signs of hate. Why not? Search the web for hate and vitriol and despair, do some clever parsing and analysis to figure out the where and when, then throw a mapping mashup interface on it all with the simple goal of giving school principals and baseball coaches and worried moms and dads a place to look for trouble brewing in their schools, towns or neighborhoods.
To a degree, I think he has a point. Inasmuch as there are already people searching for sex offenders, it seems like a valid next step to start looking for potential homicidal maniacs.
Three problems stand out, though. First, telling a search engine to "Show Me Everyone Who is Really, Really Angry or Upsent" would generate a massive amount of false positives. After all, this is the age of blogging. Sure, 1 out of a million may be an actual lead, but how do you narrow that down?
Second, the potential for abuse is great. Who defines what is hate?
Third, even if you identify a potential homicidal maniac, then what? Usually, he hasn't committed a crime until he (or she, but usually he) starts shooting. The Minority Report comes to mind.
tech | By maphet | 10:08 AM
Comments
Everyone could just be ranked one to ten on a dangerous-o-meter, and then the information could just be posted to the web so that people would be able to have quantifiable information on their neighbors and friends.
I rank you an 8 and a threat to me. We will no longer communicate.
Posted by: Joe at April 30, 2007 01:11 PM