FYS: The question of locks

[jeriendhal]

Continuing work on Wake Up Call, and I've just gotten to the bit where our still unnamed protagonist is guided to his new apartment. Which leaves the question of what kind of physical security a place with 24 hour Panopticon level monitoring would really need. Which actually brings up just how much monitoring there is.

Not sure about this yet. Especially since the story is starting to get a cozy murder mystery vibe.


Potential Monitoring Levels

No Privacy: Cameras outside the home, cameras inside the home, and your morph is constantly watching you either directly or via remote monitors. Yes, even in the bedroom and bathroom. With fifteen billion humans to monitor the Groupmind is pretty much beyond shock at this point. Rather unmerciful and it kills any chance at real rebellion.

Limited Privacy: Even if it isn't true, everyone assumes that they're monitored 24/7 once they step outside their home, especially with their morphs tagging along. Inside their home there's some privacy. Aside from cameras associated with their home's com/entertainment system, there's the morphs, but otherwise bathroom and bedroom privacy is somewhat guaranteed (though more than one attempt at either suicide or spousal abuse has discovered that morphs have both excellent hearing and the ability to monitor stress levels in someone's voice.)


Which leads to locks on the doors...

Standard Locks: Operating on a failsafe system, all locks are electronic in nature, opening on detection of proper biometrics (facial, hand or thumbprint, or voice recognition). In the very unlikely event of a power failure, any lock releases automatically. Locks requiring physical keys no longer exist, and if some bright tinkerer tries to recreate them, they're going to get the Groupmind's negative attention shortly.

No Locks: None. Seriously. Assuming No Privacy mode and a Post-Scarcity society why would you even need them? Anyone trying to steal anything would be caught immediately, and the morphs are smart enough to keep Billy out of the medicine cabinet, or the bedroom when mom and dad need their non-existent privacy.

What could possibly go wrong?

Comments

[m-danson.livejournal.com]

When and where I grew up... nobody locked their doors. It was social conventions that determined how one dealt with particular doors. (ie always knock and wait, knock and enter, time and location dependent behaviours, just walk in, only go in so far for a specific reason, etc)

While the obvious problems are in people entering when they shouldn't (or stealing) that didn't happen often and social shaming kept most people in line. Non-obvious problems happened at the intersection of "well meaning", "allowed", and "oops".

Example: My in-laws were ill and the community rallied around them to help. This resulted in people bringing them food. This was more or less okay... sometimes annoying and un-needed but just as often appreciated. If they weren't home, the people dropping off food would "just leave it for them". This reduced the need for organization, but sometimes meant that unexplained food sometimes appeared on counters, in the fridge, in the entry way. And one memorable time it appeared in the oven and wasn't found until it started smoking and burning when they turned on the oven to make dinner. They got into the habit of opening the oven every time they wanted to cook something... just in case.

[seawasp]

Different people have different needs for privacy. Extroverted people comfortable around others may need very little. Introverts who want to be left mostly alone need a lot, and even a morph would be too much as a CONSTANT thing. One assumes the Groupmind understand psychology at least well enough to know these things and account for them.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Regarding monitoring: fibre bragg gratings would allow the GroupMind inexpensive, reliable sensing of pressure, temperature, and sound.

Take a single strand of glass fibre. Zap one section from the side with a laser to create a pattern of lines. Shine a laser down the fibre. Light with a wavelength matching the spacing of the lines will bounce back, while all other light will pass through.

Keep on zapping the fibre with different patterns of lines, until every bit of fibre will reflect a different wavelength of light.

Now, run the fibre through all the rooms in a dwelling. As each section of fibre is deformed (by sound waves, by temperature changes, by someone stepping on it), the zapped bits will move closer or farther apart, and the wavelength of light reflected from that section will change slightly.

You now have a near-infinite number of microphones, thermometers, and pressure sensors in each room, and you only need a single laser transceiver to monitor them all. Integrating the inputs would let you determine the exact position and motion of any breathing person.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_Bragg_grating