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eppur_se_muova

(41,350 posts)
2. If "security" requires your face, finger, or retina, does it require that it/they actually be attached to your body ?
Sun Feb 8, 2026, 04:10 PM
Sunday

Criminals have already come up with their own answers to this question.

This was much discussed in fiction in previous decades. Remember "Thunderball" (1961 novel, 1965 movie) in which a pilot of a nuclear bomber "donates" his eyeball -- and thus retina -- to one of the bad guys ? I'm pretty sure stolen fingertips are already a "thing".

Remember Condoleezza Rice's infamous "No one could have imagined ..." statement after 9/11 ? No one could imagine terrorists crashing airliners into buildings, despite a few novels, a TV-movie, and considerable public discussion about very similar possibilities. Failure of imagination seems to be surprisingly widespread among those responsible for security in one theatre or another -- or perhaps overconfidence is just an authoritarian trait.

Before tech companies introduce new security "features", they need to query a few Death Row inmates about how they would deal with their proposals. The people introducing the technology have potential-profit-induced tunnel vision and a lack of imagination -- at least of the type needed.

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