Sacramento Politics and Philosophy Group

We’re living through a rapid expansion of surveillance technology. We see this all over the place - or rather, they see us, with cameras becoming smarter and more widespread, along with other monitoring and recording tech like license-plate readers, facial recognition, online activity tracking, data brokers, and other technologies make it increasingly possible to monitor where people go, who they interact with, and what they do. Much of this happens with little public awareness or meaningful debate.

Flock cameras are one prominent example. They can automatically record and identify vehicles and make that information available to law enforcement, which creates detailed records of people’s movements over time.

Flock Safety is a US based manufacturer of Flock cameras which are AI powered surveillance cameras with integrated systems that allow them to locate people far better than normal cameras. Utilizing police databases, AI facial recognition technology, automated license plate recognition software, and gunfire locators; Flock Cameras can document crimes and track down the perpetrators of crimes very effectively. Most of the time these cameras are utilized by law enforcement, homeowner associations, and local governments for such purposes.

Critics believe that these cameras a prime example of “surveillance state technology” and are increasingly unpopular. To their point there have been many examples of police officers inappropriately using the technology to spy on their significant others or Ex partners. Many critics go on to vandalize these cameras causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. Most Flock camera critiques use a website called Deflock which points out the locations of Flock cameras, to identify, avoid, or destroy these cameras. Many use social media to not only spread awareness but to also provide instructions on how to destroy these cameras and get away with it.

Do these cameras really pose a threat to privacy? Are people being too paranoid about these cameras? If these cameras do pose a privacy concern should people vandalize them? Should local governments have to consult their constituents before entering into a contract with Flock Safety and installing these cameras?

And this all relates back to these central questions: How much surveillance is too much? What are the legitimate benefits, and where do we cross the line into a surveillance state? What safeguards should exist, who should have access to this information, and what can citizens do to make sure these technologies remain accountable?

All these questions and more will be discussed this Saturday. Please see the links below for more information.

For this event, we will discuss Part 2 (chapters 4 through 6) of the book True Human by Samantha Sweetwater and we will engage in group practices that are outlined in these chapters.

This group discussed Part 1, which was focused on the metacrisis of this book in early August. For this second part, Samantha asks us to turn inward and to reflect on what has been forgotten in our hyper-modern times and she invites us to engage in this process of remembering and reconnecting with the deep sources of life, value, and love.

The author wrote this reflection to introduce us to this notion of The Great Remembering:

Welcome to the Great Remembering
An organismic process is afoot. Our species is slowly awakening to our sacred ecological place on this magnificent planet we occupy. We are remembering that we are a part of a greater whole. We are remembering that this part-whole relationship of our species nested within the greater macro-organism of our living biosphere is an expression of what is most holy and real.
To sit idly by as we desecrate and destroy this greater Whole is a suffering beyond suffering many can no longer tolerate. We incarnated to know ourselves in the context of this greater Whole, so destroying it is, effectively destroying ourselves.
Polluting our Earth, destroying our ecosystems, and causing death and extinction for our more-than-human relatives is crime against the soul, against nature and against future generations.
We are part of an infinitely elegant, natural complexity. Our souls are made to know who and what we are within nature's sublime context. We know this in our bones and blood and DNA.
We are life. We are part of life. We love life.
As we come to see and feel this, the natural next step is to respond.
Respond to the calling of the World.
Value Life.
Restitch the sacred Fabric on behalf of all of Life.
This is the Great Remembering.
Our bio-spiritual response to and co-creation with our Earth is The Great Remembering.
We remember individually. We remember together. We cannot do it alone.
As we remember, we dignify the lives we've been given. We remember that LIFE IS A GIFT. We step from the story of Separation to the Story of Wholeness. And we activate our unique parts of our species-wide potential to RISE to our true destiny as co-creators with all of Nature and with Gaia herself.
This is no ascension. It's a decent, a return, a remembering, and a great rising of our creative potential and love.
The future is a homecoming to all that makes us, a restoration of our natural intimacy with and belonging to life.
For all those hearing and responding to this call with literally billions of uniquely creative responses and collaborations - THANK YOU! There’s an epic party is happening - right here on Earth. Our love-in-creation is where the possible future is made real.
Systems change is a form of ceremony - a ceremony for a small planet whose creator species is beginning to remember their sacred role in the soul ecology. Slowly, yet surely, we are becoming self-aware and capbable co-creators with the divinity that is Life.
Together, we RISE.