Episode 36: The laws of the future!
It’s the Starbase 11 courtroom from Star Trek: TOS.
Real-world law is becoming science fictional. We talk about the future of surveillance and digital policing with guest Cyrus Farivar, a journalist who covers law and technology for NBC News. He's also the author of Habeas Data, a book about landmark privacy cases. We discuss where our current laws are going, and what science fiction has to say about it -- especially Star Trek, a show lawyers love for a reason.
Notes, citations, & etc.
Find out more about Cyrus Farivar, and read his book Habeas Data.
San Francisco’s ban on facial recognition technology
Face/Off, dir. John Woo
False positives on facial recognition
Cyrus’ story for Ars Technica about license plate readers and how he used a FOIA to look through license plate reader data from the Oakland Police Department.
Cyrus and his colleague Olivia Solon wrote for NBC about Ever.ai, a San Francisco photo-sharing company that converted its photo database into a facial recognition service for law enforcement.
Learn more about the California Consumer Protection Act
Gene Roddenberry’s early history as an LAPD officer
“Encounter at Farpoint,” the ST: TNG pilot where Q puts humanity on trial
Melinda Snodgrass, author of ST: TNG episode “The Measure of a Man,” where a court decides that Data has human rights
“The Drumhead,” the ST: TNG episode about speciesism
Nog, the Ferengi character in ST: DS9 who challenges our human preconceptioons about the Ferengi
“I, Borg,” a ST: TNG episode that humanizes the Borg
Star Trek’s Prime Directive
California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra is a big Star Trek fan
The Greatest Generation podcast