WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.540 I don't know which way to the future, 2 00:00:02.400 --> 00:00:05.660 but I am very glad that the organisers 3 00:00:05.660 --> 00:00:08.380 of this year's Adelaide Festival of Ideas 4 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:10.700 have asked us all to ponder it. 5 00:00:13.100 --> 00:00:14.500 They didn't know it then, 6 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:15.980 but last year, 7 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:18.900 when the organisers invited me to speak today, 8 00:00:20.340 --> 00:00:22.300 I was at a time in my own life 9 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:25.860 when I'd been giving a lot of thought to a related question. 10 00:00:30.040 --> 00:00:33.020 And that question had been brewing for years, 11 00:00:33.940 --> 00:00:37.040 but it had begun to press me for an answer. 12 00:00:38.720 --> 00:00:40.820 I don't know where it came from. 13 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:42.440 Do we ever know 14 00:00:42.440 --> 00:00:46.380 where these sufficiently big questions come from? 15 00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:50.080 Maybe Goethe had an inkling when he wrote, 16 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:53.660 however ordinary life may look, 17 00:00:54.420 --> 00:00:57.420 however readily it appears to put up 18 00:00:57.420 --> 00:00:59.580 with what is common every day, 19 00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:03.780 it yet goes on secretly nursing higher demands 20 00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:06.980 and looks around for ways of satisfying them. 21 00:01:09.260 --> 00:01:11.480 My question is, what endures? 22 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:14.860 I'm interested in how humans discern 23 00:01:15.660 --> 00:01:18.720 what to take into the future with us 24 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:20.020 and what to discard. 25 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:25.200 I begin this paper by taking that question apart. 26 00:01:26.440 --> 00:01:29.840 I then examine why it seems worth asking, 27 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:31.340 and I ask myself, 28 00:01:33.380 --> 00:01:37.880 And in a forum which is respectful of shared pondering. 29 00:01:40.020 --> 00:01:43.600 And then I'm going to attempt an incomplete answer. 30 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:47.380 But before I start, 31 00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:50.020 I have three preliminaries. 32 00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:52.220 A qualification, 33 00:01:53.800 --> 00:01:54.420 a disclaimer, 34 00:01:55.480 --> 00:01:56.100 and a dedication. 35 00:01:57.480 --> 00:01:59.680 My answer today is, 36 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:00.260 it's tentative. 37 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:02.540 It's still forming. 38 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:06.180 And that is a fact from which I draw comfort. 39 00:02:08.940 --> 00:02:11.760 The views I express are entirely personal. 40 00:02:12.660 --> 00:02:16.440 I speak today as a man on leave from his job 41 00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:20.820 to fill a commitment he made before he agreed 42 00:02:20.820 --> 00:02:22.760 to work for his current employer. 43 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:28.860 I dedicate this paper 44 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:31.460 to my son Vincent with love. 45 00:02:36.720 --> 00:02:37.760 What endures? 46 00:02:37.760 --> 00:02:38.680 How to discern? 47 00:02:38.900 --> 00:02:40.560 What to take with us into the future? 48 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:41.880 And what to discard? 49 00:02:42.480 --> 00:02:43.940 At this early stage, 50 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:47.820 a few words to try to avoid misunderstandings. 51 00:02:49.220 --> 00:02:52.060 Don't think that I mean for us to compile a list, 52 00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:55.920 to sort and to pack as we would for an expedition. 53 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:00.180 This is not the intention, 54 00:03:00.420 --> 00:03:03.660 however necessary certain equipment and supplies might be 55 00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:06.900 for the journey that's evoked by this year's theme, 56 00:03:07.640 --> 00:03:07.920 which way? 57 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:11.740 By saying discern, 58 00:03:12.620 --> 00:03:15.620 I mean to imply that the answer is a process. 59 00:03:15.660 --> 00:03:17.040 It is a technique 60 00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:20.100 and not some set of essentials, 61 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:22.740 which if they're all present and correct, 62 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:24.400 supply the answer. 63 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:34.720 How do we work out what to make efforts to retain, 64 00:03:35.100 --> 00:03:38.540 especially when change appears to challenge it, 65 00:03:38.600 --> 00:03:41.160 or because it's ever present, 66 00:03:41.860 --> 00:03:44.320 it becomes as it were invisible? 67 00:03:47.180 --> 00:03:52.180 What to discard, that is, what to cast aside consciously. 68 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:57.440 Don't dwell on what we forget gently. 69 00:03:58.120 --> 00:03:58.840 We're not going to forget. 70 00:03:58.860 --> 00:04:03.160 Letting it slip from use as it slides from usefulness. 71 00:04:04.920 --> 00:04:07.420 I'm interested in the technique for choosing. 72 00:04:09.040 --> 00:04:11.880 For example, how do we tell the difference 73 00:04:11.880 --> 00:04:16.400 between an enduring value and a time-honoured tradition? 74 00:04:18.280 --> 00:04:20.540 We can do without the latter, I think, 75 00:04:21.580 --> 00:04:23.540 but the former seem essential. 76 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:28.840 Finally, on the question of the future, 77 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:29.080 the question itself, 78 00:04:29.520 --> 00:04:32.720 can I emphasise how much I think my question requires 79 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:35.180 a multidisciplinary answer? 80 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.500 Look for it anywhere, in any art form, 81 00:04:39.760 --> 00:04:43.260 in any profession, craft or trade, 82 00:04:43.580 --> 00:04:45.860 in any field of learning, 83 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:48.940 in any realm of endeavour, 84 00:04:50.460 --> 00:04:51.820 and in any era. 85 00:04:58.840 --> 00:05:00.700 I ask this question at all. 86 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:06.040 A technique for discerning what ought to endure 87 00:05:06.840 --> 00:05:09.940 goes along with the fact that change is a constant, 88 00:05:10.840 --> 00:05:13.560 and I sense that change will accelerate. 89 00:05:15.840 --> 00:05:19.620 The cultivation of a technique will help us maintain the best 90 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:23.340 of what a democratic and civil society has so far created. 91 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:27.720 I like living in such a society. 92 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:31.440 Partly because it knows it could always be better, 93 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:33.460 always do better. 94 00:05:35.700 --> 00:05:37.400 It is contingent. 95 00:05:40.820 --> 00:05:43.560 With an untidiness that is endearingly 96 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:46.460 and maybe even protectively inefficient. 97 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:50.980 Such a society can flourish. 98 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.480 Periods of rapid change can produce distortion. 99 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:01.100 We get disoriented. 100 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:02.420 We get fearful. 101 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:05.920 And we get clingy about certainties. 102 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:08.960 Certainties that in other times 103 00:06:08.960 --> 00:06:12.680 we may have accepted with confident equanimity 104 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:14.200 are less than certain. 105 00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:19.340 It's at times like this that mistakes are made. 106 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:23.440 A society may take up and use imprudently 107 00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:26.580 what is best left to slide. 108 00:06:28.460 --> 00:06:33.220 And it may discard deliberately what ought to endure. 109 00:06:35.740 --> 00:06:39.400 My hope is that to focus on the elements of a technique 110 00:06:39.400 --> 00:06:41.240 for discerning what ought to endure, 111 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:46.400 we will make fewer and smaller mistakes 112 00:06:47.080 --> 00:06:48.660 during times like these. 113 00:06:51.640 --> 00:06:55.040 Now, so far I've been deliberately abstract. 114 00:06:56.540 --> 00:06:59.540 It's time to give you some images to conjure with. 115 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:04.620 Later, I'm going to raise two example categories 116 00:07:05.380 --> 00:07:07.360 in which rapid change is occurring. 117 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:10.940 You might use them to test my line of thought 118 00:07:10.940 --> 00:07:13.040 as it develops during the rest of the paper, 119 00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:15.800 remembering that I've said it's tentative. 120 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:16.700 Be gentle. 121 00:07:19.460 --> 00:07:21.280 The first example category 122 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.020 is biotechnologies spurred by 123 00:07:25.020 --> 00:07:26.280 advances in genetics. 124 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.520 The second category in which change feels like 125 00:07:31.520 --> 00:07:34.040 it's accelerating is communication 126 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:37.140 spurred by digital technologies. 127 00:07:39.380 --> 00:07:42.700 This paper is not the place for too long an excursion 128 00:07:42.700 --> 00:07:46.000 into either of these wondrous and exciting fields. 129 00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:51.000 Some details of both of them will surely emerge 130 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.040 in other papers and from other speakers 131 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:54.380 more expert than I. 132 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.840 During the course of this Festival of Ideas. 133 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:02.440 For now, just think about the many media items 134 00:08:02.440 --> 00:08:05.280 that you may have come across in recent times 135 00:08:05.280 --> 00:08:08.220 that have been telling you about the revolutions 136 00:08:08.220 --> 00:08:10.580 that are occurring in these two fields. 137 00:08:12.840 --> 00:08:17.420 Handling both of them means handling benefits and risks. 138 00:08:19.420 --> 00:08:24.020 Handling both of them requires a democratic and civil society 139 00:08:24.020 --> 00:08:25.000 to make sure that the people who are involved in this 140 00:08:25.020 --> 00:08:25.320 are not the ones who are going to make judgments 141 00:08:25.320 --> 00:08:30.020 about what, amidst great change, ought to endure. 142 00:08:35.140 --> 00:08:38.440 I've tried to answer why I ask this question at all. 143 00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:42.400 Why ask this question now? 144 00:08:45.860 --> 00:08:48.180 I said at the outset that last year, 145 00:08:48.280 --> 00:08:50.100 when I received the invitation to speak, 146 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.180 I'd already been thinking of this related question, 147 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:54.340 related to the theme. 148 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:56.920 And it had become pressing. 149 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:00.980 My reasons might shed some light 150 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:03.880 on why I think this question is worth raising 151 00:09:05.400 --> 00:09:09.480 in 2007 at a Festival of Ideas. 152 00:09:11.500 --> 00:09:14.780 For the period 2001 to 2006, 153 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:18.680 I served a five-year term as Victoria's first Privacy Commissioner. 154 00:09:19.420 --> 00:09:23.260 It followed many years in journalism, in the law, in public policy, 155 00:09:23.260 --> 00:09:26.320 dealing fundamentally with the issue of the tension 156 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:29.000 between disclosure and discretion, 157 00:09:29.280 --> 00:09:31.320 between openness and restraint. 158 00:09:34.900 --> 00:09:37.040 That's the fruits of some time thinking about 159 00:09:37.040 --> 00:09:38.880 what the previous 30 years had meant. 160 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:41.740 That's the sentence that I can trap it in. 161 00:09:44.380 --> 00:09:47.900 My term as Commissioner also coincided almost exactly 162 00:09:48.640 --> 00:09:51.740 with the events following 11 September 2001. 163 00:09:55.220 --> 00:09:58.920 During that time, our society and others 164 00:09:58.920 --> 00:10:01.500 have rebalanced liberty and security. 165 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:05.720 It has been a time of great change. 166 00:10:08.260 --> 00:10:12.060 What had seemed enduring has been in question. 167 00:10:14.260 --> 00:10:16.540 For example, aspects of the rule of law, 168 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:22.240 habeas corpus, due process, 169 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:25.440 the prohibition on torture, 170 00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:29.540 opportunities for independent review 171 00:10:29.540 --> 00:10:31.800 of executive government action. 172 00:10:37.640 --> 00:10:41.780 As a statutory officeholder dealing with one aspect, 173 00:10:42.020 --> 00:10:43.840 rather a shy aspect really, 174 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:46.920 one aspect of the freedoms that together 175 00:10:46.920 --> 00:10:49.640 have come to comprise liberty in our times, 176 00:10:50.580 --> 00:10:52.220 I had an opportunity to reflect on the fact that, 177 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:52.320 as a member of the public, 178 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:53.340 I had the opportunity to witness up close 179 00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:56.480 this recalibration of liberty and security. 180 00:10:59.140 --> 00:11:01.740 Like the 19-teens, 181 00:11:04.360 --> 00:11:06.560 like the 1950s, 182 00:11:07.520 --> 00:11:11.400 this was an episode in which the open society 183 00:11:11.400 --> 00:11:14.720 adjusts itself in a time of fear. 184 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:19.980 My experience prompted, 185 00:11:19.980 --> 00:11:22.220 and made pressing, 186 00:11:22.460 --> 00:11:25.180 the question that I am tackling today. 187 00:11:29.340 --> 00:11:33.120 Because our uses of the concept of privacy are so wide, 188 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:36.140 it's an enabler of selfhood, 189 00:11:37.560 --> 00:11:39.540 it's an enabler of intimacy, 190 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:44.040 it's an aspect of liberty. 191 00:11:46.640 --> 00:11:48.740 A privacy commissioner is introduced 192 00:11:48.740 --> 00:11:49.960 to many public events, 193 00:11:49.960 --> 00:11:50.800 to many public policy developments, 194 00:11:51.620 --> 00:11:53.640 many of them brought on by technology. 195 00:11:56.200 --> 00:11:57.440 Just for a moment, 196 00:11:58.160 --> 00:12:01.120 I want to sketch aspects of two fields 197 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:02.680 that I touched on earlier. 198 00:12:04.040 --> 00:12:05.860 Biotechnology spurred by genetics, 199 00:12:06.140 --> 00:12:09.480 and communications spurred by digital technologies. 200 00:12:13.340 --> 00:12:15.740 Humankind has made astonishing advances 201 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:17.060 in genetic knowledge. 202 00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:19.940 Since the sequencing of the human genome, 203 00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:21.360 which was announced in 2000, 204 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:24.460 there's been an acceleration in attempts 205 00:12:24.460 --> 00:12:25.680 to apply that knowledge 206 00:12:25.680 --> 00:12:28.060 inside and outside the health sector, 207 00:12:28.220 --> 00:12:30.100 in government and in commerce. 208 00:12:32.300 --> 00:12:34.380 The relevant market is global. 209 00:12:35.540 --> 00:12:37.640 It will not wait for states 210 00:12:37.640 --> 00:12:39.500 to upgrade their legal framework. 211 00:12:41.900 --> 00:12:43.960 Information must circulate faster 212 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:46.320 about the implications of this knowledge. 213 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:49.940 Obtaining and analysing a person's knowledge, 214 00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:54.840 and using that data for a range of public and private purposes, 215 00:12:55.020 --> 00:12:57.740 can bring fundamental values into play. 216 00:12:59.060 --> 00:13:00.360 For example, 217 00:13:01.680 --> 00:13:06.420 can and should a part of a person's body 218 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.980 and the genetic data latent in it 219 00:13:11.100 --> 00:13:13.160 be capable of being owned? 220 00:13:17.580 --> 00:13:18.600 If so, 221 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:21.780 is property law adequate to govern 222 00:13:21.780 --> 00:13:24.500 the issues arising from the mining and processing 223 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:28.220 of genetic data in a market for human tissue samples? 224 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:35.280 To what extent is an individual able to control 225 00:13:35.280 --> 00:13:37.880 what is to be done with his or her genetic data, 226 00:13:38.560 --> 00:13:42.420 particularly as more and more can be known or inferred? 227 00:13:42.420 --> 00:13:44.500 Sometimes just as potent. 228 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:47.140 Or inferred from that data. 229 00:13:49.280 --> 00:13:52.920 Since a person's DNA can be revelatory 230 00:13:52.920 --> 00:13:56.400 about him or his or her blood relatives, 231 00:13:58.300 --> 00:14:00.960 it is necessary to consider what in Europe 232 00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:04.160 has come to be known as the privacy of the biological group. 233 00:14:06.180 --> 00:14:09.540 This means a privacy interest shared by a group of individuals 234 00:14:09.540 --> 00:14:10.680 related by blood, 235 00:14:10.680 --> 00:14:14.140 when genetic data is extracted from the body 236 00:14:14.140 --> 00:14:15.960 of any one individual in that group. 237 00:14:17.280 --> 00:14:20.960 This issue will test the basic and long-standing idea 238 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.360 that privacy inheres in the individual alone. 239 00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:32.940 Genetic knowledge offers great benefits, 240 00:14:33.040 --> 00:14:35.800 but its misuse threatens great harms. 241 00:14:36.540 --> 00:14:37.900 Both need attention. 242 00:14:38.340 --> 00:14:39.740 What we know, 243 00:14:39.780 --> 00:14:40.660 what we don't know, 244 00:14:40.680 --> 00:14:41.100 what we infer, 245 00:14:41.460 --> 00:14:44.120 what we do and do not do, 246 00:14:44.280 --> 00:14:47.000 as a result of the knowledge and the inferences, 247 00:14:47.040 --> 00:14:48.040 will have wide effects. 248 00:14:50.040 --> 00:14:51.300 Humility is essential. 249 00:14:52.520 --> 00:14:54.280 Much remains to be learned. 250 00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:58.600 Those of us who are not literate in the science of genetics 251 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:01.480 must nevertheless work at understanding enough of it 252 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:05.200 to assist in the process of absorbing into law and policy 253 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:06.860 the consequences of that science. 254 00:15:08.700 --> 00:15:10.660 We cannot outsource that knowledge. 255 00:15:10.660 --> 00:15:11.300 We must make it available to specialists. 256 00:15:12.160 --> 00:15:14.300 And they don't want us to do so. 257 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:17.620 Some of the finest scientists in the field 258 00:15:17.620 --> 00:15:20.300 have called for greater attention by policymakers, 259 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:22.500 experts from other disciplines, 260 00:15:22.760 --> 00:15:23.940 and the public generally, 261 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:28.660 to the implications of the knowledge that geneticists are developing. 262 00:15:29.660 --> 00:15:31.680 We will serve the future better 263 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:34.540 if we focus more sharply now 264 00:15:35.420 --> 00:15:37.360 on adapting our legal framework 265 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.960 for handling this special category of information. 266 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:44.320 As with past technological breakthroughs, 267 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:47.340 the community and its representatives should adapt confidently, 268 00:15:47.580 --> 00:15:52.200 using our familiar and durable democratic processes. 269 00:15:53.320 --> 00:15:54.320 Transparency, 270 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:56.440 dispersed power, 271 00:15:56.780 --> 00:15:58.740 balancing mechanisms, 272 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:00.940 periodic review, 273 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:03.880 and opportunities for adjustments 274 00:16:03.880 --> 00:16:06.520 as circumstances change. 275 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:13.440 I turn now to my second illustration. 276 00:16:15.420 --> 00:16:19.800 Something about communications change and digital technology. 277 00:16:24.460 --> 00:16:27.980 Surveillance cameras have proved their value 278 00:16:27.980 --> 00:16:31.860 as tools for the investigation of past events 279 00:16:31.860 --> 00:16:34.320 that happened under their gaze. 280 00:16:36.300 --> 00:16:39.880 Past events that happened under their gaze. 281 00:16:41.500 --> 00:16:45.220 Whether cameras are an effective deterrent to events happening 282 00:16:45.220 --> 00:16:47.460 is quite another matter. 283 00:16:48.300 --> 00:16:49.820 And the debate continues. 284 00:16:51.280 --> 00:16:53.820 Whether the benefits of surveillance cameras 285 00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:55.640 are proportionate to their risks 286 00:16:55.640 --> 00:16:58.180 is a matter that needs wider debate. 287 00:16:59.180 --> 00:17:03.120 Before we transform ourselves by imperceptible degrees 288 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.240 into a surveillance society. 289 00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:09.860 Several factors are contributing to the change 290 00:17:09.860 --> 00:17:11.120 in the way we see the world. 291 00:17:11.120 --> 00:17:13.920 First, cameras are getting smaller, 292 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:15.580 cheaper, and more numerous. 293 00:17:17.820 --> 00:17:20.680 Second, cameras can be better networked, 294 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:24.360 so that the surveillance system collectively sees more. 295 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:29.660 Third, cameras increasingly do not just watch, 296 00:17:29.800 --> 00:17:31.120 they think. 297 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:36.920 Individual or networked cameras can be linked to software 298 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:39.840 that processes what the cameras see, 299 00:17:39.860 --> 00:17:42.380 and provides additional information. 300 00:17:44.120 --> 00:17:46.740 One example is facial recognition technology, 301 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:50.240 through which the faces of people on camera, 302 00:17:50.340 --> 00:17:51.740 say they're in the crowd of the football, 303 00:17:51.980 --> 00:17:52.800 or they're on a train, 304 00:17:53.820 --> 00:17:56.700 may be compared in real time 305 00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:00.420 with still photos that are held in a database. 306 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.300 The idea is to try to identify persons of interest. 307 00:18:06.620 --> 00:18:09.840 A second example is audiovisual technology. 308 00:18:09.840 --> 00:18:11.120 This is automated number plate recognition. 309 00:18:12.700 --> 00:18:14.700 This is a particular form of technology. 310 00:18:15.840 --> 00:18:19.060 As roadside cameras read the licence plate numbers 311 00:18:19.060 --> 00:18:20.140 of passing vehicles, 312 00:18:20.600 --> 00:18:23.980 the data is reported back for matching against data 313 00:18:23.980 --> 00:18:26.220 that's held by road authorities. 314 00:18:27.600 --> 00:18:30.740 If a person associated with a particular vehicle 315 00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:31.520 is of interest, 316 00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:34.340 because for example he or she has outstanding fines, 317 00:18:35.060 --> 00:18:38.140 then the police on patrol further up the road, 318 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:39.200 may intercept the vehicle. 319 00:18:42.080 --> 00:18:45.400 The third example of thinking cameras 320 00:18:45.400 --> 00:18:47.540 has a predictive dimension, 321 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:50.060 or so its purveyors claim. 322 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:55.000 Behaviour recognition technology involves software 323 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.540 that compares the behaviour of persons under the eye of the cameras 324 00:18:58.540 --> 00:19:01.600 with pre-programmed behaviours 325 00:19:01.600 --> 00:19:04.180 that are thought to lead to adverse consequences, 326 00:19:05.280 --> 00:19:06.920 crime or vandalism. 327 00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:11.460 If the system foresees trouble 328 00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:14.640 by comparing what it's looking at 329 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:18.140 with what it's been pre-programmed to recognise as antisocial, 330 00:19:19.360 --> 00:19:22.580 then it may alert human beings who will intervene, 331 00:19:23.600 --> 00:19:26.680 theoretically before the adverse event. 332 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:37.720 The risk of this is not, of course, difficult to think about. 333 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:40.420 You have to know what you're pre-programming, 334 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:45.180 and a system like that readily allows for pre-programming 335 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:47.680 by reference to particular attributes 336 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:49.160 of certain groups in the community. 337 00:19:52.820 --> 00:19:54.500 The technologies of surveillance 338 00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:57.380 are naturally a growing area of the information economy. 339 00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:00.200 Significant investments have been made 340 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:02.920 in devising and marketing these products. 341 00:20:04.900 --> 00:20:07.340 Money can be made from installing, maintaining, 342 00:20:07.340 --> 00:20:08.640 and operating them. 343 00:20:08.900 --> 00:20:11.160 And executive government is a natural customer. 344 00:20:11.520 --> 00:20:14.380 Not only are governments responsible for public safety, 345 00:20:14.700 --> 00:20:17.380 but they have a potent influence on the rules 346 00:20:17.380 --> 00:20:19.260 that govern the use of surveillance technologies. 347 00:20:21.280 --> 00:20:23.620 Where the media negotiate with authorities 348 00:20:23.620 --> 00:20:27.700 for the camera systems to become a cheap source of footage 349 00:20:28.540 --> 00:20:31.340 for reality TV programs and the like, 350 00:20:32.040 --> 00:20:34.320 then media may become conflicted 351 00:20:34.320 --> 00:20:37.160 and distracted from their more serious 352 00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:39.860 task of scrutinising the uses of surveillance 353 00:20:39.860 --> 00:20:41.020 by state agencies. 354 00:20:42.700 --> 00:20:45.340 All these factors make it essential 355 00:20:45.340 --> 00:20:47.900 that information about the technologies of surveillance 356 00:20:47.900 --> 00:20:50.860 be available, and that there be oversight 357 00:20:50.860 --> 00:20:53.920 by legislatures and independent regulators. 358 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:00.080 I do not intend here to dismiss the potential utility 359 00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:03.140 of many of these new technologies, 360 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:05.600 assuming adequate safeguards. 361 00:21:05.600 --> 00:21:08.460 I do want to urge greater scrutiny 362 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:10.200 of recent developments in surveillance 363 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:12.360 before they become commonplace. 364 00:21:16.600 --> 00:21:18.240 Now my introduction to surveillance 365 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:22.160 through this role made me wonder 366 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:25.560 whether we will one day have to make conscious efforts 367 00:21:26.600 --> 00:21:30.700 to set aside spaces that are surveillance-free 368 00:21:31.600 --> 00:21:35.120 rather in the way, about a century ago, 369 00:21:35.120 --> 00:21:38.580 we set aside places in the environment 370 00:21:38.580 --> 00:21:40.700 and called them national parks. 371 00:21:44.120 --> 00:21:46.360 Humans have shown through time 372 00:21:46.360 --> 00:21:50.300 how much we require spaces for contemplation, 373 00:21:50.340 --> 00:21:56.000 restoration, quietude, separation. 374 00:21:58.600 --> 00:22:02.860 Places of worship are the obvious built examples of this, 375 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:05.060 but there are secular, 376 00:22:05.060 --> 00:22:06.540 secular examples as well, 377 00:22:06.620 --> 00:22:07.880 and they are not always built. 378 00:22:09.040 --> 00:22:10.600 On a sunny afternoon, 379 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:14.980 I think Central Park in New York is one of these places. 380 00:22:17.180 --> 00:22:18.620 And for many Australians, 381 00:22:18.980 --> 00:22:21.360 the beach is one of these places. 382 00:22:24.440 --> 00:22:26.580 This need, I think, endures, 383 00:22:27.180 --> 00:22:29.280 and it is incompatible with surveillance. 384 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:36.940 So, leaving my two examples, 385 00:22:37.300 --> 00:22:38.320 leaving the detail, 386 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:39.900 leaving the technology, 387 00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:44.480 I now have to make an attempt at answering my question. 388 00:22:46.320 --> 00:22:47.820 It's a tentative answer. 389 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:51.100 How to discern what endures? 390 00:22:51.940 --> 00:22:55.020 I'm a long way from a satisfactory answer to this question. 391 00:22:55.340 --> 00:22:57.040 I told you that at the outset. 392 00:22:57.040 --> 00:23:00.900 But I want to venture my incomplete thoughts. 393 00:23:01.880 --> 00:23:03.680 Perhaps someone will be interested enough 394 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:05.060 to take them further. 395 00:23:06.300 --> 00:23:07.560 For the time being, 396 00:23:08.360 --> 00:23:11.000 I think that the technique for discerning 397 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:12.900 what to take with us into the future 398 00:23:12.900 --> 00:23:14.700 and what to discard 399 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:17.620 involves, at a minimum, 400 00:23:18.840 --> 00:23:22.340 a focus on what facilitates two phenomena, 401 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:26.040