Are You Human ?

What makes you human ?
Online we can use captcha and some such technical marvels to prove that we are individuals as opposed to automated bots.
But we could, individually, still be masquerading as sock puppets.
Many people do, particularly on social media.
After all, it's far more impressive to score points during a debate with rapier-like wit against an unwitting Joe Bloggs type, when they are actually an extension of yourself .
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against it.
It would save all those sleepless nights due to suddenly remembering the perfect comeback!
Ah, the realms of the thwarted...

Not the image I was looking for, but - serendipidity, so...

At least, we could until now.
Recent developments (take a bow Behaviosec) in keylogging mean that your speed pressure and angles periodicity can all be read, thus profiling everyone with allegedly forensic accuracy.
As accurately as fingerprints.

Meanwhile, in the U.S.A, Jeb Bush asks if people can please stop encrypting and making life difficult for the NSA.
(cue canned laughter and occasional slow handclaps)

We seem to be moving into a time when encryption is second nature.
The whistle blowing of Edward Snowden and others has shown that we are being watched enmasse.
I am still ambivalent on this one, as I naively believe that it's just a combination of natural human voyeurism , the desire to know everything, and greedy commercial concerns who want our demographics, so that they can better target us with naff adverts for garbage we don't want.
On the other hand, what if the Apocalyptic believers are right, and none can buy or sell, unless he has the number of the beast?

Initially begun in the USA, the barcode has spread far and wide, and is now universal.
It is said that the numbers 6 appears three times as a 'divider' on every barcode , hence 666 ...
Luckily there was no internet to propogate the meme at the time, or there may have been a sudden downturn in supermarket purchasing and an increase in violent scenes at the meat counter.
The jury is out on whether there is some truth in the apocalyptic revelation of the barcode, but millenial madness is amplified by the interweb and its fondness for widespread panics and mass confusion.

A pleasant form of which, was the 'Flashmob' craze which seemed all the rage a few years ago.
I remember watching entranced as crowds of dancers, some in formal attire, but others looking for all the world like travellers who were caught up in the moment, waltzed silently on the concourse of a railway station I was passing through.
It was a surreal moment
Then they were gone, and normality slowly seeped back .
But I digress.

Facebook have filed a patent that allows them to log details of specific cameras, thereby identifying users of said cameras. At least, I think they have. Could be up there with the other, endless FB scams - did you know, Mark Zuckerberg went online to tell people to 'stop being so f**king gullible' ?
No ? Me neither, because he didn't .


Apparently the motion sensor on a smartphone can likewise be used to monitor keypad presses.
Recent developments even allow Smartphones to tell whether they have been picked up ! The mind boggles!
What a time to be alive!
Your next gen phone will probably be able to tell whether you're alive, anyway - and even alert medical help if there's a problem...so there is an upside to the micro-managing, surveillance culture we're in.
Honestly.