Client/Seller Architectures for secure Quality of Life (QoL) e-commerce middleware

Copyright, left, and center (c), Steve Mann Corporation, Assistant Mailroom Clerk of EXISTech Corporation, April 1, 2001.

To explore this concept, I recently founded a federally incorporated company (EXISTech Corporation) and appointed myself as Assistant Mailroom Clerk, so that I could be bound to certain freedoms afforded by self-demotion from President and CEO, down to the level of Clerk.

But let me start from the beginning. Back in the 1970s I came up with what seemed, at the time, a crazy invention, comprised of a body worn photographic computer apparatus.

During my more than twenty years of wearing this invention, I have gained some interesting insight into how people regard photographic ideaology, especially in places that:

• use video surveillance extensively throughout their establishment;
• prohibit any kind of photography or video capture by persons entering that very same establishment.

The early cumbersome versions of the apparatus were far from covert (in fact they looked somewhat hideous by today's standards of miniaturization). They certainly attracted far more attention than even a large hand held camera. Yet the facilitated something I came to call incidentalist image capture.

Incidentalist image capture is image capture that appears to be occurring merely by chance or without intention or calculation. My camera apparatus was wearoperable (e.g. worn in a manner that it could operate at any time), so that a person such as a department store security guard, could not readily discren whether the apparatus was actually taking a picture.

To ask such a question, the security guards at times seemed paranoid, and in fact posing such a question began to scratch the soft underbelly of something very interesting indeed.

Recently, in 1995, I built a version of the apparatus having the appearance of normal sunglasses. In 1996 I built a full color version of the appratus having appearance of normal eyewear, and finally in 1998 made a version that was reproducible by students in my Pesonal Cybernetics class.

What next

So what next?

I've been recently experimenting with deliberately making the cameras more visible, so that they are very obvious, while at the same time fashioning cameras that echo the decor of the establishments and organizations that become my experimental subjects.

What I found most remarkable and interesting about these experiments, is that if I further incorporated the apparatus into a company uniform, or externalized the locus of control, was that I could be empowered even more by this form of self-demotion. Thus, in addition to an incidentalist nature of the apparatus, if it were seen as a corporate uniform (e.g. so that I was just a clerk running errands and stopping off at a department store), I could, in plain obvious sight, capture images, and even have a wearable flash lamp to make it very obvious I was doing so.

The result of this research has been to produce a set of forms that can be used by others to reproduce some of these results.

These forms represent a kind of reflectionist philosophy in which the individual mirrors the establishment (e.g. holding up a mirror to society), while at the same time creating a kind of symmetrical structure in reverse.

Thus employees of EXISTech Corporation are required to photograph everyone they have business relationships with, and at the same time, ironically, require persmission from Head Office prior to allowing themselves to be photographed by others (e.g. for ID cards or the like).

Forms

• EXISTech's employees who appear in the media (television, newspaper, etc.) must obtain a signed Subjectrights (s) Agreement Form from content creators prior to their interview.
• The Accountability Theatre required following this Health Accountability policy.
• Subsequently, a new form has been prepared, for all employees of EXISTech Corporation. As an Assistant Mailroom Clerk of EXISTech Corp., I am required to follow policy and procedure with respect to administering this new form.
• As an employee of EXISTech Corporation you will be required to photograph anyone that you do business with. If anyone objects to having had their picture taken, they may file a Request for Deletion Form 698
• Employees of EXISTech Corporation are forbidden from being photographed without prior authorization from head office. Your EXISTech Corporation Employee ID Card should suffice for most business interactions. If you are required to obtain additional identification from others, they must agree to be bound by the Terms and Conditions of EXISTech's Humanistic Property License Agrement (HPLA).
• Employees of EXISTech Corporation are not permitted to expose themselves to radiation above a certain level. In particular, devices at the exits of many department stores expose persons to large quantities of radiation causing malfunction of wearable computers and other related equipment. Even when not wearing computers, the exposure is not allowed. Employees of EXISTech Corporation are required to walk around the devices. If a department store security guard or staff requires an EXISTech employee to walk through such a device on exit of the department store, that security guard or department store staff person must sign a Radiation Exposure Request and assume personal liability for any damage that might result, real or perceived, to the EXISTech employee or his or her body-worn apparatus.

• Request for removal of visual memory prosthetic, visual filter, or other protective or corrective eyewear
• Request for inspection of visual memory prosthetic, physiological monitor, or other body--worn processor or monitor
• Request for X--ray inspection of visual memory prosthetic, physiological monitor, or other body--worn processor or monitor

The Client/Seller Architecture

In performances of Pleasewait, corporations are required to comply with the protocols, rules, and regulations of the corporatized individual.

Reflectionism: I am a cyborg luddite

I have a speaking license and a license to think, a license to stand up, and a license to sit down. For everything I do, I must ask permission. A license is a permit. May I use the restroom, please? Yes, you may, here is your license. May I compute the square root of a number? Yes, you can if you download a license for that particular algorithm.

How to deal with such a dehumanizing monstrosity as the patenting of basic knowledge, the ownership of ideas, and the policing of thought? Reflectionism is this art of taming the moster with a piece of itself. The corporatized individual holds a mirror up to society, and that mirror has the symmetry that beholds an image of the society.

The new deconomy

Deconstructing Deconomics

So receiving an implant will be seen as a benefit. Doors will open automatically, no keys will be needed, and you won't need to carry any cash. No longer will there be restrooms with signs that say ``for customer use only'' because we'll all be customers (clients) all the time. And we'll only pay for what we use. We'll only pay for the exact amount of hot water we use to wash our hands, the exact amount of soap we decide to use, and the exact amount of waste we deposit in the bowl for disposal. And it will all be very affordable, but not free! Trying to dispose of waste without paying the appropriate waste disposal fees is theft, and with modern DNA analysis, such thefts can easily be prosecuted. But what we give, give off, produce, or generate, may also be of some value, whether for epidemilogical studies, or simply as a source of energy and recycling, so we will be appropriately re-imbursed for value so generated.

A brighter, cleaner, happier, and drug-free future awaits us!

Next page: The nanocent livestock deconomy

aaaa: add subjectrights medical (EXISTech employees undergoing medical exam)