micro-transactions and the police state

Many people expend a great deal of their time conducting window surveillance on their immediate vicinity. They watch and take note of who passes by. They watch and take note of who stops where, when, and the types of traffic that frequent. People have a stake in their immediate vicinity. They covet their stuff, the stuff they worked so hard to collect.

Many people don't like to work. It's a boring and often meaningless exercise in getting up and being somewhere at a specific time. People would be willing to contract their expertise, their knowledge, their bio-power in the service of capital. They can be called into action and have their account credited for their work and their time under the right circumstances.

Technology is available to sense the world in which we live. Technology is available to tell a central office if/when a light burns out or a water main busts. Technology is available for people to call central police locations to request a unit when suspicious activity occurs. It's time to outsource this ability. Let's give it back to the residents.

The phone rings.

A person answers and is called to a domestic disturbance two doors down. This person is credited for one hour of police work: $30.

Micro-transaction complete. Both the proxy-police officer and the person who benefited from the officer's service fill out on-line quality-control forms.

All is quiet again on the city streets. People are ready to be called into action. They have their phones at hand. They are prepared to pass the sobriety tele-exam and be called to help address a police situation. Police we all are.

Is there room for gaming this system? Probably. If the policing duties are given over to the populace, it only serves that same populace to generate just enough crime and law-enforcement to serve their own livelihood.

It was wishful thinking.