Hi BaggyWrinkle,
I am not surprised ...
End of the eighties I have been working for a contractor operating closely with law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Part of my job was technical investigation and was almost every fortnight in the UK for checking out new equipment, technology
and applications.
Amongst others there was already a lot going on on software detecting suspicious behavior from surveillance camera's
observing crowded area's (like bus/train/subway stations).
So if you are able to detect suspicious behaving persons in the midst of crowded area's not by watching but using
software to decide for you ... you start to understand that there is a lot possible for quite a while now.
And then I did not even mention that with camera I do not only mean recording device in the visible spectrum ...
I have no 'global' experience but the UK was definitely leading in Europe and probably still is today.
Big brother still sounds like a person but the scariest part is that it is more computers and machines watching and DECIDING (software).
If those decisions are coupled to machines again to take (immediate) action it's getting even much worse.
A good example of things turning ugly is in the start of the film Robocop where the first model doesn't HEAR the gun drop ...
Smart weapons .... ? I consider the use of weapons not very smart
Cheers