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Comment by Hobadee | Hacker News Reader

Flat out banning a category of product because it is possible to use it for bad things is stupid. Thousands of people are killed by cars every year - should we ban them? (Being killed is far worse than being recorded naked in a locker room. Not saying the latter is great, but it's better than being dead)

There are also potential good uses for this tech. As someone who can't remember anyone's name worth crap, I can't wait for smart glasses with facial recognition and a name tag that hovers over everyone. I'm sure there will be great benefit in industry, giving workers heads up displays of all manner of important information.

Just like any new technology, there is equal potential for good and bad.

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> I can't wait for smart glasses with facial recognition and a name tag that hovers over everyone.

What stops you from using a notepad? I do not want my face uploaded to Facebook.

People don't generally tolerate me sticking a nametag on them... And they certainly don't tend to wear it for future events where we are both present.

A local only face recognizer with consent of the face owners would be pretty useful for me. Although it would require a lot of 'hey, I'm bad at faces and names, do you mind if I take a picture so baby skynet can help me out?'

Would they ask the person to hold their name tag over their head, or just require everyone to tape it to their forehead?

How inauthentic. If you don't remember someone's name, just say so. Ask them again and try harder next time. If I see you with glasses on, and your eyeballs looking above my head I'm going to walk away from you.

That works the first 10 times or so I meet someone, but it starts getting awkward after that. (Wish I was exaggerating)

Practical advice from a non-social person that forgets names - make notes, even 15 seconds after you meet the person if possible. The name, along with a quick note about where you met them, a feature that stuck out about them, a conversation you had with them, etc. Another thing that helps if you are not great at socializing on the fly (like me), is having pre-planned conversation pieces for people you might meet at a venue, or on the elevator at work. This will help add to the notes. Dittys sometimes work - like if the person's name is Brian and they have long hair - "Long haired Brian". Sounds goofy, but it really does work. Then every time you see that person, you call them by their name to help make it stick.

And if all fails, a "What up DUDE!" always works well too.

Now if you have a brain issue or something, I understand. But as a normal, healthy person, if we aren't making even the smallest effort to remember names, even the non-important ones, then we are more than likely the problem hah!

This is a problem you have to solve yourself, without relying on making facial scanning and profiling tech widespread.

The simple solution is that you live with the small amount of awkwardness this generates.

Plenty of precedent to regulate harmful technology and behavior:

Cars are defacto illegal to operate in public. You must have a license to drive one.

You can’t yell fire to scare people.

You can’t buy a gun without some kind of check, or at all depending on location.

Civilians can’t operate jet engines with a variable nozzle size.

> Civilians can’t operate jet engines with a variable nozzle size.

I cannot find any support for that. Variable nozzles are fairly rare (but not non-existent) on non-afterburning engines, and afterburning engines are fairly rare themselves (and sometimes restricted as part of demilitarization of a former military airframe), but both variable nozzles and afterburners are entirely legal for a civilian to own and operate.

> You can’t buy a gun without some kind of check

That comes with a caveat -- this only applies to retail sales. Over half of States do allow private purchases with no background check.

I never once said that there can't or shouldn't be any restrictions in place. By all means, put laws in place where recording video in a locker room is a felony, for example. I'm just saying that a blanket ban because it could be bad is extremely short-sighted.

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