Protests

Post created: 2020-05-30

Protest videos have unfortunately become abundant over the past year.

I think one thing that strikes me as unwise is that those protesting are not quick enough to discard the loose cannons. If people are throwing fireworks, etc, then a snap decision should be made - is it time for the pot to boil over, or do other protestors hand them over? The latter happened to some extent in early HK protests, but this seems to be happening less as I follow the current protests in LA, MN, and elsewhere. The White House fence pushing is an example of where I think protestors should be quick to disown troublemakers.

I've had deeper thoughts on what it would take to make for successful protest for a while. In most cases, violence is not the answer. I wish the sasumata were more popular to pin down the troublemaking protested and protestees; technology in general could perhaps help to de-escalate situations. The general danger happens once people bunch up in tightly packed mobs, crowd dynamics and mob mentality are a thing. If you could ensure that people were always spread out.. hm.

For example, a device with these characteristics:

  • To wear it would confer some degree of protection, so that people are incentivized to;
  • To wear it would prevent people from bunching up, so that troublemakers are quickly isolated.
  • Easy to use.
  • Cheap.

Essentially a personal force field of some kind, a little hamster ball... I wonder how this could be achieved. This would also prevent most "false flags" etc.

May 31 update: People are doing it! Towards a kinder world.