A young Parisian friend of mine who lives here, was telling me last night that she knew at least one person who had to lie still beneath piles of bodies in that concert hall, trying to keep still whilst waiting to be shot. They were one of the survivors.
When she first heard about the attacks, she immediately phoned her mother and sister - who live right in the middle of the area attacked - to make sure that they were not caught up in it. They were not.
Then she brought out her iPhone and turned on a little map of the area in Paris, and the little map had two humanoid figures on it, one of which was moving down the street.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, "My mother has left the flat and is walking down the road!"
I asked to look, and - sure enough - a stylised human was distinctly moving down the road in that part of Paris.
"Oh good, she has gone into my sister's flat, so she is safe now." I was astounded - I didn't know that this satellite App existed until then.
Ironically, they must have used similar technology to pinpoint Jihadi John before they blasted his truck to pieces with him inside it.
Technology, eh?
This made me pause to devolve technology and worry. As humans, we operate on "no news is good news; expect the worst, hope for thr best." Once we awaited a phone call, before that, a letter. Before that, the arrival of the ship or the regiment. Now, for better or worse, an app.
ReplyDeleteAll this stuff was made for the military, as was the internet, which was designed to survive a nuclear attack.
DeleteHere in Britain up until the 1960s, the arrival of a young lad on a motorcycle with a telegram usually meant very bad news.
All this technology and still 129 young people died
ReplyDeletePartly because of all this technology.
DeleteYes, shame they didn't pinpoint the men with machine guns an hour earlier.
ReplyDeleteThey did, but then they let them go. I do not yet understand if the German police knew that the car they stopped was carrying all that weaponry.
DeleteThis whole passed week has been very heart breaking. It seems we all have lost someone or know of someone who has in one of the many tragic events in the last few years.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are all involved and are bound to get more involved in the near future.
DeleteI read the comments and think- once we had that kind of talk only here, among us , now the fear is global,
ReplyDeleteYes - the borders and boundaries are almost non-existent. If ISIS really did have a State, they would be much easier to deal with.
DeleteUnfortunately, people using apps also have guns and murder on thir minds. Brand new world, and it becomes more frightening every day.
ReplyDeleteExactly. If we insist on our emails being encrypted, then we must expect the terrorists to insist on the same thing.
DeleteDoesn't the other person have to be part of the technology? I can't imagine Jehadi John (or others of his ilk) joining up with such an arrangement.
ReplyDeleteYes, they have to be willing partners for matters of 'privacy'. Otherwise there would be much shorter divorce cases.
DeleteI believe the terrorists take great care not to leave digital trails or openings, but they will always slip-up at some point. Everything works off the net these days.