Earthquake researchers in California hope to take advantage of the motion sensors in laptops to create an earthquake-sensing network. By putting computers in homes and businesses to work as seismic monitors, the researchers hope to pull together a wealth of information on major quakes, and perhaps even offer early warnings, giving a few seconds' notice of a potentially devastating quake.
A new White House "Strategic Plan for the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System" envisions linking nearly 60 nations within a decade to gather and share information from satellites, ocean buoys, weather stations and other surface and airborne instruments.
The U.S. government has begun a massive data-mining research program, called Total Information Awareness (TIA), that would comb through vast amounts of information--purchase records, E-mail and phone logs, travel arrangements--that people generate in their daily lives, looking for telltale patterns of terrorist activity. One data mining expert noted that the goals of the project -- spotting suspicious patterns across multiple databases while minimizing false alarms and safeguarding individual privacy -- are on a similar scale to "putting a man on the moon."
New intelligence software finds meaning in the chaos of clues scattered throughout data-saturated networks. The challenge: to unravel terrorist plots before they happen.
James Pinkerton argues that the U.S. should build up the capacity of the internet to serve as a ubiquitous surveillance network, allowing civillians to keep watch out for terrorists.