Steve Steinberg argues that human ter­rain map­ping, and in par­tic­ular emer­gent group sim­u­la­tion, may be a dam­aging tech­nology we are devel­oping without due thought to it’s consequences.

With regard to Paul Torrens’ work:

“The next example was more dis­turbing. The sce­nario this time is a public demon­stra­tion, sim­ilar to the WTO protests that occurred in Seattle a few years ago. The model includes such details as tear gas which causes civil­ians to stam­pede, extrem­ists who are trying to insti­gate vio­lence, and mounted police. Torrens shows that changing a few small ini­tial con­di­tions con­trols whether the protest spins out of con­trol or not, and sug­gests this sim­u­la­tion is a valu­able tool for policing. Indeed. Demonstrating either star­tling igno­rance or touching naïveté, Torrens argues that this sce­nario is really a public health issue, due to the pos­si­bility of injury. Well, yes – but, more impor­tantly, it’s a demo­c­ratic, human rights issue, and improving the state’s ability to squash demon­stra­tions doesn’t strike me as a desir­able development.”