[CamperBob2]

Slippery-slope arguments come into play almost any time you use technology to solve social problems. It doesn't matter that the slippery slope is a logical fallacy, if the entities involved (i.e., people) aren't logical ones. "Libertarians" harp on this stuff because historically, the cost of letting governments do anything they want runs into the hundreds of millions of lives.

A more enlightened approach would be to ask why Chicago has so much trouble with gun crime, given that many other American cities have higher per-capita rates of firearm ownership both legal and otherwise.

One thing's absolutely certain: the real problem, whatever it is, will not be solved with digital signal processing.

[DanielBMarkham]

I listened to a set of lectures from the Teaching Company a while back on the debates that occurred when the United States ratified its constitution. The opponents made all sorts of slippery-slope arguments: that there would be a standing army, that the federal government would grow past it's ability to pay (which the supporters actually acknowledged), that the Congress would become politicians for life, and so on.

At the time, these guys were dismissed as being totally wacko (my words, not the lecturer's). What kind of ridiculous slippery-slope arguments were these guys making, anyway?

Of course, all of these predictions did come true, it just took a long time. But when they were made it was all too easy to discount them as being far-fetched. This trend in public discourse continues to this day.

[tptacek]

If a founding principal of the United States was that legislators shouldn't become politicians for life, the US Constitution could have included term limits for the legislative branch. How seriously are we to take the "debates that occurred when the United States ratified the Constitution"? The opinions expressed in those debates aren't laws.

[acuozzo]

> I listened to a set of lectures from the Teaching Company a while back on the debates that occurred when the United States ratified its constitution.

I'd like to listen to these lectures. Please try to remember what they're called. Thanks!

[CamperBob2]

I'm guessing he's referring to a course being offered on the Federalist Papers, for what it's worth.

[tptacek]

This system isn't deployed in Chicago; I've used Chicago as an example because I live here and am familiar with it. Every major American city has a gun violence problem.

I don't understand your glib "digital signal processing" sentence. Technology won't help police forces become more effective? Strong disagree.

[CamperBob2]

Technology won't help police forces become more effective? Strong disagree.

It's not a "police problem." It's a cultural one.