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2026-08-08

Update

• This post is not very well written so let me try rewriting the core point of the post in simpler words. A few months have passed since I wrote this post, so my worldview has also solidified more on these topics.

Summary of the post

• There are some methods of obtaining information about others that can be done by individuals. For example, scraping and analysing the public internet, or purchasing identity databases on the dark web.
• There are some other methods of obtaining information about others that can only typically be done by someone with a monopoly of violence on a large group of people. For example, backdooring Big Tech servers or using satellite imagery accurate enough for facial recognition or flying gigapixel cameras or using drone swarms for surveillance or similar.
• (This "someone" is typically intelligence agencies working on behalf of a state with a monopoly on violence, or private defence contractors working on their behalf.)
• If an individual or small group tried using these methods, the executive branch or intelligence agency of that country can probably shut them down. For example, if an individual tried using gigapixel cameras or drones for surveillance, they can be shut down by the intelligence agencies of that country.
• If however, this individual was able to continue using this method while living in a different country, then it becomes much harder to shut them down.
• If petapixel cameras were ever invented, you could surveill populations in different countries thousands of kilometers away, while still having resolution accurate enough to be able to do facial recognition. It will be difficult for the intelligence agency of that country to come and stop you.
• It is likely that the manufacturing process for such cameras will be simple enough that it will get replicated in multiple countries, and eventually such cameras will be available on the black market.
• The end result of this is the entire world becoming quite easy to surveill by anyone not just by govts, and nearly all information on planet earth could become public information. You could end up living in a world with zero privacy for everyone.
• It does not seem likely we will invent petapixel cameras in the next 5-10 years, however, hence this entire plan is unlikely to play out in real life soon.

2026-03-01

Petapixel cameras won't exist soon

Disclaimer

• Quick Note
• Contains politically sensitive info

Huge amount of background context on why I care about petapixel cameras

• I have often speculated about the idea of a world with zero privacy for everyone.
  • Not one where only govts and companies can surveill individuals, but also where individuals can surveill govts and companies, and individuals can surveill each other. The platonic limit for this is a world where everyone on Earth is on public livestream 24x7x365
  • The most immediate motivation for me to study this is to help enforce an AI pause.
    • Currently govts can surveill semiconfuctor manufacturing facilities and GPU compute clusters.
    • However, individuals cannot directly surveil these facilities as easily. Individuals are currently at the mercy of whether the govt gives them access to this information or not. Both US and Chinese intelligence agencies are not under full democratic control.
    • Also, even govts may not be able to surveil these facilities in the limit if a) the existing stockpile of household GPUs is used to coordinate a distributed training run (using Tor and monero payments) b) continued algorithmic progress allows a small number of private individuals to use their existing stockpile of household GPUs and build ASI without building a large compute cluster
  • I also have other motivations for wanting to live in a world with zero privacy for everyone. Not discussed in this post. All those motivations are less urgent than the immediate motivation of trying to enforce an AI pause.
• Govts already have a large variety of methods they can use to surveil even smaller or distributed compute clusters.
  • Spies
  • Stockpiles of zerodays that affect almost all computers on Earth
  • Agreements with Big Tech that give them access to lots of private data
  • Analysis of the entire public internet
  • Military satellites that fly at LEO and do facial recognition
  • Drone swarms (10,000 drones is enough to surveil a city and do facial recognition)
  • Gigapixel cameras flown by aircraft or stationary at ground level
  • A number of checkpoints and identity databases embedded into society, that make it hard for individuals to function in society. Example: license plate registration and highway checkpoints, CCTV surveillance of city centres, bank account registration, etc
• Currently, individuals do not have access to many of these surveillance measures.
  • Individual whistleblowers can leak info to public only at actual risk to their life, such as Edward Snowden
  • Individuals do not have access to private Big Tech data
  • Individuals can increasingly crawl, backup and analyse the public internet, however this is still expensive and only a few groups in the world are doing today. It is easier if you narrow your attention to a small subset of the internet.
  • Govts have much larger zeroday stockpiles than most private hacker groups. Private hacker groups continue to exist but aren't as well resourced, and finding zerodays is expensive in terms of developer time.
  • Commercial satellite footage is not allowed below 10 cm resolution that enables facial recognition. It is easy for a govt to shut down private satellites violating this law.
  • Many zones are declared no fly zones for drones. It is easy for a govt to shut down private drone swarm operators
  • Gigapixel cameras are being incresingly only worked on by military, and may not be as available to general public soon.
  • Identity databases are increasingly being sold on the dark web to individuals, and private investigators increasingly make use of them.
• A brave one-off individual could operate some of the above tech, leak info to the public, and then flee the country or risk imprisonment. However this may or may not be a long-term sustainable way of ensuring individuals can do surveillance without govt involvement.
• If the govt itself is the one trying to accelerate ASI, then many of the above measures fail. It may be better to live in a world where individuals can surveil ASI projects directly without having to involve the govt.

Petapixel cameras won't exist soon

• Gigapixel cameras allow you to do facial recognition (0.1 metre resolution) from a distance of 1-10 kilometres. You can fly them via aircraft/helicopter or place them at ground level.
• For example, here is a 120 gigapixel photo of New York City
• If govts don't want individuals to have access to this tech, it is currently not that difficult for them to lock down the supply chain for this and prevent individuals from having access. (Not sure, this is my best guess, can read more.)
• If an individual wanted to use such cameras anyway, in defiance of the govt, they would have to do from outside the borders of the country they want to surveil. You would then need to surveil at 0.1 metre resolution from a distance of 10,000 kilometres. This requires not gigapixels or terapixels, but petapixels.
• Despite huge advances in sensor array tech driven by Moore's law, I don't think humanity is anywhere close to inventing petapixel cameras in the next 10 years. (Unless ofcourse ASI itself invents them, all bets are off the table then.)

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