Moral Dilemma of Inequality and Poverty

Last year I wrote an article that, as with some high tech innovation, both intriguing and disturbing.  It was about a charity organization and its use of facial recognition.  Here is an edited version of my article.

February 22nd 2012

As students of social studies in the US, we were introduced to, and thought-provoked on, moral dilemma.

Here’s an example. 

You’re on a speeding train, and the brakes fail completely. In the distance, you see a cluster of people on the tracks. The runaway train will undoubtedly kill them in a horrific crash, well before it can slow down to a halt. However, you quickly see an alternative track, onto which you can steer the train, thus avoiding these tragic deaths. But there is a person working on that other track.

What do you do? 

Switch tracks, kill one, and save more? Stay on course, kill some, but save one?

Plan UK

Today I learned about a charity called Plan UK, and its website speaks to the following mission:

We work with children in the world’s poorest countries to help them build a better future. A future you would want for all children, your family and friends. 

For over 75 years we’ve been taking action and standing up for every child’s right to fulfil their potential by: 

• giving children a healthy start in life, including access to safe drinking water
• securing the education of girls and boys
• working with communities to prepare for and survive disasters
• inspiring children to take a lead in decisions that affect their lives
• enabling families to earn a living and plan for their children’s future 

We do what’s needed, where it’s needed most. We do what you would do.

Noble, for sure.

How did I find out about Plan UK? 

Plan UK street advertisment

From an article I stumbled onto - Facial Recognition Billboard Only Lets Women See the Full Ad:

A new kind of outdoor advertisement is being tested on Oxford Street in London’s West End. The interactive advertisement uses a high-definition camera to scan pedestrians and identify their gender before showing a specific ad. The built-in system has a 90% accuracy rate in analyzing a person’s facial features and determining if they're male or female. 

The £30,000 display is set up by Plan UK, a not-for-profit organization that helps children in third-world countries. Female passersby will be shown the full 40-second video of its ‘Because I’m a Girl’ campaign that promotes sponsoring a girl to receive proper education in a developing country. Males won’t be able to see the full ad and will be directed to Plan UK’s website instead. The purpose of this was to show men “a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away.”

Now, for the moral dilemma. 

I heard about facial recognition and target ads from the film Minority Report. Tom Cruise, as John Anderton, walks through a shopping mall and office building, and in his futuristic world sensors identify him and target videos ads for him specifically. It’s no science fiction, mind you. PittPatt is a firm that has developed technology to recognize faces for images and videos - Google Acquires Facial Recognition Software Company PittPatt.  I don’t know if it’s PittPatt, but Plan UK has apparently set up such technology.

 
It’s one thing to be the subject of security for a modern day, high tech facility that we enter, but is it right for just any of us, walking on the street or waiting for the bus, to have our faces recognized like this? 

In many societies and cultures, women are, sadly, diminished, abused, or altogether dismissed. But doesn’t the notion of showing men what it’s like to have their basic choices taken sound positively vengeful? Might the gender targeting of this ad campaign, intended for a noble cause, be seen as reverse discrimination? 

Finally, why is it that many children, as the very lifeblood and continuity of a society, be subjected themselves to extreme poverty and its concomitant ills? Why does Plan UK have to be so needed, in a world that, despite the devastating economic downturn, possesses an unimaginable wealth in the hands of a relatively miniscule minority?

This is no hypothetical, runaway train scenario. Obviously.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD