Bad Luck for America

America is once again in horror because of Russia. No, not because of Russian missiles. And not because of Russia’s raw power. And not even because of the Russian mafia, which, to tell the truth, everyone forgot about long ago.

This time the reason is different. Surprising. Almost impossible.

America is in horror because of Russian technology.

Don’t be too quick to laugh. Maybe we are not good at making computers and automobiles, but at least there is something we know how to do! We just need to figure out how what we are good at could be used in global ambitions.

And then we came up with it. The Cordon traffic monitoring camera, developed in Russia, has evoked horror in American drivers. This tiny camera can be installed anywhere, including road signs, and it will not be visible. It transmits information along wireless networks. But the worst part is the Russian computer program that simultaneously analyzes 32 vehicles in four traffic lanes. It identifies license plates, and it takes a picture of each violator and wide-angle shots of the traffic conditions.

Even by the beginning of next year this shattering weapon will be at the disposal of American police and will appear on American roads.

“This is Skynet,” write scared drivers in the U.S. blogosphere. “Big brother! They must be destroyed! Share our horror!”

But for me it brings up a different question: Why aren’t these cameras on our roads yet? Not that I really want them … but after all, the state traffic patrol would surely want them, right?

Or do they?

The camera is a soulless thing, after all. You can’t speak with it. It silently takes pictures of its 32 vehicles, silently transmits them along a wireless network and silently analyzes them. And who will have it? Could it be that no one will have it? But that is downright impossible!

And something tells me that even if this miracle of homeland modernization appears on Russian streets, it will not not work very well. Cameras here and there, the locations of which only the police will know, will begin to disappear from the system. And in place of them, the good old traffic cops with their striped clubs will relieve them of duty. Maybe they will not be able to track 32 violators simultaneously, but they can track one precisely! And he will not offend them.

Evidently, the camera’s developers know this, even without my help. And it is for this reason that America has the bad luck.