Occupy London protestors highlight importance of questioning technology

Down at St Paul's Cathedral there are a few people in tents trying to overturn the capitalist system they hold responsible for all the ills in the world. So far they've managed to get St Paul's itself closed, but the business world hasn't imploded yet.

Nevertheless, the protestors have managed to highlight another important aspect of the modern world: our increasingly unwavering belief that whatever technology does or shows us is unquestionably right.

Several papers (with a certain right-wing appeal) had purported to show thermal images of the camp in which the tents appeared empty overnight. They said this proved the protestors were a risible bunch who disappear back home for their creature comforts at night, and therefore deserve our scorn.

However, in response to this slight, the protestors claim to have rented the same equipment from the same thermal imaging company to show that in reality the cameras are not good enough to see into the tents.

A video on YouTube shows the device failing to pick up a load of protestors emerging from a single tent just a few feet away, which certainly seems to back up their point.

V3 contacted the press arm of the protestors for information on the company they had hired the equipment from, but they said they had not made the video, suggesting it was made by a lone protestor at the camp.

The YouTube uploader, the wonderfully named thermalunderpants, didn't respond to our messages on the site asking for information on which manufacturer they had rented the equipment from, either.

Whenever politics is involved it's hard to know exactly how truthful anyone is being, but the situation certainly shows that, even though we live in a world reliant on the magical forces of technology, we should still question its capabilities.

28 Oct 2011