Seems to me like he needs to implement a Stephenson style panic button - In Snow Crash, at one point YT used a special button on her phone to summon help from other couriers.
It'd be easy enough to implement technically; when I hit the panic button it notifies all listeners of my location; listeners configure how far away they want reports. (perhaps taking reports from further away from people with higher reputation or from people you manually configure as more important...)
I mean, in the case of Mann, it's easy; if I was nearby and knew he needed physical help, I'd be happy to show up. The problem is for the rest of us, the unknowns, there would need to be some sort of sense of community or something.
hah. yeah. but I think the most powerful thing (and this could be implemented with cellphones) is just being able to summon witnesses, esp. witnesses with cameras.
It seems that these days wars are more about how it looks in the media than about killing as many of the other guys as you can. Just knowing that they are being watched, I think, would prevent most violent crime.
It'd be easy enough to implement technically; when I hit the panic button it notifies all listeners of my location; listeners configure how far away they want reports. (perhaps taking reports from further away from people with higher reputation or from people you manually configure as more important...)
I mean, in the case of Mann, it's easy; if I was nearby and knew he needed physical help, I'd be happy to show up. The problem is for the rest of us, the unknowns, there would need to be some sort of sense of community or something.