The most chilling quotation from the article: "Binney held his thumb and forefinger close together. 'We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state.'" In the Future, you will be tried for crimes you committed in the past. Even if you didn't know you committed those crimes.
whether or not a submission makes it to front page of HN is largely dependent on the time of day it was submitted, not necessarily on the strength of its content. Obviously, making it to the front page is a strong indication of underlying quality, and so comments are usually quick to follow.
It's funny seeing the programme title of "Total Information Awareness". That was the title of pretty much the same system in a British TV drama. The show was about an Orwellian dystopia, where the government is on the verge of introducing this program that can monitor and control every point of human interaction - quite foreboding. The show was called "The Last Enemy": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0966151/
