Thousands of schools nationwide will not be reopening this fall. But in Las Vegas, the private K-12 Meadows School plans to use an artificial intelligence-powered thermal screening system to keep students safe as they return to classes. The system will scan for signs that students have elevated temperatures -- an indication they might have Covid-19 -- as they enter buildings for their classes. If they're flagged, the students will be asked to wait separately for about 10 minutes, and then get their temperature taken again. If the result is within a normal range, they're cleared to start their day.

Dystopia starts with 23.6 inches of toilet paper. That's how much the dispensers at the entrance of the public restrooms at Beijing's Temple of Heaven dole out in a program involving facial-recognition scanners--part of the president's "Toilet Revolution," which seeks to modernize public toilets. If you go back to the scanner before nine minutes are up, it will recognize you and issue this terse refusal: "Please try again later." China is rife with face-scanning technology worthy of Black Mirror. Don't even think about jaywalking in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province.