Journal 2 : Curbing the Beast
The articles from this week presented a familiar picture of the magnitude we are integrated with technology and the internet. One report says 94% of people in us 18-29 have smartphones on them most, if not all of the time. With this dependency comes great problems, yet also new and important innovations and technologies.
For example, while the tech giants track our every move, conversation and desire, devices like the apple watch are also saving people’s lives. Calling ambulances when the elderly fall or have heart issues, becoming the first responders and bringing help when the user cant. It’s this black and white side of things that makes the conversation difficult. In today’s journal, I am going to take a nihilistic approach and touch on the fears described in the movie George Orwells 1984.
In the articles ‘The Internet Is a Force of Nature’ by Jason Dorrier, he describes how the internet is a force that must be tamed. The way things are is unlikely to change, so rather than fight it, we must civilize the internet. We must put rules in place, blockades for privacy and contracts to control the way companies capitalize on the individual. In the move 1984, the government has created an overarching power based on information, essentially the internet, they know everything about everyone, and they use it against them. Towards the end of the movie our main character is tortured, he is locked in a room and faced with his greatest fear… Rats. Of course, the government knows about this fear because of the mans network activity and so forth, essentially they use there intimate knowledge of the individual to break him down.
I would like to take this a step further, from the videos we have been watching, especially Humane: A new Agenda for Tech, we hear about how Facebook and Google know you better then you do, they have essentially created a moc version of you, a soless minion that whispers your greatest desires and fears into the ears of the technocrats. So why does this matter? The companies are only using this tech to advertise new products right? While that might be the current situation, we are seeing things like this spiral out of control in other countries. For instance if we look at China. They have one of the largest countrywide surveillance systems in the world, equipped with face recognition, the software is able to identify and track people across the country. Currently, they are using this ‘Eye in the Sky’ tech to identify and capture Muslim Chineses people, as of today they have captured and relocated over 500,000 people, many of which are being arrested and put into prison-like camps. Systematic extermination, using all-seeing technology, but this is only one of the many fears when we go down this road.
I would like to look at the idea of unconscious suggestion. Let’s look at a situation where two teenagers are using the internet, google decides to test their powers, person 1: is suggested only positive inspiring content, real news and motivating stories. Person 2: is suggested only dark content, depressive stories about the world, and fake convoluted news. How does this affect the individual? Would person 2 become depressed and manic, believing the whole world is a dark horrific place? While person 1 becomes a productive part of society? I think the content we see every day on our social media sights has more power over us then we care to believe. And by providing these suggestions Google, Facebook and the likes can harness this power. Whether its as innocent as making you buy a certain kind of cat food, or as horrific as convoluting the user to the point where they no longer understand what is real… These tech giants have significant power, and they should not be overlooked.
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