Technology as a weapon

There have been many predictions of the future all throughout history. Many ridiculous, others terrifyingly accurate. What I don’t think anybody could have predicted, is the alarming rate in which technology has progressed in the past decade or so.

If you told somebody in the 1920’s that you can connect to somebody on the other side of the planet, through an imaginary space called the internet, they’d probably lock you away. Damn, if you told them that mental illness was real and people weren’t locked away for it, they’d probably think you were crazy.

Technology is a catalyst in an ever-changing world were we are evolving and seeing large amounts of worldwide, economic and societal change. However, the sheer speed this technology has progressed has left us all dumbfounded, with not enough time to face the potential and unknown repercussions of these changes

George Orwell predicted a world were this seamless connectivity backfired on us and created a hellish reality of corrupt aristocracy and constant government surveillance.

This is frightening when you think about recent controversy with the NSA. A huge government agency using technology as a weapon for relentless surveillance.

Oh but it’s okay “You shouldn’t worry if you have nothing to hide.” Like the slogan in Orwell’s novel for Big Brother…

Ignorance is surrender. When you ignore the fact that we are heading towards a dystopian society where we are simply cogs in the ever turning economic machine, you can rest easy. You can just ignore the fact that our freedom of expression is being taken from us by the likes of net neutrality and censorship.

The technology which initially was meant to benefit our society is slowly being contaminated by a dogmatic government who use it negatively, to reap the benefits in our very primitive economic system.

Any use of this technology that takes you away from government control and helps you be free is often attempted to be destroyed. Bitcoin, Tor even the internet in general. The powers above don’t like it when they don’t have control over what we do with these powerful new digital aids.

Technology has pierced through the very seams of our society at a speed we couldn’t even fathom. We had no time to understand the potential dangers. It can be used for good. Or it can be used for evil. It can level cities to a pile of dust and update twitter, all at the same time.

What we do with this technology is up to us. It is time NOW for discussion. We need to work out exactly how we can use it  beneficially, and what adverse affects it can cause when in the wrong hands. Otherwise, we may end up living in a world were privacy, freedom and happiness are just fictional concepts, on your watered down and censored television set.

How close are we to reaching George Orwell or Aldous Huxley’s brave new world?

Well, the FBI have recently finished their facial recognition system. A system holding a database of at least 52 million faces, making it even more easy to infringe privacy and find the identity of every human on the planet. How far away from dystopia are we? This happened last week So I’ll let you be the judge.

If we stand up against the powers above, like Orwell, I predict we will be looking at astronomic social change. The abandonment of  hierarchical government, a better thought out economic system and the evolution and disembodiment of the mind, body and soul.

–THE LONELY WEST–