On one level it's just these avaricious companies that are after your data but of course if they can do it so can hackers.
Additionally we learned via Edward Snowden that the NSA is
also attempting appropriate this data and in many cases has direct and
unhindered access to it. I was pleased to note this article at least mentioned
it. Many other media outlets no longer bother. It's yesterday's news.
It's all pernicious of course but the aspect of it that is
particularly troubling to me is the facial recognition. This technology is
taking off and its large-scale implementation will permanently reconfigure our
notions of privacy and state supervision. We are walking blindly into
totalitarianism.
As readers know I don't own a smartphone and have no
intention of doing so. But in keeping with my other concerns regarding forced
conformity and underground life I think the time may be coming that if you
don't have one.... you won't be able to shop in many stores, maybe even park
your car. The pressure to have one is already becoming overwhelming but it's
one thing I will not bend on. I currently carry a burner flip-phone which of
course can also be tracked and turned into a listening device. That said, I'm
not worried about being tracked. I'm not being paranoid. I know full well I'm
not a person anyone is interested in. It's the principle and of course no one
knows what the future holds. At some point I may turn up on the radar.
But what will I do if the time comes that not having a
smartphone will mean I can't function in mainstream automobile and retail
society... or maybe even have access to certain utilities and pay my bills?
This is all part of the underground mentality that I am
wrestling with. We're not there yet and maybe we never will be. Maybe this will
all implode. I hope so. And yet it may come upon us quickly. Nonconformity may
take on a real practical aspect and one may end up a criminal for simply
refusing to get on board.
How then shall we live? Hebrews 11 is a good place to start.
A chapter praised but ignored. It is paid lip service by today's religious
leaders but in reality they would largely despise the lives and decisions made
by those of whom it was said... the world is not worthy.
I got rid of my smartphone a few years ago, but I did it because of the neurological effects and vices it was inculcating. I realized I couldn't sit and wait for company, a meeting, whatever, without feeling the compulsion to look at my phone, to be active, to do something else. For children growing up under its aegis, where the phone, the tablet, or any super portable internet device, I have no idea what education will become. People already possess incredibly short attention spans. Asking people to be patient, to follow a chain of logic, requires almost a personal relationship with the person. It's like asking for a favor, not a social convention or expectation. And, of course, the problem with social media and the internet is that it can far more easily provide echo-chambering. You only listen to people you like, people you agree with, people who sound and talk like you.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lot more comfortable with some of the tech than you are, or so it seems. But it all reminds me of Jacques Ellul's distinction between technique and technology. He wasn't calling to be a Luddite (dealing with the caricature, and not the actual social subversion they were offering industrial capitalism), but attacking what was essentially a new paganism. Technique is a mindset, a way of social organization, a philosophical theology. It embraces technology full-throttle because technology is the toolkit, the oracle bones and augury, of the gods. Rather than moderation and limitation, it demands acceptance. Like food or wine, it can be used for good and be a blessing, but to think that one can just stuff your face or binge-drink that doesn't do something to you, physically and spiritually, would be sheer folly. But few give enough time thinking about it. Instead we're rushing to make our houses into giant computers, eagerly chasing after the Matrix. Maybe that's where that movie series is far too optimistic: it's not the machines who lock us up in VR, it's we ourselves who do it.
And, again, I have no idea how this will change the ability to educate. Maybe that will be the fatal flaw: too many people too stupid to replicate the structures, not enough creativity to adapt. I don't know, but it's disheartening. I guess we can each do our own part, trying to teach our fellows and neighbors how to direct our intellect and give God the glory with it. I don't know.