A bit late...because i didn't get this text written the way i want it.
part 3 of 3: freedom
Are you a dinosaur because even a plant can twitter ? Of course not. Is a twittering plant a sign of automatic-twitter feeds for people ? I think so.
In the future, when you go to a concert, a party or just get a hamburger, then auto-twitter-tweets (A.T.T.'s) will be twittering your every move. In the future, we are constantly tracked, monitored (and filmed?). So you can see which hamburger stand I prefer on Sundays, which parties I go to, and which concerts I attend. You can probably follow my gps coordinates, connect to live feeds of cameras close by, or even zoom in using the Google satellites(beta).
When you buy a T-shirt at the CFC concert, then your followers would know what T-shirt you bought, how many people bought it, for what price and in which order. In this future the T-shirt sale generates more statistics than the average bvlg post.
In this future, there are no l33t blogging or twittering communities, since all this can be done automatically. (Also, it will be hard to differentiate between generated content and real content written by real people.)
Parents can track their kids, banks their customers and lovers their lovers...it's going to be hard to surprise visit a friend, since they will mostly know where you are, with who, and what you are wearing, where you bought your clothes and for how much...must i go on ?
But Paul, I don't want this future. I don't want my bank to track me (or my parents to know about my lover). Well, tough luck. When GSM's first arrived on the scene, many people claimed to "never want one". How many people do you know today that don't have a GSM ? How many below 60 ?
Likewise, banks will not *force* you to be traceable *all* the time, but it will make your life a lot easier when you are. Same for cheaper insurance. Shops will not force you either, but fitting clothes and just walking out the store with them (with auto-payment when passing the door) is so much easier.
freedom ?
Where is your freedom when you can be followed, tracked, monitored, located, contacted *all the time* ? Is this future avoidable ? Can frogs be boiled (read it if you don't know the story!) ? That's the point, you don't see it happening.
Remember end of the eighties ? We had movies on TV without advertising. Even the minutes before (speaker) and after (too late) the movie where without advertising. At that time we had a discussion in school about how movies in the United States where interrupted up to four times for advertising. Nobody would accept such a intrusive thing here in Belgium. But it came gradually, one (announced) interruption, then two... last time i saw a movie on TV, the sound of the advertisement was mixed in the movie fading to the ad. yuk!
This is not a call for protest, it is only an observation... i could be wrong ;-)
2 comments:
*devil's advocate*
One can already be watched, traced, stalked, monitored and spied on using conventional methods. Surely being watched unobstrusively is just that, unobtrusive?
*/devil's advocate*
This sort of future might yet come to pass, the question is: how does one prevent it? Your gut instinct is that it's wrong, and yet a lot of people will think "i've got nothing to hide" or "it's a small price to pay for freedom". Well, they're wrong on both counts.
@Bram: I have nothing to hide...i think. I also don't have the same gut instinct as you. This tracking of everything and everyone is not wrong in itself. It is how we use it as a society.
I'm sure it will make life harder for thieves and other criminals. Maybe the 'black' economy will suffer a big drawback (imagine no physical money).
I don't think we can prevent this...we can only slow it down a bit...
Post a Comment