At the beginning of the nineties, Alvin and Heidi Toffler published a book entitled The Wars of the Future, where they described in a particular way the world shaping of the future based not on rifles but on information. Looking ahead, the Tofflers proposed a scenario of domination based on the informational control that could be had in different arenas. This would not only affect politics but also economically and socially.
At the end of 2018, Shoshana Zuboff published her extraordinary book called Surveillance Capitalism, where it alerts us to the structural changes that are taking place worldwide from the obtaining -consent or not- of personal data concerning life deprived of much of humanity. Zuboff alerts us to the new social architecture which threatens to transfigure human nature in a particular way its freedom, giving way to a driven society, a kind of hive ordered under the guidelines of the predictions or prescriptions of a capitalism that he observes everything, he sees everything, he knows everything.
The new human race regarding the deepening of the so-called immersive technology will undoubtedly be a new revolution in various areas of personal action. In the following years, industry, education, medicine or marketing, to give just a few examples, will offer us platforms that will provide real sensations in virtual environments. The meetings by zoom, meet or teams where we were in front of the computer monitor will remain in an archaic past giving way to sensory boardrooms where we can interact with others just as we would in the real world.
Of course, all this technology is accompanied by a greater demand for data. The bet of Zuckerberg in his announcement about the so-called Metaverse does not only mean the creation of a sympathetic platform, on the contrary, it means the creation of a new environment of social interaction with its own economy, with its own government. Participating in the metaverse not only implies connection, because as with current technological platforms, it will demand unlimited use of data where we are all called to be observed and watched by the Big Other, as Zuboff suggests.
The advent of platforms that capture increasingly intimate data has become everyday. Today we are not surprised to know that someone measures our heart rate, our micro sweating or our pupil dilation while we experience sensations when we buy or when we play online, what’s more, we have overlooked even the possibility that we are being observed, monitored, watched . It is only necessary for the reader to observe in their closest environment and count the number of technological devices that are feeding on the data that is promoted in their home from their watch to a smart vacuum cleaner that has mapped their home meter by meter.
The accelerated migration towards surveillance capitalism is setting the tone for the growing and more aggressive generation of technology platforms that seek to squeeze the greatest amount of data from each of us, data that comes more and more from our most intimate spheres. It is not for nothing that some of the so-called transhumanist projects come hand in hand with proposing a decoding of human behavior to accurately predict their behavior, completely denying their freedom.
If the reader was concerned about the above, I leave you as a reflection the following 5 questions.
- Is the reader aware of obtaining data from all the devices around him?
- Does the reader know where all this data goes?
- Is the reader willing to have his intimate life observed?
- Is the reader willing to be directed in their decisions?
- Does the reader know how to limit the use of their data?
Based on your responses, the reader may be ready to live a life outside of algorithms.
*The author is director of the Degree in Government and Economics at the Universidad Panamericana. He is a member of the National System of Researchers of Mexico. He chairs the Ibero-American Cooperation Association for Transparency and Access to Information.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx