Neural Links, Privacy and Self Developed Citizens, and The Information Age.
“Ultimately, saying that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different from saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.”
― Edward Snowden.
It has finally happened. The perks of being a mid to late millennial is I can say I have lived in four decades, was a citizen under four presidents (two of which have been impeached), Two millenniums, and I can add the transition of the space age to the information age.
It is a transition. During the heat of the coldest part of the cold war, we as a people collectively put a man on the moon. Which is a crowning achievement for an earth bound species. True, we have reached further targets, voyager is carrying humanity’s message the farthest receivable distance. Yet, Mr. Musk’s saunter into private space flight is a feat in it’s self, but we are just breaking atmosphere. Along with Mr. Bezos private industry of space travel is aiming to solve the exorbitant price of getting things to upper atmosphere. Which when scaled down will open the portal to space travel, and the wealth therein.
However, we could be trapping ourselves before we get to take flight. How you ask? Well the autonomous relay orbiters, aka satellites do have a shelf life and can be hit by other pieces of space debris which can cause a chain reaction of creating more projectiles. These projectiles fly in orbital order, but with each random piece of junk it closes our windows into space.
All because we want to be connected, in such an isolating time. The world is at our finger tips displayed on a four inch portable screen. Plugged into a sphere of big data collecting. Browsing habits, walking patterns, heart rates, sleep cycles, dating preferences, music choices, medical records, driving routines, view history, pretty much any source of digital dopamine is being tracked and added to an algorithm. This data can be cataloged, mined, refined, and sold to the highest bidder be it the dark web or campaign managers. Cambridge Analytica is a memorable example, especially cause of the election year. The question is why do we surrender this, willingly? What’s the alternative? and has it made our lives better or worse?
We do it, because we want access to the social connections that our data can be exchanged for. If I unplug from social media, I am going to forget even more birthdays, and reminders from my extended network. Which will lead to a further refinement of world views and political beliefs. I am reminded of a time pre Facebook. A world of Myspace, where in this world you knew who your friends were because of the order of which they were listed by you. I can remember writing maybe one or two political bulletin posts. Comparative to my mindset now I can say I have moved away from the conservative artificial redneck community I was fostered in. Now was this due to me being exposed to algorithms which changed my political beliefs? Maybe, or I would like to say it is life experience as well. So the need for privacy is one to allow the individual to foster enough personal creation time to be a thorough, critical thinking citizen. Which is why the founding fathers of the united states placed such high value on it, through the different founding documents. We do it because we want to feel connected and heard. Which is the epitome of democracy.
Are there alternatives? One mindset is to abandon the data intrusion completely. This unfortunately, would be a regression to a much simpler times, maybe even fifty years ago. A time where cash is king, everyone knew how to read a map, and you kept your promises if you said you were going to meet someone. Another mindset, would be to shift the value of data and who it should belong to. The country of Estonia a former USSR eastern Europe country. Went through a huge shift in terms of how they recognize their citizens and their privacy. Estonian ID cards are used in health care, electronic banking, signing contracts, public transit, encrypting email and voting. Estonia offers over 600 e-services to citizens and 2400 to businesses.[4] The card’s chip stores digitized data about the authorized user, most importantly: the user’s full name, gender, national identification number, and cryptographic keys and public key certificates. Which streamlines a lot of processes, such as paying taxes and medical procedures. The control of those elements of privacy would take the profit out of data mining. Thus leading me to my last point of an alternative would be subscription services for social media. You pay to say what you want and it connects you through the messages you share, not the images you like, or what you will be most likely to buy.
The last part of the information age is the latest development from Elon Musk’s side side side side side hustle of techno-biological fusing with his company of neuralink. This company works on the premise of surgical implantation of chips in the skull to uptick brain activity and body response. Their latest announcement highlighted the successful neural connection of several test animals namely pigs. They also demonstrated removal of the implant as well. Electrical currents are what keep our bodies alive. Every heart beat, every muscle contraction, every neuron fire, breaks down into an electrical reaction. The neural link works upon this premise, very similar to a pace maker works on regulating electrical impulses to the heart. Early adaptations of the neuralink will work to rehabilitate spinal chord injury victims by essentially reconnecting the broken wires of the spinal chord. This is the first and most immediate application of this biomedical implant. The later editions will blur the line between artificial and organic intelligence. This would be done by decreasing the distance between us and the world wide web. Instantaneous google searches, directions, calculations, communications (telepathy), and even abandoning the body as a vessel for mind. Sounds alluring but conversely new technology always has it’s bugs and security issues would you be willing to risk your own mind?
Do you choose the red pill or the blue pill?
