Brave New World.. or?
Where is brave new digital world heading? More interestingly, what are we willing to give up in favor of mobility and convenience? Should we just dive in and not worry about it, or could there be uglier sides to it that we ought to worry about, or at least think about?
Not to be one to paint doomsday pictures here, but the idea of corporations being able to track us wherever we are through GPS in our cell phones all in the name of being able to give us services we've been brainwashed to desire just doesn't sit right with me. The worst case scenario is like George Orwell's "1984" on crack because corporations are much more powerful and harder to stop than governments, as corporations can't just be overthrown or voted off. The laws governing what corporations can and can't do clearly aren't cutting it either when corporations now are copyrighting the code to human DNA. That a corporation can even own something like that is preposterous.
But I digress.
Why am I such a cynic about this brave new world of mobile communication, you ask? A major reason would be a documentary from a few years ago called simply "The Corporation". The picture it paints of these conglomerates is a scary one. I don't think very many have all too positive thoughts about corporations as is, but after seeing that documentary I believe they're absolutely capable and willing to do anything in the name of profit and power.
Of course the brave new digital world isn't all bad, and the future certainly doesn't have to be that bleak either. Being able to have your cell phone locate a friend in the neighborhood of where you are, or make you offers on something you're actually in the market while you're nearby a store that carries that item are certainly not bad things. But my point is that people shouldn't be all too willing to sign over their lives and privacy to these corporations either because you may end up paying for more than you bargained for.
Not to be one to paint doomsday pictures here, but the idea of corporations being able to track us wherever we are through GPS in our cell phones all in the name of being able to give us services we've been brainwashed to desire just doesn't sit right with me. The worst case scenario is like George Orwell's "1984" on crack because corporations are much more powerful and harder to stop than governments, as corporations can't just be overthrown or voted off. The laws governing what corporations can and can't do clearly aren't cutting it either when corporations now are copyrighting the code to human DNA. That a corporation can even own something like that is preposterous.
But I digress.
Why am I such a cynic about this brave new world of mobile communication, you ask? A major reason would be a documentary from a few years ago called simply "The Corporation". The picture it paints of these conglomerates is a scary one. I don't think very many have all too positive thoughts about corporations as is, but after seeing that documentary I believe they're absolutely capable and willing to do anything in the name of profit and power.
Of course the brave new digital world isn't all bad, and the future certainly doesn't have to be that bleak either. Being able to have your cell phone locate a friend in the neighborhood of where you are, or make you offers on something you're actually in the market while you're nearby a store that carries that item are certainly not bad things. But my point is that people shouldn't be all too willing to sign over their lives and privacy to these corporations either because you may end up paying for more than you bargained for.
posted by Claes at 10:00 AM
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