Welcome To The Matrix: Enslaved By Technology And The Internet Of Things

“There will come a time when it isn't ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.’” ― Philip K. Dick

Hello, fellow freaks!

I have to admit, the internet makes me nervous. I mean, where is it? What is it exactly? How does it work? And what does it look like? Fortunately for my overworked (and underpaid) brain these potentially crippling thoughts pass quickly, usually because I have seen something interesting on the internet...like a goat riding a donkey, or a cat.

What does keep me awake at night though are my conflicting thoughts about the potential of the internet; both good and bad. For me, it is the most incredible thing to ever happen to our species. So good in fact that my thoughts soon take a dark turn when considering it's splendor and I usually ask myself the same question; why did 'they' let us have it?

If they want to control me, suppress me, demoralise and destroy me, why on earth do I have the internet in my arsenal?

Then I read things like this...

Indeed, while most of us are consumed with our selfies and trying to keep up with what our so-called friends are posting on Facebook, the megacorporation Google has been busily partnering with the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, and other governmental agencies to develop a new “human” species, so to speak.

In other words, Google—a neural network that approximates a global brain—is fusing with the human mind in a phenomenon that is called “singularity”; and they’ve hired transhumanist scientist Ray Kurzweil to do just that. Google will know the answer to your question before you have asked it, Kurzweil said. “It will have read every email you will ever have written, every document, every idle thought you’ve ever tapped into a search-engine box. It will know you better than your intimate partner does. Better, perhaps, than even yourself.”

But here’s the catch: the NSA and all other government agencies will also know you better than yourself. As William Binney, one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA said, “The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control.”
Science fiction, thus, has become fact.

Source

Now I'm not technologically minded. Like I said earlier, I really don't understand it all. But what I do understand is that my gut is telling me something is off. It just doesn't feel right to me. Then I think about the language that has been chosen to describe this technology...

Web
noun
- a network of fine threads constructed by a spider from fluid secreted by its spinnerets, used to catch its prey.

Net
noun
- something that entraps; a snare.

...and my conspiratorial mind takes the wheel and before I know what's happening I'm signing out of all of my accounts and packing a suitcase.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is this; we (you and I) have, thanks to the Internet, ultimate power at our fingertips. What we must remember is that so do they.

“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”

“What truth?” asks Neo.

Morpheus leans in closer to Neo: “That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.”

a reply to: LiveForever8

Once a long time ago i opened a facebook account.
It is closed or canceled or whatever.

Be wise, be careful.

Never release more than you are willing to receive.

P.S. - "SmartPhones are a trap."

a reply to: whatisurproblem

I have no Facebook account.

Nor Twitter.

Partly for the reasons stated in my OP but mostly because I don't want to know what some skank I went to school with is having for dinner.

They can arrest my mind but they can't have it.

Haha I have a Post-It note stuck over the lens of my built-in webcam :p

Yeah...there are times when you're grateful they can track you (lost in an avalanche, kidnapped) and times that you aren't.

Tech's a double-edged sword for sure.

Get ready for pre crime in a neighborhood near you!

originally posted by: intrptr

They can arrest my mind but they can't have it.

Something tells me that, if they wanted to, they could.

a reply to: LiveForever8

I
Cant say much .

You are right
They us have it .
In incruments .
You sign 40 page conditions for apps u never read.

If they had tried to enforce the web on us with thease conditions,
World wide rebellion.

Bigbrother came to us In the guise of the best little brother we ever could have wished for.

We now pay for the bennifit of being Bage an Tagged via G P S Locales .
Cameras work both ways as do the micraphones.
Moniter our mail word chatter thoughts an desires is what this inerwebbs capable of .
If god forbid devious people ever thought to miss use it.

Trojan Horse we all took In except the real smart people.

Whom either stay of grid

Or come on Grid but stay well hid.

Im the latter.

Never look a gift horse In the mouth.
Because you never except something to good to be true.

There are critical and challenging times ahead. Our species is on the verge of a major, fateful transformation; the last time such a transformation took place, humans branched off from the apes on the evolutionary tree. And now, ready or not, the time has come for the next branch. The branch that will one day look back upon us in much the same way as we look upon the apes. This branch (the Transhumanists) will no longer follow the old rules of evolution and natural selection; it will invent it’s own rules and determine it’s own destiny. It will begin as a machine/human hybrid, but may over time become a conscious, self-aware, goal-seeking superintelligent machine with survival instincts.

The reason for all this is due to the startling rate at which certain technologies are advancing. Computer science, information management, artificial intelligence, genetics, robotics, neuroscience, materials science, brainwave research, various branches of biology, etc. It’s now considered a conservative projection that by the year 2045 machine intelligence will match human intelligence. Beyond that it goes quickly off the scale as machines grow smarter at an exponential rate. By the turn of the century the human condition is anyone’s guess.

This will likely not happen without a certain amount of resistance. Most folks are just beginning to become aware of this now, and for the most part haven’t yet thought through the ramifications. But this should begin to change soon as the picture becomes clearer. Many (probably most) people will not be too keen on the idea of giving up any part of their humanity and being subjugated to a machine with 10,000 times their intelligence. There will be heated debate and violent protest as political, religious, social and philosophical issues are fought over. There are so many scenarios it’s hard to predict how it will all end.

It’s hard to put a time-frame on all this, but from much of what I’ve read the next 100 years should be quite eventful. In any case, humanity is quickly approaching a crossroads, and there will be critical decisions to be made. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and depending on the choices we make, it could very well determine the fate of mankind.

This Video shows how crazy technology will become in 20 years thanks to Moore’s Law.

I hope this post didn’t seem too alarmist. It wasn’t meant to be. It’s just my 2 cents on the direction we’re headed. Actually, I love hi-tech and wish I could live long enough to witness the whole show. We live in special times...

originally posted by: LiveForever8

originally posted by: intrptr

They can arrest my mind but they can't have it.

Something tells me that, if they wanted to, they could.

They would find my rabbit hole boring.

At the same time, once awake its impossible to go back to sleep. Would you voluntarily crawl back into your "cyber tank"?

a reply to: ~Lucidity

True.

I don't know about you but it's been a while since I was last kidnapped/lost in an avalanche. I hate it when that happens.

Double-edged sword, indeed.

Knowledge is power!

For those that do not understand technology and have to jump through the hoops laid before us, it's enslavement.

For those of us who understand Technology better than those that would enslave, it is Empowering!

Korg,

The scary part is how people openly welcome the latest Iphone or whatever and how few people opt out of using digital technology. I know a few who still resist and will not use a computer or cell phone but they are dying out. The danger is our inherent dependence on this junk - kids who can't read a map or find their way around a city block. Sure, it's convenient but it also prevents us from developing other skills. I grew up before calculators became cheap and could do complex math in my head. Today? I don't know anybody who can do that.

Most of all I fear for my grandchildren who will never know the freedom I did as a child, never use their imaginations reading books and creating art. A government who will know everything about them from cradle to grave. Makes me wonder if another Carrington event wouldn't be the best thing to ever happen to us. All this technology was supposed to make us more free and give us more leisure time. It has done nothing but give our rulers more power over us and diminished our importance as human beings.

a reply to: FormOfTheLord

Oh yeah, it's on its way for sure.

Makes me want to have a look through my Science Fiction collection to see what else they have in store for us.

a reply to: LiveForever8

see what else they have in store for us.

It doesnt matter, we will take the Universe back!

from Dune: The Butlerian Jihad Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson
en.wikipedia.org...:_The_Butlerian_Jihad

The series chronicles the fictional Butlerian Jihad, a crusade by the last free humans in the universe against the thinking machines, a violent and dominating force led by the sentient computer Omnius.

This thread reminds me of the Cybil System that was a central plot point in the series "Psycho-Pass".

Judging criminals before they commit crimes based on psychological profiles and whatnot.