The Future Of The Internet. We Have Arrived. We Just Haven't Gotten There Yet.

The Metaverse is the future that want us to see. The future they wants us to believe, and the future they want us to embrace.

What the future we are likely to see, is much closer to a Black Mirror episode, than what Mark Zuckerberg is selling. Surveillance on steroids.

The foundation has been laid. We are here. We just haven't been invited to the unveiling.

DW Documentary
Is humanity destined for a futuristic utopia? Or are we heading blindly towards life in a nightmarish surveillance state? Both scenarios still seem possible as increased digitalization is turning us into a fully networked society.

The Internet is in the process of infiltrating all aspects of human life. "Reformed techno-utopian" and filmmaker Brett Gaylor ventures into the world of digital invention. Here, he meets people who have made significant contributions to the "Internet of Things." One of them is Kristina Cahojova. She has developed a device that relays information about fertility from the vagina directly to the cloud. Journalist Nellie Bowles met a victim of domestic violence who was terrorized by her ex-boyfriend in their shared 'smart' apartment.

Meanwhile, in China, citizens are rewarded for behaving in socially desirable ways. In Toronto, activist Bianca Wylie warns against the Sidewalk Labs project, which turns people into guinea pigs. The documentary poses fundamental questions about people -- and their personal data.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn



EDIT TO ADD:

Ah, you fixed it. 🤣

I was going to give the video a watch, made it a whole 35 seconds in. As soon as the line, "Shady hackers harvested our attention, subverted our democracy..." and the screen was plastered with Trump paraphernalia I knew enough about the direction of the video and its politicization to carry on.

Having said that, we're not headed towards a nightmarish surveillance state. We're full bore, deep into it already.


EDIT TO ADD:

And to elaborate on my previous statement, it's easy to cut that out. Stay off Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, etc. Don't use Google, Bing, or even Yahoo. Don't use "connected devices" like Alexa, Siri, or whatever Microsoft has. The less information you put out there, the less they have. As of now, no one is forcing you to use those products or services. Eventually, they may, but then you can choose to resist.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Synopsis of the video? It won't play for me.

In my last column for Commodore World magazine in 1996, I put forth the theory that two things were going to happen to sh*t the whole thing up. This was when I was publishing an online newspaper and trying to sell advertising - "What's an internet and why would ANYONE advertise on it??!!"

1. Corporations would take over, the old "Okay, we're here now and we'll run this our way so step aside little people."

2. Government would exclaim "Obviously, this needs to be regulated for 'the children' and the 'good of society' "

So, yes many of us saw this coming as soon as web browsers were released and as soon as anyone other than a single operator, less than 4 people operation started becoming the norm. This "metaverse" garbage is just another part of the ruination of the most important invention aside from the wheel in history.

One last point: I bailed from the internet totally as soon as the dot com bubble inflated around 1997 and didn't come back until 2002.

I even had some offers for my internet newspaper (est. 1989) and PC World wanted to do a "One of the original web sites" article about me. I turn them all down and ran from the BS as fast as I could.

Now I just publish my off grid site. And don't accept advertising.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

I think it was just using the things you mentioned as an example. The video is not about any of those things.

As I stated, we have arrived. It has seeped into our lives so completely that we have not noticed how deep we are in it. I also agree to a degree that we still have a modicum of control, but that too is fast receding.

I don't use Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, etc. I don't use Google, Bing, or even Yahoo at home or for personal use. I don't use "connected devices" like Alexa, Siri, or whatever Microsoft has. But many of those sites are required for some of my daily activities and at work.

I can't hide when I am the only dark window in a building, were every room is lit up. I refused a smart phone for years, until my job made it mandatory, because they chose to change the way we communicate and share documents. A recent trip to my bank, made it necessary for them to place an app on my phone for me to do business with them, because they have changed the hours that some of the services I need. I know the next step is to reduce or shut down some in person services all together.

Personally, I believe that half of this is about data, and the other is to reduce the need for workers, but all of it is about total control.

We've been living in a dystopian surveillance state for at least 40 years now. Everything we type into our phones or computers is monitored, measured and analysed. Our cell phones record everything we say. Google works openly with the NSA. All that was made painfully clear by Snowden, quite a few years ago now.

Yet here I am typing all this into my Chrome browser, with my Android phone sitting nearby. However, I'm an equal opportunity sheep - I bought a Xiaomi phone so the CCP can listen too.

a reply to: joejack1949

Odin's Eye can see far and wide.

They won't stop until they can see into your mind.

The right to privatize your thoughts was God given, but by the science of man, they may take it away.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Stuff we all know about already though I must say I sat up straight when the young woman showed an internet connected dildo.

a reply to: billxam

1. Corporations would take over, the old "Okay, we're here now and we'll run this our way so step aside little people."

2. Government would exclaim "Obviously, this needs to be regulated for 'the children' and the 'good of society'

Looks like you were right on both counts. Now they’ve merged to together for a totalitarian stranglehold.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Stuff we all know about already though I must say I sat up straight when the young woman showed an internet connected dildo.

So that’s what they are planning on shafting us with!

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
Stuff we all know about already though I must say I sat up straight when the young woman showed an internet connected dildo.

I saw something even better at CES earlier this month, I believe it was called a 'personal manipulation device'.

The "convergence" aka the intermingling and eventual fusion of human identity with digital experience and using that interface to manipulate how information affects our sense of self and by extension, our relationships with the world. It's supposed to augment our interactivity as a "family" for everyone's happiness, but that's all just fancy language for describing a hivemind technology.

originally posted by: Archivalist
a reply to: joejack1949

Odin's Eye can see far and wide.

They won't stop until they can see into your mind.

The right to privatize your thoughts was God given, but by the science of man, they may take it away.

It would seem that technology is already here, and being perfected more each day.
www.weforum.org... creates-images-from-your-thoughts/

originally posted by: TzarChasm
The "convergence" aka the intermingling and eventual fusion of human identity with digital experience and using that interface to manipulate how information affects our sense of self and by extension, our relationships with the world. It's supposed to augment our interactivity as a "family" for everyone's happiness, but that's all just fancy language for describing a hivemind technology.

It seemed that way to me when I first started looking at how the internet was affecting children and teens.

Growing up we had cliques. The members all dressed alike, talked alike, and shared common behavior. A clique usually was made up of two, maybe four kids. Now it involves millions, and across the world.

When I was young, a near century ago. it was not uncommon for young folk to think they had all the answers to all the problems in the world. Parents were too old and too disconnected to understand. But you knew better than to ever say what you thought out loud, and respect was still mandatory. That thought, with each generation does not change, but the level of respect is melting like a glacier in the Florida sun.

Before, I thought it was totally affecting the young, but in the last two years, I have come to realize that none of us are immune.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn


My friend that works as a contractor at Intel told me quantum computing is here and now.
There's no escape...Your car is listening to you as is the laptop you post to ATS on. ps...you can't turn your mobile device off.

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't following you.

originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn

originally posted by: TzarChasm
The "convergence" aka the intermingling and eventual fusion of human identity with digital experience and using that interface to manipulate how information affects our sense of self and by extension, our relationships with the world. It's supposed to augment our interactivity as a "family" for everyone's happiness, but that's all just fancy language for describing a hivemind technology.

It seemed that way to me when I first started looking at how the internet was affecting children and teens.

Growing up we had cliches. The members all dressed alike, talked alike, and shared common behavior. A cliche usually was made up of two, maybe four kids. Now it involves millions, and across the world.

When I was young, a near century ago. it was not uncommon for young folk to think they had all the answers to all the problems in the world. Parents were too old and too disconnected to understand. But you knew better than to ever say what you thought out loud, and respect was still mandatory. That thought, with each generation does not change, but the level of respect is melting like a glacier in the Florida sun.

Before, I thought it was totally affecting the young, but in the last two years, I have come to realize that none of us are immune.

The word you were trying to use is "clique". And the reason respect is melting at such an exponential pace is precisely because guardian authority has been replaced with virtual experts. Google is now a cool uncle you keep in your pocket, and your cool uncle is friends with pretty much the entire world and the entire world says all the nice things you want to hear instead of all the conventional wisdom your parents are supposed to share with you at the dinner table or while fixing your bike or weeding the garden together. "They" know that boomers were almost certainly resistant and millennials are largely skeptical but malleable, and the next generation from 2005 to 2035 are exactly the consumer market who can be gradually taught all the fashion and convenience and trust that makes them dependable clients.

a reply to: TzarChasm

If they had enough time they'd convert the older generations too, the algorithms they use are keyed to dopamine release so that it all feels really good when you get that needed approbation.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

They don't care about the older generations. Zillenials, but primarily generations Alpha and Beta (appropriately if unofficially labeled) are the proto customers being tested with technology and information, their feedback will contribute to the more advanced schematics that are being polished for 2040 production. And that's just the second phase of the industrial revolution that will take the better part of this century to complete, not unlike the evolution of motor vehicles and modern assembly manufacturing.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

It's an example that could have made any number of different ways, none showing the political bias.

I wasn't saying you personally, not to use those products or services, but a general "you" as in whoever is reading that. If you're (again, not personally, general) that committed to not relying on those services and products it's simple. Change jobs. Change banks. No one is forcing you to do things their way. Your compliance is your own (again, general use of "you").

You're not wrong that it's all about control.

I'll give the video another shot later at your behest and come back with my thoughts on it some time tonight.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

Again examples, I am really bad at this, I am sorry.

I guess I consider myself part of the general you, and I have tried to avoid being trapped in the web for decades. I failed.

I started on the internet way back in 88. Back when all I had access to was "The Well". That was a time when the only way people could even picture what communicating on the internet was like, was through movies like Jumping Jack Flash.

I watched an industry that I once thought was the best thing since sliced bread, turn into something akin to "The Monkey's Paw".

I am starting to believe there is no way out of this. Even pulling the plug will no longer be enough. Even if we don't participate in the new techno world, we will be grossly affected by it.

I live in the woods. When I first moved out here, there was nothing but dirt roads that looked more like cow pastures, than roads. It was a little slice of nature, far removed from the real world. That was a little over 20 years ago. What was once acres of nature, is now a mere cul-de-sac, in the middle of a growing Metropolis.

I can stop participating in the world, but it won't stop the world, and it will just leave me as a fading memory in its wake.