It all started years ago, the world, amazed by the internet, that infinite space free and full of promises.
It was, is and probably will be, a wild place for a while, its “new world” spirit and character, almost assured a plethora of deeds historically lived once and again.
We, humans (men mostly guilty) have behaved systematically “ass like” in every single piece of new land we found, regarding little about its sovereignty before our arrival, we (enough power given) are the conquerors, saviors, builders, founders, teachers, preachers and so on…
The internet was that new land, new world, were, shamelessly, we could become masters, owners, kings and queens of a little infinite bunch of bits, without having to even worry about others, as in this new land was nobody before, not even animals from whom to steal, as historically had been the case.
Its limitless nature, assured that no harm was done to get more bits to play on, after all, it wasn’t real, what harm could be done? everything was permitted, as its fictitious realm disconnects it from the “real” world.
Of course, not much time passed before we started to realize that this wasn’t exactly the case, as the events happening in the internet started to affect the “real” world at several levels.
I remember it as: socially it was all good with some traces of insecurity (more on this later) and economically it was really volatile, but full of opportunities for innovation, services, products, sales, art, and whatnot.
Everything happened fast, faster than anyone could keep up with, in all senses. There was simply too much going on at the same time, layers upon layers of breakthroughs, physical and digital, so much that everybody was at best, trying to get a grip on how it could even be possible to rationalize the consequences in each field of living.
But the ball was already rolling, growing bigger and bigger, and with it along came the monsters, the titans of our time, eager to conquer, to merciless change everything, stepping over the bones of the fallen gods and angels from a past that still feels present, so much, that we don’t even start to realize how many of them are dead.
One of the superpowers of these titans reside on its ability to appear as immaterial as the internet itself, to use that new and free land feeling to blend in and weave its web along. “Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly…
I won’t go as far as to say that everyone began with evil intentions and an obscure desire to rule the world, manipulate people and distort societies, perhaps I would say that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and that, everyone was only doing their job… I heard that last phrase in some nazi trials…
Then, there is the thing about creativity, you know, that in which we humans excel, our capacity to put our intellect to work and create. Oh! how we enjoy creating, creating things, thoughts, needs, problems, solutions, questions, realities, differences, etc.
And for each new creation we find / create a whole bunch of new creations, which now we can finally identify as “opportunities” to put it bluntly, “business opportunities”, that way of understanding creates a good incentive to keep moving and keep creating.
One of the caveats that I find in this perpetual motion machine is the huge probability of adverse incentives. Lets say, from a business point of view, we find a solution for a problem, solution that is vastly profitable while applied, then, its profitability lives in the application not in the finishing of the problem, so, we end up with a conveniently and probably artificially perpetuation of the initial problem, which will probably create more byproducts around this machine (ala Deleuze).
The above stated, takes us to the notion that at this point we are not completely sure how many of the problems the world faces are unavoidable, unfixable, relevant or even real, and just as mind blowing, the notion that we are not even able to agree about if deforest forest or kill people is good or bad, because there’s always some identity or economic motive involved.
So, in this context, this historically unparallel world, with distances shrinked to almost nothing, this world with individual voices louder than ever, this new dual world fractured between matter and bits, this free new world, this world in which we all have the opportunity to achieve our true potential, to achieve our goals, it’s finally here… Wait, is that so?
Well, I think not. Each historical cycle has had its own breakthroughs, its own opportunity to change for better, to leave behind a lot of prejudices and wrongs, but we systematically fail at that, or at least at a big part.
And so, as we fail to eliminate or at least to mitigate our fears, we keep trying to find a way to protect ourselves. We are constantly finding new ways to fight against our fears, basically, the intrinsic uncertainty of life. For what, we get a hold on identities, power, negation, ideologies, dogmas, gurus, heroes, protectors, and so on..
Then, along came this new world, in which we are failing again, possibly because none of the issues that affect us as humans, were fixed in any particular or even general way. We are still afraid, heartbroken, loveless, disappointed, angry, rejected, bullied, pointed, etc. The same creations that we use to protect ourselves are the ones that threaten ourselves.
Is, under all this layers of socioeconomic facts that the titans are fighting for our souls, and for that, they have to be above the human realm, so, titans they become, above human considerations, soulless, so much, that all empathy is lost, and when the human traces are the limit, enter the algorithm, haha sounds like if it was some kind of 10th level monster, but not, it’s just the ideal employee, slave, pet, he to whom order “kill every body” and it will, even though you probably couldnt doit your self no matter how crazy you are.
But of course, no one there wants the living souls of our dead bodies, au contraire, they want us kind of alive, not that much so we forget the need to reach out for our cell phone (coff coff fix coff) but enough to: have adventures (fast, multiple, new, more), love (fast, short, exuberating or troubling), defend a cause (passionately, loud), and so on.
They know all our fears and desires, the ones that are unsolved, the ones that keep us from going forward, the ones that we individually struggle to overcome, our conscious or unconscious desires, they know better. The problem is, that far from helping with it, they use them, instrumentalize them to milk our attention, once again, the profit is in the problem, not in the solution.
Titans know our needs, such as the need to associate, to participate in common activities, the need to be part of something, as that diminishes our uncertainty levels, amplifies our possibilities of success or perhaps, the probability of failure, again, helps us deal with our fear of failure. Relieving us from the burden of facing all alone, making it cheaper, easier, enjoyable, efficient, funny, fast, etc. again solutions, for problems that should not end, for the sake of the titan.
They lay out the field where our needs are being fulfilled, our individual needs, our social needs, our economic needs, even our spiritual needs, easy, conveniently and mostly free, except when you are going to make an income, there, logically they are going to claim their share, rightly so, one should say, after all, we are getting a lot for free, while we are not making a profit, so why be so selfish if they are so altruistic. Well you know, usually when something is too good to be true.
Some Information technology enterprises’ profits, ranks amongst the top ten world biggest this year, between financials, oil and gas and electronics titans which “profits” surpases the GDP of my country, let alone their sales. So, they have knowledge, money, power, technology, arguably some of the best professionals in their fields and a vast unlimited world made of bits in which the majority of the population is seeking some kind of refuge or opportunity.
Well, what a bunch of good chaps are these titans, such a lovely tee time they may have when, if ever, they meet. Talking about how to use all those titans super powers to save the world, end hunger, insecurity, discrimination, pollution, even class struggle!
The thing is that they are no superheroes, they are titans walking over the bones of dead gods, but maintaining their temples shiny for the people to walk in with confidence, after all ”better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” and so, we step in their fields, their platforms, they markets, their games and surrender a better part of our lives, emotions, expectatives, joy and dreams to them. Them, who can´t be so heartless, after all, they alone, are just humans, right? Yes, but as titans they have the algorithm, haha, I know, over acted, but non the less, it kinda is like that.
At the beginning of the covid19 pandemic and respectives lockdowns, I thought about the implications over this new world made of bits to which suddenly, a vast majority jumped to alleviate the burthen of the isolation, accelerating even more the rate of adoption of new technologies to achieve social interaction in a way that, even though was already taking place, and for sure fast, not as fast as the lockdown pushed.
I thought about our digital identity, about freedom (yes I know, long talk), about whether or not are we going to give up and surrender our reality to these new grounds and landlords, as suddenly we are trapped, and begging to have ways to keep in touch with the world, with the people we know and love, and the people we don’t know but we could know and love. Those platforms were a necessity, the internet became central to life, to mental sanity, to work, to live.
A couple of months ago I heard Yanis Varoufakis talk about this matter and refer to it as “Techno Feudalism” to which I can relate to some extend thinking about those “new grounds and landlords” as I stated above, but the thing is that I see it more like “Techno Totalitarianism” for lack of a better term, as I said, the titans are walking over the bones of dead gods and we don’t know exactly which ones and at the same time, they have become almost omniscient and able to manipulate reality in their realms.
These realms have created some sort of ideology, a new one, one of normalization, desublimation, one of such individuality that we are all the same on a sea of irrelevant differences, but clearly classified and standardized for any further purpose of the titans. See, we eagerly accept that what we see is what we want, actually, we accept that what we see is what we need, to the point that we actually believe that there is not much more than that. Sadly, we see only what they want and it is with that information that we judge, support, live…
We submissively agreed to behave under x or y rules, that are completely discretional and variable, under penalty of being kicked out of the platform, the equivalent of some sort of dead, so indeed the punishment for commit a fault, disobey, trespassing, or breaking any rule, can have an outcome equivalent to dead, and that threat is constantly jumping between our conscious and unconscious. What a blast! and one could have thought that those places were some kind of land of the free, but they are not.
We actually work for them, and at some point, we even pay them, well, people being the product is not new, but these mechanisms have reached new levels. Once again, to our eyes, and soon our senses (virtual reality or even metaverses), all what is happening in several of the platforms available is so reminiscent of the old school business models, that we just go through them assuming that we know how the plot goes. Look, we weren’t aware of all the shit that was going on behind the old business and marketing models, now, we know even less and control practically nothing.
The fact is that there are not even humans now behind several of the decision making going on, they have that soulless algorithm taking care of business. You know, talk is cheap, so they can literally order anything to the algorithm and it will behave accordingly. I mean, not everybody working at the titans are dysfunctional psychopaths or pathological narcissists, so, sometimes they will have to deal with nasty thoughts like morals, empathy, regrets, etc. stuff bad for business. Is in that context that the algorithm becomes a super power, because it actually allows them to behave and act, passing over their human limitations.
Again, for the lack of better term, this “Techno Totalitarianism” is what I see running unleashed, profiling itself as the new society, and it is not a country, not a nation, it is global, almost omnipresent and omniscient, largely misunderstood and profoundly underestimated.
What I see is, once again, negation, it is practically impossible to understand for the generations non native digital, the intrinsic vinculation that the digital world have today with reality and how factible is to this new generations to develop actual social activities in it, as valid as the non native digitals could ever understand. There lies the huge risk, because the understanding of this matter is clearly lacking, and relegated to a secondary level, when it is actually evolving at a rate that no one can seem to keep up with, not even while trying to, let alone neglecting it.
I consider it imperative for all independent nations and people around the world, to acknowledge this matter and act about it with the seriousness it requires, as the digital identity will have to be in some way related to a kind of digital human rights, the threats in this new realm are not completely new, but are not the same either.