Technocrats crave any and all data including data relating to your behavior. Technocracy was defined as the “Science of Social Engineering” as early as 1938 and nothing has changed. Smart TVs aim to change your behavior, period.
Technocrats are compelled to hoard data and they disdain any pockets of data that cannot be freely mined for their own use. They are ‘ready to rumble’ with California state lawmakers over the newly passed California Consumer Privacy Act.
Google has subsumed the very fabric of our nation, from the top levels of government down to the smallest details of an individual’s life. Technocrats see a technological answer for every problem and issue. In Google’s case, it left its motto, “Don’t be evil”, far behind several years ago.
Technocrats in China constantly dream up new ways to gather data from the social environment. Robotic doves equipped with cameras are virtually undetectable from real birds, and can be deployed in flocks. The stealth birds might be covered with real feathers in order to avoid radar and sonic detection.
Big Tech joins a number of data hungry companies to defeat the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which will allow citizens to opt out of the collection and/or sale of their personal data. CCPA also expands the definition of personal data to include biometrics, geolocation and browsing history.
Despite rhetoric about consumer privacy, Technocrats at Facebook are busy working on even more sinister and intrusive methods of spying on people. Their feigned deference to public opinion is hollow. Technocrats have no sense of ethics or respect for the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The power of the city is demonstrated in Orlando’s dumping Amazon’s Big Brother facial recognition software because it could lead to a surveillance state. Competitive software is offered by Microsoft, Google and Nvidia.
This story only gets worse. It has been known for years that AT&T has had a fascist-type bonding with the NSA. Early revelations brought outrage from Congress and citizens alike, and court rulings supposedly blocked expansion. Now it is revealed that AT&T/NSA collects virtually 100% of all Internet traffic in the U.S.
AI as a service applied to cheap drones means that any law enforcement agency can now have their own fleet of drones to spy on citizens. Of course, they will catch lawbreakers from time to time, but the rights and privacy of innocent civilians will be trampled.
Whitehead clearly makes the case that government eyes are watching us, but he misses the Technocrats who are doing the watching and why they are watching. Technocracy is the Utopian goal, technology is the means to get there and data is the grease that covers the skids.
