I was more than a little surprised on Tuesday at just how many people had little or no problem with being monitored - constantly. At this particular moment in time, sure, the government and/or corporations may not be doing anything wrong with your information. But is it really so difficult to see the potential for misuse of said data? We might think that we have a say, for now, in how government works, but can we not imagine a time when that might not be so (I'm not so sure we have any say in how it's run now, but that, as they say, is another can of gigabytes)?
Needless to say, I have my doubts about the good graces of the faces at the top. Furthermore, being watched unceasingly might be efficient, I'll give you that. But would you rather have a state run in the interest of efficiency, or in the interest of humanity? I assume most of us have read, or at the very least have a notion of, 1984 by George Orwell. If not, it is the story of a dystopia run with the utmost - you guessed it - efficiency. But the efficiency we believe can be reached through surveillance doesn't include a notion of freedom. If they take away our agency - what next? A lost agency is a lost identity. Maybe it would be efficient, and maybe crime would disappear, and maybe no one would have to die pointless deaths - but we would all lead pointless lives.
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The last chapter of iSpy felt so Orwellian to me. How iMonitering is used to another level, especially dating sites. It reminded me how the kids were told to spy on their own parents. It's like with this monitering, we can't trust each other. I guess that scares me the most, is not being trusted with my own information. You?
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