Musings

“I have nothing to hide.” Someone says under the topic of internet privacy.

“Your sentiment.” I reply, “Did you ever see Minority Report?”

You ask, “That Will Ferrell movie?” You correct, “Wait no, Colin Ferrell.”

“And Tom Cruise. They'd used psychic people to “do justice” to you because those three random unrelated people in an ivory tower thought you might do something nefarious.

“So what?”

“That's a thinly veiled metaphor for surveillance technology and the social constructs that enable them.”

“So what?”

Okay, I'll drop the subtext.

In short, if you live in a democracy, you vote with ballots. Voting is an intentional decision where you factor in many different aspects you're trying to optimize your ideal future for.

When you use your phone and you scroll mindlessly through it, you're at the whim of the game master that designed the worlds and levels for you to roam through.

When you gander at a picture, you're intrigued. If you touch it, you're interested. If you stare, you're bonding. If you laugh, you're in love.

Moment by moment, measure by measure, intrigue by intrigue, who are you and what do you think?

Individually, you're nobody. Collectively, maybe you're a threat.

Now, it matters less what you think and what you have to hide, because you clearly have nothing.

The people that do have things, however, would like to break ground where you're standing.

Moment by measure by intrigue, they don't like you and there's nothing you can do.

End the sentiment surveillance engines, unless you've known and been okay with it too.