Saturday, January 24, 2009
Location: Taos, New Mexico

Have you seen the new cell phones Google just put out? They’re called the Android. Pretty amazing they sync up with your online web identity, and they do everything you could possibly imagine! Most importantly they have built in GPS and mapping systems. You can pinpoint your location on maps and have friends locate you. You can leave notes in places you’ve been on these maps (ie. The pizza here at 32nd & Blake St is tasty). You can have your phone notify you when you drive into a dangerous neighborhood (hmm must be tied into crime reports and police information systems). You can scan barcodes off items in a store and have your Android tell you how many of the same items are for sale within a ten-block radius and for how much (Walmart usually has the lowest prices by the way). You can check all your emails, do your online banking, all from the palm of your hand!

It’s AMAZING!!! But at the same time I can’t help but think about a conversation I had a while back. Someone was telling me that the government didn’t need to physically microchip people, because people, through technology, have already willingly begun to hand over their privacy. “Sure you can have this fancy super-extraordinary piece of slick smooth techonogadgetry, it would be our pleasure to tie you into OUR network ;-) !”

The Android is a clear step in this direction.

In time everyone will carry a phone like the Android. In time all of us will be traceable by government agencies 100% of the time. Our location available via real-time GPS, our financial transactions via credit cards (who uses cash anymore), our conversations, our social networks, whatever you can think of… All tied into Google’s massive expanding Artificially Intelligent Mindseye. It’s a damn good thing Google is our friend.

And this is only the beginning. To live outside of this technologically sophisticated hyper-connected reality is to live on the fringes.

If you think I’m crazy then re-read this article by Naomi Klein, it’s a good one.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye

peace,
d