Am I a raving lunatic?
Watch the video and decide for yourself.
Todays trio of signals triangulates the space we find ourselves in : wanting to but being unable to “go off grid”. The personal has become public as it has become digitised.
The signals in question :
1. The tiktok “silent walking” trend - where young people are bravely going walkabout outside without their phones.
2. The EU’s vote this week on its version of the trending “online harms bills” doing the geopolitical rounds (the one where in the name of “protecting children” governments are demanding an end to end to end encryption and the right to scan and monitor all online communications- after all, who but a monster would object to protecting babies? Everyone being assumed guilty and placed under effective wiretap forever, a small price to pay for risk-of-harm reduction, apparently…)
3. AR for everyone everywhere- or how “the metaverse” X AI promises to do to your home and work “interior” environment what google maps street view did for the great outdoors… (map it, digitise it and turn it into a - thanks online harms bills! - an intercepable information exchange…
Your thoughts on this triangulation?
Who wants to go off grid anyway?
Is there any limit to surveillance and restrictions on risk of harm that could be credibility objected to?
Would you allow Meta or Google (or your government) to scan your home to turn your life into a connected, augmented internet of things adventure?
Read the linked links in the comments below and let me know your thoughts on online / offline escapism!
Read more :
Online “safety” as a (government) service : https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/
AR / VR as Google Streetview for your interior life : https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/28/23619730/meta-vr-oculus-ar-glasses-smartwatch-plans
Your grandpa was silent walking before it was cool : https://x.com/callmek1123/status/1713527967698104623?s=46&t=4ZnlXYawVpFiG2SlapEWwg
Risk / harm & infinity : https://whatthefuturenow.com/2021/08/10/virtualised-and-discrete/
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