Should ANYONE other than YOU be able to see your inner, most personal, private thoughts which you have inside your brain?
I'm concerned about how advances in brain scanning may be coupled with Big Data / constant State surveillance of the citizenry in the near-future.
I address this issue in "The STARLING Connection."
In a world in which everything is digitally connected, will your own thoughts betray you or those you love?
"The STARLING Connection's" 15-year-old narrator, Simon Laramie, represents humanity on the brink of a total loss of real freedom, the last generation of humanity who still possess one last vestige of personal privacy: Your private thoughts kept within your brain.
But by 2045, even a person's ability to keep his or her private thoughts private, is about to disappear completely.
Did you know today scientists can use fMRI scans to detect and reconstruct the faces that people are thinking of?
Check out Elizabeth Landau's "Scan a brain, read a mind?" on CNN.com:
What we write online may be intercepted, filtered and publicized, but we'd like to think that the thoughts and images in our heads are totally private.
For better or worse, science may change that. Over the last few years, researchers have made significant strides in decoding our thoughts based on brain activity.
How this would work is still at the very early stages of development. But, given what we can already do, it's not a huge leap to imagine that one day we could read the words of people's internal streams of thought, said Jack Gallant, a prominent neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley.
Consider the implications of such powerful technology:
For example, let's say in the future, you consider yourself among the "perfect model law-abiding citizens of the 'Brave New World,' who has 'nothing to hide.'"
But one day by accident, you happen to walk by this "crazy street preacher" (in the brief moment before this "crazy guy" "who for whatever reason decided to stop taking his meds" gets hauled off by the militarized police).
You happened to see the street preacher's face and catch a few of his words...
When the police see you in the vicinity of this "radical" then you're also hauled off with all the other bystanders. The police don't know whether you're a supporter, if you were actually listening to this "radical," or if you just happened to be walking by.
Either way, none of this matters, because in reality, society is under so much corrupt self-serving fear-mongering by the powers that be at the top, that the "police" have a "carte blanche."
The militarized "police" driving around your city in armored vehicles don't work for you as a human being, as a person, or as an individual who has individual rights. You're not in reality an actual citizen with a true voice and true representation.
Actually these "police" work for the handful of gangsters in total control, ruling the Plantation at the "Commanding Heights" of the so-called "global economy." Many get paid more if they put more people in prison, or if the people at the top make more billions. Those billions in "profit" come not from the blood of those at the top, but come from YOUR BLOOD.
The police can scan your brain and prove you've seen this "radical street preacher" (who in this case, merely said these few "radical" words: "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's...")
Whether these words have meaning to you or not, the data noting the fact that you've seen (and by virtue of merely seeing, you are now fully associated) with this "radical" is uploaded into a vast archive of Big Data. Under the guise of "keeping everyone 100 percent perfectly 'safe' and 'secure,'" those manipulating this technological construct, building this manufactured "god," seek to achieve an "all-seeing-eye" to "connect all the dots" of every man, woman and child on the face of the Earth at any moment all the time...
But to what end?
Will the results of a man-made "all-seeing-eye" really be "safety," as many purported "leaders" of the current State claim, or will the results be something else entirely?
Perhaps when you were a kid, you happened to read "1984" or "Fahrenheit 451" (the last copies left in your school library) before the "Brave New World" banned them (or people just lost interest and stopped publishing these books). Of course, the data the computer logged when you checked out those particular books and saved your name with the titles, that you once read such "dangerous books" is stored forever in massive data storage centers.
And perhaps you threw up a Facebook post when you were 17 that said something "radical" such as:
"I don't like the latest scraps of cheese. Maybe individuals have the right to make their own cheese? If we have more real choices, then perhaps we can eat a more nutritious diet that consists of a diversity of food, not only the cheese we're conditioned to eat?"
Super-computers can put all your data together and calculate your "level of rebellion," the precise level of your tendency to "question mass media propaganda," or your "probability of thinking for yourself."
Seeing the face of the street preacher was the last straw as far as the Big Data "perfectly 'safe' and totally 'secure' 'society'" is concerned...
Now you're now under arrest according to 2055's "Preemptive Incarceration of Potentially Dangerous People for the Absolute 100 Percent Perfect Safety and Security of the Public" Law.
Bear in mind, the perfect "Big Data" calculations don't apply to those at the "Commanding Heights" or those who control and reap all the profits from Big Data. But the full force of the power of Big Data comes down on you, because you don't have money.
In "The STARLING Connection," Simon Laramie is poor and knows he's lost most of his human rights over his personal privacy. Simon looks for ways he can retain some part of his freedom and humanity... (If you read "The STARLING Connection," you will see how much the very essence of our Humanity is at risk in this "Brave New World...")
Here's the latest excerpt from the first four chapters of "The STARLING Connection," our friend Simon Laramie speaking in the year 2045.
- Will you be free to travel or even to walk to a part of your city?
- Will you be free to talk to people you want to talk to?
- Will you be free to learn different points of view?
- Will you be free to read the books you want to read or visit the blogs you want to visit?
- Will you be free to think or to learn everything you need to know?
- Or will your most personal and private thoughts be seen and directed according to what those in power see you seeing?
- Will you be a Free Human Being in truth, period?
For example, let's say in the future, you consider yourself among the "perfect model law-abiding citizens of the 'Brave New World,' who has 'nothing to hide.'"
But one day by accident, you happen to walk by this "crazy street preacher" (in the brief moment before this "crazy guy" "who for whatever reason decided to stop taking his meds" gets hauled off by the militarized police).
You happened to see the street preacher's face and catch a few of his words...
When the police see you in the vicinity of this "radical" then you're also hauled off with all the other bystanders. The police don't know whether you're a supporter, if you were actually listening to this "radical," or if you just happened to be walking by.
Either way, none of this matters, because in reality, society is under so much corrupt self-serving fear-mongering by the powers that be at the top, that the "police" have a "carte blanche."
The militarized "police" driving around your city in armored vehicles don't work for you as a human being, as a person, or as an individual who has individual rights. You're not in reality an actual citizen with a true voice and true representation.
Actually these "police" work for the handful of gangsters in total control, ruling the Plantation at the "Commanding Heights" of the so-called "global economy." Many get paid more if they put more people in prison, or if the people at the top make more billions. Those billions in "profit" come not from the blood of those at the top, but come from YOUR BLOOD.
The police can scan your brain and prove you've seen this "radical street preacher" (who in this case, merely said these few "radical" words: "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's...")
Whether these words have meaning to you or not, the data noting the fact that you've seen (and by virtue of merely seeing, you are now fully associated) with this "radical" is uploaded into a vast archive of Big Data. Under the guise of "keeping everyone 100 percent perfectly 'safe' and 'secure,'" those manipulating this technological construct, building this manufactured "god," seek to achieve an "all-seeing-eye" to "connect all the dots" of every man, woman and child on the face of the Earth at any moment all the time...
But to what end?
Will the results of a man-made "all-seeing-eye" really be "safety," as many purported "leaders" of the current State claim, or will the results be something else entirely?
Perhaps when you were a kid, you happened to read "1984" or "Fahrenheit 451" (the last copies left in your school library) before the "Brave New World" banned them (or people just lost interest and stopped publishing these books). Of course, the data the computer logged when you checked out those particular books and saved your name with the titles, that you once read such "dangerous books" is stored forever in massive data storage centers.
And perhaps you threw up a Facebook post when you were 17 that said something "radical" such as:
"I don't like the latest scraps of cheese. Maybe individuals have the right to make their own cheese? If we have more real choices, then perhaps we can eat a more nutritious diet that consists of a diversity of food, not only the cheese we're conditioned to eat?"
Super-computers can put all your data together and calculate your "level of rebellion," the precise level of your tendency to "question mass media propaganda," or your "probability of thinking for yourself."
Seeing the face of the street preacher was the last straw as far as the Big Data "perfectly 'safe' and totally 'secure' 'society'" is concerned...
Now you're now under arrest according to 2055's "Preemptive Incarceration of Potentially Dangerous People for the Absolute 100 Percent Perfect Safety and Security of the Public" Law.
Bear in mind, the perfect "Big Data" calculations don't apply to those at the "Commanding Heights" or those who control and reap all the profits from Big Data. But the full force of the power of Big Data comes down on you, because you don't have money.
In "The STARLING Connection," Simon Laramie is poor and knows he's lost most of his human rights over his personal privacy. Simon looks for ways he can retain some part of his freedom and humanity... (If you read "The STARLING Connection," you will see how much the very essence of our Humanity is at risk in this "Brave New World...")
Here's the latest excerpt from the first four chapters of "The STARLING Connection," our friend Simon Laramie speaking in the year 2045.
I’m not saying I’m the best "hacker" in the world, or anything like that.
But I’ve made totally sure that no one can see this diary, unless I want them to. So if you’re listening to this, you should feel very special. I won’t let just anybody see it. And don’t worry about reading it. You won’t be tracked. PATRIOT SECURITY can’t see this: We, the People trading thoughts, a thought for a thought. They can’t see what you’re thinking as you read this; at least for now, with the current technology.
I can’t tell you everything about my life "hack." But part of it involves being very conscious when I update my National I.D. profile. You can’t exactly choose never to update your social media, or you’ll get flagged and investigated for “suspicious non-activity.”
I only update it just enough so that it appears I’m active on SUPERNET. But really I’m spending most of my time in real life, which is what PATRIOT SECURITY and TEMPLE hate more than anything.
And when I do update my National I.D., I post false information. If I ate a lab “burger” instead of a hotdog, I post that I ate the hotdog.
That might sound silly, but it’s really not. One little white lie can go a long way to throw off their constant supercomputer analysis of “you.” Add those fake posts up, and you’ve got a lot less real information for PATRIOT SECURITY to use against you.
Sure, I don’t want to lie about everything, but what choice do you have when you’re living in a world of lies? You have to lie to protect yourself from the biggest lies that everyone believes in.