The Banal Evil of the Tech Gods

It’s exactly what it looks like and sounds like and feels like. It’s time we stop pretending.

This infographic explaining the many uses of a Digital Identity is from Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (printed in an excellent resource, which is worth your time, called The WEF and the Pandemic).

You might notice that ‘traffic’ appears under Smart Cities. Apparently the advent of a full digital identity will fix traffic.

While traffic patterns could be monitored simply by tracking cars (already creepy), they would do it with The Internet of Bodies. After all, they would need to know when you’re headed to the car, wouldn’t they? That means you might be headed to happy hour before going home, and they would need to know that, to plan ahead. (Don’t drink at happy hour, though, they have your transactions logged too and you don’t want to get in that car too quick, do you?)

Just kidding. It’s going to be just fine and probably not like this at all.

Wait, how much would they need to know about you to know you’re headed to the car?

Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not a big deal for them to track that, too. It’s not like they’re going to come after you. You only do the things they like and never do the things they don’t like.

Consider, they want to track your every move to do things like improve the efficient flow of traffic.

They hate traffic.

"Everyone" hates traffic, they think. It's true that everyone hates traffic, but...

A great many people in this country who hate traffic have adjusted their lives in certain ways to, for example, spend most of their time out of cities, work close to their homes, avoid driving during rush hour, etc... so they never actually become bothered by something they truly do 'hate'.

For all of these people, it's not possible to have their lives bettered by improving the efficiency of traffic flow. It’s already not one of their problems. No 'good' is done for them by cutting 5% off the morning commute for people who deal with traffic.

But the Tech Gods will decide that tracking people will accomplish the modern miracle of fixing traffic. The Tech Gods have relationships with the cities and states, so they know their plan will be implemented. This helps them secure funding, and then the media and our betters tell the public how great life will be. If the people don't like the plan, the Rulers will simply fund a ballot proposition, fund the campaign to pass it into law, and then cheat in the election to pass the initiative, if need be.

When these people begin to change the rules to fix traffic, they will alter cities in ways aligned with how they already wanted to alter cities. They will make finding a parking spot impossible in myriad ways, they will make parking prohibitively expensive, and they will make parking tickets cost a month’s gas to pay off. Eventually, your primary conversations with your co-workers each day will be about what a disaster public transportation is.

Traffic will be solved, based on certain metrics, when viewed a certain way. For the people who didn’t comply and kept driving, traffic will have actually gotten worse.

Sucks for them, but they wouldn’t have that problem if they had just complied and stopped driving. We tried training you to do the right thing. This is what they say, shrugging.

The people behind the technology will choose not to take part in the tracking project, because it creeps them out. If anyone ever discovers this fact, they’ll tell people that they have really important meetings and stuff, so it’s critical that no one can track them. There’s just too much riding on it.

You wouldn’t understand it unless you had a life as important as theirs, and you don’t, so… ?

Certain kinds of people are allowed to skip the tracking requirement - our Rulers. Classes will naturally divide themselves once again, this time into people who live their lives on a virtual leash, and those who watch over them, for their own good.

Among those on the leash, some will want to become like the Ruling Class - not to get rid of the leash, but to be seen as part of the Ruling Class. To achieve this sense of imaginary belonging, these people dutifully perform the tasks of the Ruling Class, hoping to be recognized for their good behavior. These people will occasionally be allowed off their leashes, to travel, and they will dutifully bring their leashes with them, in case they have to put them back on. Traveling, with your leash, becomes the definition of true freedom.

If everyone just complies, things will go back to normal. Our phones already track us anyway, what’s the big deal?

Our Rulers will then argue that they, personally, have saved two million people 98 seconds per day in the car. If you don’t think that’s amazing, our Rulers will understand and explain that the tracking technology is actually so good it helps to fix a slew of other problems as well.

Maybe you’ll comply more easily if we tell you that tracking you will fix something you have an emotional response to. Perhaps? Did you see the picture of these hopeful, multiethnic babies? You’re racist.

Consider the fossil fuels. Consider the emissions. Consider the productivity. Consider the mental health benefits. Consider the time spent with loved ones.

Our Rulers will fund research and produce studies by Experts, showing that the improved traffic from this tracking project is so beneficial that if the people don’t want to be tracked, it’s just too bad. After all, it was created for them. They are, apparently, too stupid to see what’s good for them. Everyone else is okay with it.

Once the classes have separated, being ‘untracked’ will be viewed as a luxury brand, something only the Ruling Class can own, and it will soon be considered an identifier of personal goodness. Eventually it will be a get out of jail free card when members of the Ruling Class commit crimes. Prison will be for the real criminals. Members of the Party of False Decorum (and our Rulers choose the Decorum) merely knowing someone behaved poorly and whispering about it while they’re in the bathroom is punishment enough for someone in the Ruling Class.

Those who remain untracked will be seen by the Ruling Class (and their compliant lapdogs within the Party of False Decorum) as having committed an act of hubris - an attempt to be like the Rulers when everyone can see they’re not the Rulers. Nothing like the Rulers, in fact.

The Rulers’ lapdogs will try to make the untracked a lower social class through shame, bullying, and exclusion. Eventually, laws will be set up to punish the untracked. People’s lives will be slowly destroyed for no reason. People will learn to hate one another, unnecessarily, and the love, trust, and understanding lost on a society-wide scale as a result will be staggering. It cannot and will not be another way.

Supporting evil is evil. Accepting evil is evil. Destroying the lives of entire classes of strangers because they’re not behaving the way the Party thinks they should is evil.

For those of us who have been fooled by this, for however long and for whatever reason, let us not kid ourselves any longer.

Traveling with one’s leash is not freedom.

It has been our collective failure to have ever been swayed into believing that any of this is not what it is. It’s exactly what it looks like and sounds like and feels like. It’s time we stop pretending.

What this is needs to be spoken clearly everywhere if we are to avoid further mindless hate, further social erosion, and ultimately, the sorts of open, State violence we have seen every other time the Ruling Class has tried to subjugate the people.

I am not a subject. You are not a subject, either. That is our birthright.

(If you return to the infographic, don’t look at “E-Government”. It will only make it worse.)