this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
2740 points (98.4% liked)
Privacy
31927 readers
607 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
Chat rooms
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I think of this as being straight up horrifying. This isn't exciting, this is going to be dystopian nightmare fuel. It's not hard to imagine this being imbedded into human beings against their will too, like prisoners in the US.
I would rather be a Borg, at least they were motivated by a collective good will to move to perfection, not puppets of a dying capitalist state and it's related ideology.
Exactly, my thought is that this will be used to be able to cause pain-on-demand by remote control -- the most effective slave making mechanism ever devised.
And to those that don't think so, this fits perfectly with the history of our species. For a psychopath seeking profit not to attempt do this would be weird.
You can already do that. You could already do that over a hundred years ago. I think it isn't happening (except in the case of dogs and invisible fences) simply because it isn't very useful.
It could also not be used much because it's too crude. You'd either be affecting anyone in a area, or you'd have to have equipment to aim it, too much work.
When a boss can look at their company dashboard and see where productivity is dropping and touch their phone to accurately send precise pain that causes no physical damage exactly to those underperforming, we may see usage increase.
You may not see it at McDonald's in California right away, but I'd be shocked (pun intended) if not a single sadistic psychopath in the world never tries it. And if they are not stopped, they will win capitalism being more productive.
Once the boss can do this, he would just threaten to fire the unproductive employee. That generally works better than what you're proposing because it doesn't require turning employees into cyborg slaves. (The hard part is actually measuring productivity when the employee is doing something that isn't easily quantified.)
You're thinking about how things are today, not how they might be in a decade of further capitalist degradation. What if there are no others to hire to replace your unproductive employee?
If something like what I described were to ever happen, it would not be a single company operating in a "normal" market full of others not using slaves. Just like slavery in the American South, it becomes the economy. We have a history of enslaving others, why wouldn't those willing to enslave use a technology that makes their job easier and far more secure?
you cant remove brain implant
Gotta start somewhere! For all we know the Borg began as a simple neural implant developed by Space Coca Cola, marketed as a way to touclessly interface with vending machines, but with the actual designed purpose to make you thirsty af and constantly crave sugary beverages.
And then the Coca Cola logistical AI gained sentience.
Another idea is that somebody found an exploit in the software and figured out how to use it for much more then interfacing with vending machines. So in essence the Borg is one giant botnet accept instead of ddosing or doing database leaching they assimilate people and make them part of the botnet.
But it’s Pepsi that’s the Choice of the New Generation! The line must drawn HEAH!!