You probably thought things couldn’t get more exciting when the government made you scan your face, passport, and email address book so you could watch online porn, but then it announced digital IDs that would enable a centralised database containing every piece of information about your life.
So glad I’ve left the UK… I’m sure Greece and other EU countries will follow suit, after all it is a global Western vision, but we’re not there yet… I smell a revolution coming….
I left England and moved back to Canada in 2007 but, living next door to the Trump MAGA USA crowd with limp-dick Mark Carney as our Liberal PM is not great either.
Substack just asked for a verification code to write this comment... What I was wondering about is what happens when the flood of refugees will start to arrive to Northern Yemen.
This reads like a press release for Black Mirror season 8 written by The Onion. “Brilliantly, digital IDs will be rolled out to children” is such a perfect line because it’s exactly how they’d sell it. Surveillance as enrichment. Pre-crime as public safety. BritCard as a hug from Big Brother.
I think/hope/pray that the plot has lost/is losing the UK? Saw this video today about the ID /Brit card being the first push/sting to draw out the opposition, after which the opposition will not be so opposed to an alternative just as bad. Watch and BE ON YOUR GUARD seems to be the message https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amK1byweaf8
It will be interesting to see how the REAL Criminals (You know the Politician's, Mexican/South American Drug Cartels, Computer Hackers, and all the Organized Crime Groups from Different Countries) respond and Comply to these new policies!! The question is who will receive this data and to what extent will it be used? What are our Constitutional rights (Right to Privacy Laws) for collecting this data or do we not have a U.S. Constitution anymore? It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days!! I will say this RESIST, RESIST, RESIST!
A government that can't solve a pothole problem is going to keep sensitive data safe? The system is broken. What Britain needs most, is for Britons to realise that incompetence in government is no longer just a 'foreign Johnny' phenomenon. Kid Starver is just the latest proof.
What scares me the most is that the Philip K Dick stories and books were the first Black Mirror. They were written to warn us of the risks of the technology we were developing. Dick was half a century ahead of his time, but he saw how technology could go wrong, or perhaps how we humans could be manipulated with technology by people in power who had different agendas. The worst to me is that most of these technologies are not being asked for by the average person in the street, but by the people with the power to have control over them. Many naively for good reasons, like reducing crime, and then by those who just love the concept of control, because they are more equal than the rest of us. Of course, Big Brother is already watching us and has been doing so for a long time.
I didn't want to use an adding machine when they came out, and when computers came more common I told everyone around me "this will kill the workforce" and it mostly has already, says she writing this on her tablet 🤔
I always wanted to use an adding machine. It was a speed tool. I already knew how to add, but if I wanted to add 100 big numbers, I knew I would probably have to do it twice if I did it manually, maybe 3 times to decide which of the first two answers was right. The computer more than anything was my new way of communicating and meeting real people around the world who shared my interests, many of whom I ended up meeting in person. When these tools are an extension of me, but the output still represents me, I'm cool with that. There are many things I'm not cool with, like AI music that is made out to be human, or invades human copyright which a human would be sued for. When it portrays to be anything sentient. And yet, I tried to get an AI to write a novel in the style of Stephen King, with lots of prompts, it failed miserably, and I was happy with that. Part of the magic of his books are that they come from his amazing imagination, driven by a perfectionist with strong views on the world.
When I was told I had to use the adding machine, I would always check it myself after to make sure it got it correct. Now I find myself using my phone app when my brain isn't fast enough. In that way, yes it is helpful, and I wouldn't be able to take a stand on so many things now due to arthritis in so many joints so it is great for keeping up to date and sharing with others our feelings about what some countries are doing to others, as well as not supporting their own people where they should do. So, it allows my brain to engage where my body cannot go, and for that I am thankful, but I am against ho politicians and companies are using this science against their people for the sake of money greed and power hunger. There will have to be a strong veto against such moves, and right now there's no time to waste,because it is not for safety it has become intrusion and for control.
Had tech like this been available during my childhood/ early teens -- a record of my inner-city hooliganism -- I would've never been admitted to any university, much less granted credentials allowing me to later influence other young minds. Some of my more-authoritarian ex-students might therefore shout "Bravo, Mr. Smarmer". We need to remember that not all of this caca falls on deaf ears.
I remember in the years 1968-75 when the truly wonderful, groundbreakingly diverse, and empowering Open University movement was founded, by teachers and students who had become disenchanted with the corporate/defense-connected university bloc, many of whom were barred from it due to draft evasion, protesting, or finding (semi-legal) ways to get around the system. This is rough right now, and we need to fight and to think ahead, but I have some faith. Creative minds gonna Create.
Geez, what a great recollection, thank you. Those are pretty much exactly the years I remember as being most essential to the development of my sociopolitical views.
It was a big advantage. Most music today sucks. They need another cosmic infusion of inspiration (astrologers say we had one). I truly believe the brilliant music powered our movement.
And without Googlemaps we developed our spatial skills. I remember traveling around the country (and the world), stopping at a new town and “asking around” where the local health food store or coffee place was to read their bulletin board and find out what was going on, and then ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS! We met people that way. There was a lot more social intercourse then. 😉
Since I've been using a really annoying voice to direct me I've been lost several times. Why does it tell me to leave roundabouts after I've already left? I should switch off and go buy a new map....
No Google? Best watch out, you're treading the line of being labeled a dinosaur. I recall having to make the dreaded walk across the street to the Harvard Med School Library stacks to find a scientific paper I wanted to read. What a travail. Having to detach my butt from my office chair, breathe some outside air, and submit to the distinctly evocative aroma of old bound journals; what a cross to bear. And I might even have encountered a colleague or two along the way, even conversed with some stranger out on the street. What a horror. Ain't life stuck to "devices" so much better?
I really fucking hate this timeline 🫠
Is the sarcasm level way above your pay grade? (just jesting..)
Jesus it keeps getting worse and worse
Or better and better. If you’re a despot.
Wow, Laura! That is some genius dystopian fiction! It takes real imagination to make up stuff that scary!
You DID make that up, right?
Right?
right?
So glad I’ve left the UK… I’m sure Greece and other EU countries will follow suit, after all it is a global Western vision, but we’re not there yet… I smell a revolution coming….
Yes you can run but you can’t hide. Until you turn around and face it. Then stop it.
One man's revolution is another man's Butlerian jihad. Maybe the Luddites and Amish are not so extreme...
I left England and moved back to Canada in 2007 but, living next door to the Trump MAGA USA crowd with limp-dick Mark Carney as our Liberal PM is not great either.
Ate you sure what you're smelling isn't actually just even *more* compliance?
Substack just asked for a verification code to write this comment... What I was wondering about is what happens when the flood of refugees will start to arrive to Northern Yemen.
Substack does that quite often. Not to worry.
Your other sentence…yeah, worry.
I wonder how long till they break Substack the way they did with Telegram...
I’m sure it’s underway. There have been a number of changes lately, including that stupid verification code.
As you say Laura, the Epstein files work well on the Politicians so now the Devil IsRael wants to expand it to all humans with the Britcard.
The Devil IsRael really is the Antichrist.
This reads like a press release for Black Mirror season 8 written by The Onion. “Brilliantly, digital IDs will be rolled out to children” is such a perfect line because it’s exactly how they’d sell it. Surveillance as enrichment. Pre-crime as public safety. BritCard as a hug from Big Brother.
The UK has lost the plot.
I think/hope/pray that the plot has lost/is losing the UK? Saw this video today about the ID /Brit card being the first push/sting to draw out the opposition, after which the opposition will not be so opposed to an alternative just as bad. Watch and BE ON YOUR GUARD seems to be the message https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amK1byweaf8
It will be interesting to see how the REAL Criminals (You know the Politician's, Mexican/South American Drug Cartels, Computer Hackers, and all the Organized Crime Groups from Different Countries) respond and Comply to these new policies!! The question is who will receive this data and to what extent will it be used? What are our Constitutional rights (Right to Privacy Laws) for collecting this data or do we not have a U.S. Constitution anymore? It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days!! I will say this RESIST, RESIST, RESIST!
You're right! All we need to do is copy what the maffia does.
I've been trying to get my wife to either watch the film of , or read, Orwell's "1984", for ages.
Thankfully now, I can stop nagging her to do so as she can just live the experience herself.
How thoughtful of Government to assist me in this matter.
We should all reread it.
We need to flip this. Release all the private finance, legal and medical data of the billionaires to the public. Immediately.
We need to start demonstrating for this now, every day, until it is done.
where is Anonymous when you need them?
A government that can't solve a pothole problem is going to keep sensitive data safe? The system is broken. What Britain needs most, is for Britons to realise that incompetence in government is no longer just a 'foreign Johnny' phenomenon. Kid Starver is just the latest proof.
What Britain needs most, is for Britons to get a 1st and 2nd Amendment... by any means necessary.
They can have ours once we're done with it.
Now I can’t get the image of Starmer’s “Oh!” Face out of my mind as he wanks to a nude of Maggie T.
What scares me the most is that the Philip K Dick stories and books were the first Black Mirror. They were written to warn us of the risks of the technology we were developing. Dick was half a century ahead of his time, but he saw how technology could go wrong, or perhaps how we humans could be manipulated with technology by people in power who had different agendas. The worst to me is that most of these technologies are not being asked for by the average person in the street, but by the people with the power to have control over them. Many naively for good reasons, like reducing crime, and then by those who just love the concept of control, because they are more equal than the rest of us. Of course, Big Brother is already watching us and has been doing so for a long time.
I didn't want to use an adding machine when they came out, and when computers came more common I told everyone around me "this will kill the workforce" and it mostly has already, says she writing this on her tablet 🤔
I always wanted to use an adding machine. It was a speed tool. I already knew how to add, but if I wanted to add 100 big numbers, I knew I would probably have to do it twice if I did it manually, maybe 3 times to decide which of the first two answers was right. The computer more than anything was my new way of communicating and meeting real people around the world who shared my interests, many of whom I ended up meeting in person. When these tools are an extension of me, but the output still represents me, I'm cool with that. There are many things I'm not cool with, like AI music that is made out to be human, or invades human copyright which a human would be sued for. When it portrays to be anything sentient. And yet, I tried to get an AI to write a novel in the style of Stephen King, with lots of prompts, it failed miserably, and I was happy with that. Part of the magic of his books are that they come from his amazing imagination, driven by a perfectionist with strong views on the world.
When I was told I had to use the adding machine, I would always check it myself after to make sure it got it correct. Now I find myself using my phone app when my brain isn't fast enough. In that way, yes it is helpful, and I wouldn't be able to take a stand on so many things now due to arthritis in so many joints so it is great for keeping up to date and sharing with others our feelings about what some countries are doing to others, as well as not supporting their own people where they should do. So, it allows my brain to engage where my body cannot go, and for that I am thankful, but I am against ho politicians and companies are using this science against their people for the sake of money greed and power hunger. There will have to be a strong veto against such moves, and right now there's no time to waste,because it is not for safety it has become intrusion and for control.
Laura, love the prince Andrew line.
Had tech like this been available during my childhood/ early teens -- a record of my inner-city hooliganism -- I would've never been admitted to any university, much less granted credentials allowing me to later influence other young minds. Some of my more-authoritarian ex-students might therefore shout "Bravo, Mr. Smarmer". We need to remember that not all of this caca falls on deaf ears.
I remember in the years 1968-75 when the truly wonderful, groundbreakingly diverse, and empowering Open University movement was founded, by teachers and students who had become disenchanted with the corporate/defense-connected university bloc, many of whom were barred from it due to draft evasion, protesting, or finding (semi-legal) ways to get around the system. This is rough right now, and we need to fight and to think ahead, but I have some faith. Creative minds gonna Create.
Geez, what a great recollection, thank you. Those are pretty much exactly the years I remember as being most essential to the development of my sociopolitical views.
And we did it without cell phones or the internet!
Hell yeah. But we did have Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix!
It was a big advantage. Most music today sucks. They need another cosmic infusion of inspiration (astrologers say we had one). I truly believe the brilliant music powered our movement.
Absolutely!
And without Googlemaps we developed our spatial skills. I remember traveling around the country (and the world), stopping at a new town and “asking around” where the local health food store or coffee place was to read their bulletin board and find out what was going on, and then ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS! We met people that way. There was a lot more social intercourse then. 😉
Since I've been using a really annoying voice to direct me I've been lost several times. Why does it tell me to leave roundabouts after I've already left? I should switch off and go buy a new map....
No Google? Best watch out, you're treading the line of being labeled a dinosaur. I recall having to make the dreaded walk across the street to the Harvard Med School Library stacks to find a scientific paper I wanted to read. What a travail. Having to detach my butt from my office chair, breathe some outside air, and submit to the distinctly evocative aroma of old bound journals; what a cross to bear. And I might even have encountered a colleague or two along the way, even conversed with some stranger out on the street. What a horror. Ain't life stuck to "devices" so much better?
Moi aussi!