Frictionless Surveillance
Amazon and (especially) Facebook know a lot about you -- where you live, what you buy, what you like, what you're like. Mark Zuckerberg has been tracking the personal lives of billions for years now; Jeff Bezos convinced millions to install listening devices in their homes. Now, as both companies are under fire for their negative effects on society, they have decided to invest even more flashy, invasive methods of surveillance.
Let's start with this thing.
This is Astro, "the household robot for home monitoring." It's got wheels, it's got Alexa in its head, and it's got a screen with emotive circles for eyes -- but the real eye rests in its telescoping camera that will give Amazon the chance to not only hear but see everything that happens in your abode. And no matter what its promotional video may imply, it can't bring you a beer. But it's cute! And it will protect you from burglars who are, uh, intimidated by small robots.
Meanwhile Facebook -- or Meta, whatever, Mark -- would like you to strap on a VR headset and spend time in Zuckerberg's own personal Matrix, which he's calling the Metaverse.
The idea is that all three billion Facebook users will choose to work and socialize in a virtual reality pocket universe, one in which we can look as we please and gaze upon any vista we like. Of course while this is happening, an A.I. tracking system will hoover up data about everything from your surroundings, your behavior, even your heartbeat. One suspects that, given the state of the world, plenty of people will be eager to vanish into the Metaverse. It's as if Zuckerberg saw Ready Player One and thought "That's the future I want to build!"
Tech companies are still using the wonder of new digital wizardry to get us to overlook how much privacy, autonomy, and social cohesion we give up in order to use the latest gadgets. Until this approach stops making them billions, there's no reason to think they will give it up.
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