The 1984 society is here, though late...
"It is the computer…" How many times have you heard this excuse, when you are at the receiving end of massive corporate and governmental cockups?
Hardly a day goes where you are spared of news of computers bringing comfort and joy to our lives.
We all agree that there are many areas where we have benefited from the invasion of computers.
What we are NOT told are the darker sides of their involvement in the lives of the citizens.
In Holland, for the purported ease of diagnosis, communication, and a host of other benefits, it was decided by the Government to introduce a nationwide database of citizen information - The Elektronisch Patienten Dossier (EPD). The wise guys assumed that most people would say yes to this. So, an innocuous looking application, unaddressed personally, but addressed to the "occupiers", were sent out last year (2008) to every house in Holland. The application allowed you to opt out of this database. The letter and the form looked so innocent, and arrived with other piles of junk mail, that people simply tossed them in the bins. So, by default, those people had assented to join this database. Someone alerted me to this and I managed to get everyone in the family out of it. Now (Computable, page 5 on 06/02/2009) it appears that the scheme had been abandoned because of security worries.
This information is in addition to the patient and personal data held by the general practitioners, which are also linked to hospitals and accredited consultants and practitioners.
Why? I hear you also ask.
Now, it appears that UK is the most electronically monitored society in the world. We were made to believe that the Communist Countries topped the rankings. But, that was during the cold war. Now, it seems that a far worse cold war is being fought within "free world" countries.
Of course - now there is a war on terror to be fought, and won.
Is 1984 here - arriving late? Perhaps it was waiting for the arrival of the right technologies for it to get rolling. It is claimed that 1984 was a response to the brutal Stalinist regime in the then Soviet Union. May I say that a re-read of the book will, in no uncertain terms, will point to the countries of the so-called free world.
Sorry, we hardly hear that term "free world" any more, do we?
Every electronic transaction you initiate is logged somewhere. Now, electronic travel cards are being brought into service. These cards contain an enormous amount of personal information recorded in their chips. When you swipe the card to get in and out of public transport, a full record of your visits are logged for posterity. Are you a person any more?
Yes - they have a value, if you can recall them to support your divorce case for instance.
People are complacent: there is nothing to hide in my life, we all say.
Rapid electronification of consumer services is creating a sub-class of citizens - the elderly citizens. They are the ones who had no time to get accustomed to the new toys. There are many of them, in all walks of life. How do they cope?
Let us think of ourselves for a moment. How long, do you think, you would be able to keep up with modern technology, at the rate it is changing?
Practically, every day, there is a bit of new computer technology rammed down our throats.
If you have a computer, you are presented with new operating systems, new application packages every two to three years. No sooner one settles down to one, the more "improved, secure, faster, reliable,…" version arrives on shelves. Are these new versions offer real new features? Perhaps a handful. You discover the big con when you realize that they are just the same old things in new icing with the fillings shuffled to make it all new.
The society gets carried away. You buy the new stuff, and tease the stubborn, but enlightened few into doing the same.
The producers rub their hands in glee!
What about the choices? There are two major computer processor producers: Intel and AMD. On machines built around these processors, one can run Windows, Apple, Linux operating systems. There are others, but these are sufficient to support my point.
When one buys a computer - the box I mean, an operating system comes already installed in it. Which one? Make a guess. Yes, Windows Vista!
Is that choice? Or monopolization of a captive market?
Would you rather be taken for rides for ever?