OPEN YOUR EYES

Weapons of Mass Distraction (Part 1).

It’s the year 2020. The human race is lost in The Infinite Scroll. The world wide web, which once seemed like a world of promising innovation has devolved into a battleground littered with weapons of mass distraction. Everyone holds little computers through which they receive digital shock treatment (notifications) to modify their behavior. It’s a new slavery of surveillance and redirection where humans are lured and shackled to data collecting devices in order to make more money for the richest 1% who already own more than half the world’s wealth. The poorest 99% accept the terms of service and give their data in return for convenience and immediate gratification. Their data is fed into self-learning algorithms to make them more distracted.

Even with incredible technology, the human race lives in it’s own trash. Filling the ocean, land, and air with plastic, chemicals and gases that suffocate the planet. Yet, humans cannot agree on this landscape. Fake news overwhelms the system dulling the senses of citizens who find it much easier to take pictures of themselves than to acknowledge the inconvenient truth that humans are rapidly changing the planet.

A global pandemic COVID-19 catches a distracted world off guard. Forced to stay in their homes in order to stop the spread of the virus, every community, state, and country is tested on their ability to focus on the needs of others rather than themselves. Can a generation raised on convenience, excess and greed adapt their weapons of mass distraction into tools of mass cooperation?

Welcome to the Future.

Weapons of Mass Distraction (Part 2).

There wasn’t a warning on those shiny eye-catching AOL CDs that found their way into people’s homes in the 90s. Enticed by the “You’ve got Mail!” notification, humanity became caught in The World Wide Web without knowing all the possible side-effects. Everything became so convenient or at least it seemed that way. With the same mobile device tethered to their hand, a person could teach themself algebra or be distracted by covfefe. The internet offered a world of information without verification and hyperconnection without an off button for disconnection. Wealthy technology corporations played a game of “Catch Me If You Can!” that could end in Candy Crush or Cambridge Analytica. Either way, the data was fed back into machine learning algorithms to improve behavior prediction and thus also behavior modification. It was a gold rush for advertisers, politicians, or whoever else wanted to influence the 99%. The internet delivered a future where humans learned to give computers control so they could spend more time getting lost in the infinite scroll.

Weapons of Mass Distraction. Part 3.

The Tech Bro Mafia have become Human Traffic Kings by offering convenience in exchange for free user data. It’s easy to obtain because people carry those convenient smartphones wherever they go. Facebook costs $0 to use, but it’s not really free. Mark Zuckerberg makes billions by selling data to advertisers while his users get paid in a currency of follows, likes and hearts. Meanwhile, a digital generation is raised on the principle that everything should be easy. There should always be a website, app, or device that can make a task easier. The lessons of inconvenience are lost.

When everything is easy, people forget what to do when things are hard. They never learn to be patient or to wait for the right moment; to make mistakes, but still endure; to make the wrong choice, but still find the strength to try again; to keep going in the face of difficulty; to protest when something doesn’t seem right; to trust their instinct, but also to know when to ask for help; and to be creative when all the convenient tools aren’t available to accomplish goals.

A generation is raised without the lessons of perseverance. A species that is exceedingly happy and satisfied, but without any defenses. Instead of investing their resources into protecting and nurturing each other and the planet, they invest into making more money, more distracting gadgets, more elaborate entertainment, and more robots so they can do less. The billionaires party while everyone pays their debts. What will happen when it’s time to pay up?

And then the COVID-19 pandemic shakes the world. Leaders at every level must adapt their intentions to saving lives instead of to saving money.

“Siri, how do we get through this now?”

“Here is what I found…”

Weapons of Mass Distraction. Part 4.

What’s an easy way for the creepiest man in the world to make a ton of money? Make creepiness cool! Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for changing the world to make us all creepy spies.

Well, if we’re all creepy, can we really call out Zuckerberg? How can we complain about the tech industry collecting our private data when we collect private data on all of our friends? Go ahead and pull up a profile of one of your friends and scroll down their timeline. What did you learn about them that you didn’t know before? Better question: do they know that you know what they were doing? What about all of your other “friends”? People you may know. Just search for a random name on Facebook and peer into their life. You’re a creeper too.

Or are you? If everyone does it, is it creepy at all? We’re all followers of the Social Media Gods now. It’s what the people want! Privacy is so last millenium. Upload your life into The Machine. Yes, that’s what is literally being done when you share your activities. The 99% are uploading themselves into The Machine programmed and controlled by Mark Zuckerberg. I wonder what happens when the 1% pay to add their own code to the program. You’ll probably never know, but guess who does?

Mark Zuckerberg: Half human, half hive mind.

Weapons of Mass Distraction. Part 5.

The Technological Singularity is upon us. Humans and Machines are becoming one. The robots don’t just have us surrounded, they’re in our stores, in our streets, in our homes, in our hands, in our bodies, and in our minds. We are humans. We are machines. Our circuitry spans the entire planet and our arms and sensors extend into space. This is not a futuristic concept. This is now. Welcome to the Present. The Human Machine is turned on and breathing. We sped forward using our technological spirit and felt invincible using our human ignorance. All the while, there was a contagion lurking in the air. Flesh isn’t required to catch a virus. Our operating system is susceptible too. Will the Human Machine survive its first flu?