June 1, 2021
Microsoft President Brad Smith said that three years from now, we could be living under the same level of surveillance and control as the characters in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. Smith made the comment during an interview with BBC’s Panorama, which looks at China’s growing use of artificial intelligence to watch its citizens.
“If we don’t enact the laws that will protect the public in the future, we are going to find the technology racing ahead, and it’s going to be very difficult to catch up,” Smith said. He pointed to the lesson of the novel 1984, which warned of a government that could “see everything that everyone did and hear everything that everyone said all the time.”
In the meantime, the website Engadget reported that privacy groups in Europe have filed complaints against Clearview AI for allegedly taking billions of photos from social media sites. The company compares the photos to images from security cameras. Engadget noted that when people are seen on the cameras, police can use their image to “extract a wealth of information about [them], effectively killing any semblance of personal privacy.”
Socionomists have observed a correlation between growing negative mood and rising surveillance. In the event of a waxing negative mood trend, surveillance could become a more serious issue, as illustrated by the history of the United States.
To learn more read, “Four Major Periods of Negative Social Mood Drive the 100-Year History of the American Security State Part 1”
If you look closely, you can see patterns in social mood that help you predict social trends. Learn more with the Socionomics Premier Membership.
The Socionomist enables you to see trend-shaping waves of social mood, as reflected by the stock market — and capitalize on them. The June issue looks at phases of social mood and features a “Research Roundup,” which highlights five academic studies that shine a light on important aspects of socionomic theory. Mood Riffs topics include “quiet luxury,” loneliness, the Writers Guild strike and efforts by countries to trade in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Read the June issue when you become a Socionomics Premier Member.
