{"id":46484,"date":"2019-05-30T08:34:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T13:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46484"},"modified":"2019-05-30T08:34:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T13:34:33","slug":"technotyranny-the-iron-fisted-authoritarianism-of-the-surveillance-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=46484","title":{"rendered":"Technotyranny: The Iron-Fisted Authoritarianism of the Surveillance State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rutherford.org\/publications_resources\/john_whiteheads_commentary\/technotyranny_the_iron_fisted_authoritarianism_of_the_surveillance_state\">Technotyranny: The Iron-Fisted Authoritarianism of the Surveillance State<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cThere will come a time when it isn&#8217;t \u2018They\u2019re spying on me through my phone\u2019 anymore. Eventually, it will be \u2018My phone is spying on me.\u2019\u201d \u2015 Philip K. Dick<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Red pill or blue pill? You decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twenty years after the Wachowskis\u2019 iconic 1999 film,&nbsp;<em>The Matrix<\/em>, introduced us to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jessicabaron\/2019\/02\/26\/the-matrix-at-20-did-we-take-the-blue-pill\/#59af7ca4140e\">a futuristic world in which humans exist in a computer-simulated non-reality powered by authoritarian machines<\/a>\u2014a world where the choice between existing in a denial-ridden virtual dream-state or facing up to the harsh, difficult realities of life comes down to a red pill or a blue pill\u2014we stand at the precipice of a technologically-dominated matrix of our own making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are living the prequel to<em>&nbsp;The Matrix<\/em>&nbsp;with each passing day, falling further under the spell of technologically-driven virtual communities, virtual realities and virtual conveniences managed by artificially intelligent machines that are on a fast track to replacing us and eventually dominating every aspect of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Science fiction has become fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;<em>The Matrix<\/em>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jessicabaron\/2019\/02\/26\/the-matrix-at-20-did-we-take-the-blue-pill\/#59af7ca4140e\">computer programmer Thomas Anderson a.k.a. hacker Neo is wakened from a virtual slumber by Morpheus<\/a>, a freedom fighter seeking to liberate humanity from a lifelong hibernation state imposed by hyper-advanced artificial intelligence machines that rely on humans as an organic power source. With their minds plugged into a perfectly crafted virtual reality, few humans ever realize they are living in a dream world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Neo is given a choice: to wake up and join the resistance, or remain asleep and serve as fodder for the powers-that-be. \u201cYou take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe,\u201d Morpheus says to Neo in&nbsp;<em>The Matrix<\/em>. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2019\/02\/the-matrix-red-pill-internet-delusional-drug.html\">You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most people opt for the red pill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technotyranny: The Iron-Fisted Authoritarianism of the Surveillance State \u201cThere will come a time when it isn&#8217;t \u2018They\u2019re spying on me through my phone\u2019 anymore. Eventually, it will be \u2018My phone is spying on me.\u2019\u201d \u2015 Philip K. Dick Red pill or blue pill? You decide. Twenty years after the Wachowskis\u2019 iconic 1999 film,&nbsp;The Matrix, introduced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13197,765,786,6300],"class_list":["post-46484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-john-w-whitehead","tag-surveillance","tag-technology","tag-the-rutherford-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46485,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46484\/revisions\/46485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}