Andrew Cuomo Calls in the Billionaires to Build a High-Tech Dystopia

https://theintercept.com/2020/05/08/andrew-cuomo-eric-schmidt-coronavirus-tech-shock-doctrine/

25 4 6 years ago

I'm a fan of Naomi's work and have posted it here several times, and I thought the same thing as the events started to unfold:

It has taken some time to gel, but something resembling a coherent Pandemic Shock Doctrine is beginning to emerge.

However, if Education, Medicine is ever going to get disrupted, it will be from a tech company, my reservations of M$ notwithstanding, they could at least shift to a model wherein the Certificate model can be implemented in order to circumvent the over-bloated University system in the US. Skill assessments in the 21st century should not be confined to a classroom.

I wish I would have had access to something like this model when I was in school [1], first because it would have been useful to be able to diversify my time into other projects/startups while self-studying for the exam, but also because it could have been done away with the gross over-head costs that contribute to the obscene student debt loads (far exceeding a trillion now) and given me at least a glimpse of what awaited me in the Industry as personal research and self-teaching await anyone going into STEM as a career.

And once again, I agree with Naomi's analysis, but cannot agree with her conclusions:

It’s a future in which our homes are never again exclusively personal spaces but are also, via high-speed digital connectivity, our schools, our doctor’s offices, our gyms, and, if determined by the state, our jails.

First, I think all of the former aspects are favourable, and can help reduce costs that allow for more competitive pricing, thus accessibility. As for our homes being Jails, I think its been pretty clear that, outside of the Bay Area at least, people were (selfishly or not) able to go outside whenever they wanted to. Some took it as a form of personal protest to start jogging again, as I hadn't seen so many stay at home moms out chatting in the middle of the street while out for a run. No joke, as in: between car lanes. They took advantage of the low car traffic.

I did a mix of 50-50 myself, as I still had to work, but on my off days I just slept at home; I normally would go out to a new restaurant/bakery and my regular spot on weekends, but that's no longer possible now. But the thing I miss the most are my gym routines after work, as I can stay in bed all day and not feel rested if I haven't had a proper work out after my shift(s). I need to completely exhaust myself to decompress and get good sleep.

It’s a future in which our every move, our every word, our every relationship is trackable, traceable, and data-mineable by unprecedented collaborations between government and tech giants.

This has already been the case since at least the advent of Social Media and SEO, which is an argument to create another Internet, but that's an argument for a later time... however, I think the concerns here are backward looking. Since 9-11 the mass survielience Industry had accounted for an economic boon for Military Contractors who did the same thing and eroded civil liberties and an yielded ever expanding budget for the Intelligence agencies that rivaled the GDP of entire nation-states.

I welcome the coming disruption in all of those Industries, and remain cautiously optimistic, despite my reluctance to trust Schmidt; what needs to be put in place is legal framework and regulations that clearly define what and how this data is used and stored, and what privacy measures (like in the EU) can be taken to be 'forgotten' from the system should you choose to decline them. I'm pretty sure plumbers, electricians and roofers will still remain a viable career and that system will remain a hands on trade-school.

1: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/certification-overv...

engineer_22• 6 years ago

Cuomo is using emergency powers to unilaterally direct post-emergency policy. Legislature and courts need to restore the balance of powers. Cuomo's policies have not been a panopoly, rural regions that have not been so intensely impacted by the pandemic have been critically injured by the pandemic response. A government cytokine storm.

lowdose• 6 years ago

There has been a distinct warming up to human-less, contactless technology,Humans are biohazards, machines are not.

Let's extract the last layer of humanity in to the digital realm.

Give physical contact skills to Alexa which now on touch warms up to a temperature slightly higher than human body temp and starts to pulsate vibrations in a randomize frequency when you press it against your face.

Do not use Alexa for obvious reasons in the badtube.

_bxg1• 6 years ago

It seems like there's a real story here, but it's nearly impossible to get at through the cloud of hyper-dramatized storytelling.

Andrew Cuomo Calls in the Billionaires to Build a High-Tech Dystopia

Related Stories