The Clowd aka Big Brother
Seth Godin posted an article titled “The Clowd” singing the praises of a near omniscient system melding man and technology to control, sort, and filter information into “appropriate” channels.
As I read the post I became extremely uncomfortable and I did not know why. Until the realization dawned on me that my underlying need for control was being systematically eroded by a flood of systems telling me “Oh, Reggie. You really don’t want all that control let me take care of that like a big brother .”
Then, BAM, it hit me. Big Brother. My greatest Orwellian fear was being fed to me like a dish of ice cream.
An excerpt of Seth’s article.
“Well, when you take a photo, you can automatically send it to the clowd. The clowd can color correct and adjust the photo based on the million other photos it has seen just like this. “
Chilling.
June 8th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I followed the link. I read about the clowd. I am now in a full relapse of Privaticus Neuroticus!
Having the Universal Mob and their automated software watching my every move (and making decisions for me accordingly) is even freakier to me than having the government peering over my shoulder.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I had a feeling the topic would strike a chord with you. By the way, sit up straight at the keyboard.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:17 am
I gave a talk for the FBI and Department of Homeland Security a few months ago, and they were almost rolling in the aisles with laughter when I mentioned Big Brother — Google, and Big Brother — Microsoft, etc.
I’m not the first to put it this way, but “Big Brother” the government, although certainly capable of evil as any bureaucracy is, is not the biggest problem. Hey, that Big Brother at least tries to do the right thing, sort of kind of.
It’s the little independent brothers, trying to do “cool things” that worry me, like Google, Microsoft, and others we have yet to hear from!
“Little Brothers” — a big problem brewing.
I’ll give Google as an example, and I’m a BIG Google fan, but they are a textbook example of an entity that has become too powerful too fast. Not that I’d ever recommend “Big Brother” intervention.
June 10th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I think I have such an aversive reaction to it because of the control issue. I have extremely high needs to control that which relates to me personally that the idea of some other “entity” regardless of whether it is private or governmental doing so puts me off.
On the other hand, I can’t say I am too surprised that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security would give a derisive response when the topic came up.
I too am a Google fan, googledoc, gmail, googlecalendar, even googlereader. But, I haven’t any naive delusions about their purpose, or that of microsoft. But, greed is something I can understand.
Shall we do an Oceanic Two Minutes Hate? I hear it is very therapeutic. Damn Emmanuel Goldstein! Damn him! I can’t wait until 11:00.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:28 am
“Little Brothers” - I like that one, Ted.
Oddly, I’ve never been too freaked out by the government watching. I know the potential and risk there, but it doesn’t seem to cause the anxiety the “Little Brothers” do. The immediate, temperament-driven (and thus on topic) reason this stuff sends me screaming is my need to control my own image.
It’s a sanguine supine thang, I guess
Oh, now I’m getting all inspired about writing a sci-fi short: “The Dark Clowd Cometh…” If I have nightmares, it’s ya’lls fault!