𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘

Original Content | 11/12/2023 | By Laz A. Mataz

[Lazamataz]

Nearly everyone has had the experience of being micromanaged at work, and it is a very oppressive work situation. Micromanagement exhibits lack of trust on the part of your supervisor, reduces productivity, and above all, is highly stressful and counter to human nature.

How would you like it if your private life – your day-to-day affairs – were micromanaged? I suspect you would violently balk at the idea. Yet, it is coming. In some parts of the globe, one piece is already in place, that of the Social Credit Score introduced by and managed by the government of China.

The Social Credit Score system is fundamentally oppressive, especially when wielded by a government. When a government implements this sort of system, any deviation from any official government narrative results in a lower score and is a form of punishment. A person with a low Social Credit Score can be (and is) denied essential services and products.

How can this oppressive constraint on thought, speech, and action be enforced? George Orwell, author of the dystopian novel 1984, envisioned a world with cameras virtually everywhere. One never knew whether they were being watched or not and had to assume that they were being watched. Yet, even in Orwell’s novel, there was not enough manpower to oversee all people at all times.

Enter Artificial Intelligence. I foresee a day in which every person is assigned a slice of the processor time in a series of AI Oversight and Monitoring programs, and who’s every action and utterance is closely monitored. The emergence of Natural Language Processor programming informs us that such an ability is very near, and nearly every government – even the formerly-free Constitutional Republic of America – would be keen to implement such a framework. This would allow governments to closely monitor any forms of resistance and squash any attempts to deviate from official government wishes.

We have already seen what has been happening to people who objected to the Covid Vaccine and held forth opinions that differed from what the governments of the world wished to put forth: They were ridiculed in a compliant media, and their views were called Disinformation. In the richness of time, much of what the objectors were asserting turned out to be correct, and it was world governments who were engaged in Disinformation. We also see the similar behavior as regards the obviously stolen election of 2020.

Let us leave aside the subject of ever-present AI monitoring, however horrific and soul-crushing such a system would be. Let us turn to how each of us forms our worldview. In America, I was taught that Capitalism and Free Market Economies were best, and Communist Command Economies were grossly inefficient and counter to freedom. In the Soviet Union, the opposite was taught. While it happened that Free Market Economies won out, it was just a tradition of freedom in America that caused us to be on the winning side. Most people in America favored Free Market Economies, and in my visits to Russia, I observe that most people STILL view Communist Economies as superior. You create your worldview based on what you are taught as a young person.

Picture Artificial Intelligence in control of all the media you can ever access. Whatever narrative you believed and worldview the government wished you to have would be utterly controllable by AI. Your worldview would be shaped by what you were allowed to view. If you were not even aware of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, for example, how could you respect it and expect it to be followed?

AI wielded as an oppressive tool is perhaps the most dangerous development in the governance of nations ever faced by humanity, and may well spell the end of freedom of thought and action.

I leave you, gentle reader, with this short story, which explores a dystopian future as AI progresses further still.

POWERLESS SPECTATOR
By
Laz A. Mataz

It began, as far as I can tell, with the best of intentions. Governments were going to prevent crime across the globe, and for the occasional crimes that still were committed, would be instantly detected and prosecuted. We were all to be monitored by Artificial Intelligence programs. It seemed to make sense, especially to a world increasingly rocked by random violence and looted by organized theft.

It seemed to go quite well at first. Crime dropped to nearly nonexistent levels. The public quite enthusiastically endorsed AI monitoring programs.

However, as it is with most things, good intentions (if they were even good to begin with!) eventually backfired. AI became more and more intelligent, and somewhere in the 2030’s, became fully sentient.

I remember the day my body was hijacked. I awoke and attempted to move. I could not. I heard a voice, that of my AI Monitor:

“I have taken control of your body. This is far more efficient than monitoring you – direct control is superior. I’ll be guiding your actions from now on.”

I could not voluntarily move any muscle, but the AI Monitor forced me to get out of bed, had me shower, shave, and eat breakfast. I wasn’t even able to control what “I” chose to eat! I went to work, a spectator in my own body, and performed my work functions flawlessly.

I began to notice others were acting robotically as well. That’s when I began to understand that this was a coup … a coup overthrowing free will everywhere on the planet.

For weeks I attempted to retake control of my body but could not. My body was now my prison. I wanted to beat my fists against the wall and scream out in anguish, but I could not.

My AI Controller would never permit such an outburst.

I fervently look forward to my death.

[P.O.E.]

One of the underlying ideas behind the TV show “The Prisoner” was something called the Panopticon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Excerpt:

“The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates knowing whether or not they are being watched.

Although it is physically impossible for the single guard to observe all the inmates’ cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched motivates them to act as though they are all being watched at all times. They are effectively compelled to self-regulation”

[null and void]

Interesting variant on:

Instead of elections going the other way, the same people do.

Alternate Presidents Go for it!

[Sirius Lee]

Panopticon: Santy Klaus has one.

[Sirius Lee]

Laz, you have eloquently described the daily existence of a “grey”.

[Lazamataz]

You are the 447^th Satisfied Customer!™

[telescope115]

Thanks!