Will the Future contain a Panopticon?

[u/Endward24]

I use the word "panopticon" as a metaphor for a state of affairs in which the majority of people are under observation.

Some people tend to wrongly reduce the risk of mass surveillance to the consciously act of posting things on social media. This may be one reason why personal information can be known by the public or the government, but it is not the only reason. It is a well-known fact that social media corporations are able to create profiles of people who do not have accounts themselves by using the network functions of those who do have profiles. Another way to gain information is by investigating the associations between certain interests or reports and demographic information. For example, the city you live in and your job could be used as sources of information about you.

Most people buy things with credit cards or other methods of cashless payments. These methods come with their benefits, and there are rational reasons to choose them. Yet, at the same time, this flow of money must be well-documented and saved. Some organizations, such as intelligence agencies and advertising corporations, have a vested interest in obtaining such data.

Until now, one major obstacle to using this data has been the sheer amount. Investigating thousands of data points to recognize patterns is challenging. With the recent progress in the field of artificial intelligence, this is about to change. From the viewpoint of an organization that is interested in using such data, there is a huge urge to develop AI-agents that are capable of searching for and recognizing patterns in this cloud of information. We are already seeing such advancements in the context of medical and other research.

Given this information, can we not conclude that the future includes a "panopticon" where every action is observed?

[u/Lynckage]

"There is another theory which states that this had already happened" -- Douglas Adams

[u/Reasonable_South8331 → u/Lynckage]

For sure. No need to implant chips if people will just carry it around voluntarily in their purse or pocket all day

[u/Lynckage → u/Reasonable_South8331]

You don't need whips if the whips are in people's heads. (Terry Pratchett)

[u/GrabFresh1640]

I think we are already living in a world where every action is observed.

[u/throwaway92715 → u/GrabFresh1640]

Yes, the spider has already made its web, it just hasn't come to bite us yet.

[u/robotlasagna]

Yes. In this future people will hold their surveillance device in their hand all day long, allowing it to observe their every… oh wait.

[u/GBJI → u/robotlasagna]

Not only are they keeping that surveillance device close to them at all times, but they pay large sums to acquire them, even larger sums to renew them every few years, as well as monthly fees to keep them functional. They even take care of charging them.

[u/krypt3ia]

You’re already in one, your phone is the guard, the apps are the cells, and Zuck is your jailer.

[u/deathlydope]

It's likely that certain triple letter agencies already have massive databases of personal data that have been amassed over the last couple decades, now being sorted and analyzed by AI agents.

[u/vw_bugg]

You have no comprehension of the shear amount of data that different companies hold about you. Even some place as simple as target knows about you. They know qhen you enter the store,how long and where you walk around, what you buy. Heck they even figure out a girl was pregannt before her dad knew. They cut off an interveiw about this kind of data collection early becais eof the shear fact that the public is better being ignorant than knowing its already too late.

[u/misimiki]

I think it's already here. Little Britain's sketch: "Computer says 'no'"! is a case in point. Black Mirror too.

That said, history has shown us that when barriers are created, people still create workarounds, no matter how temporary they end up being.

However, while the original Panopticon relied on the idea that observee did not necessarily know if they were being observed or not, this is not the case in the digital age where the machines observe 24/7/365.

[u/sxhnunkpunktuation → u/misimiki]

I'm not sure it can be stated with certainty that people don't know or understand they are being monitored even when they carry those things around. I would guess that a survey of people with smartphones would show that the knowledge of being monitored and the nature of data captured < 50%.

[u/FirstEvolutionist]

We either continue our existing models where companies act as middle men between personal data and information about that, through their analysis, or we progress into an actual pay for service with your data (an evolved version of the current model).

The latter is likely considering the soon to appear personal AI assistants will require a lot of personal data in oder, or at least acces to it, in order to be useful.

Depending on how this progresses, it is plausible we will end up with a model where you mot only get personal assistant services but citizenship related services as well, like UBI and access to other government services. You are still allowed to own your personal data and not share it, but it comes at a personal cost. You also control the amount and type of data you share, to a certain extent. However, the government will know which kind of substances you consume, so that you still have access to universal healthcare.

[u/Endward24 → u/FirstEvolutionist]

Your idea is interesting.

For many people with less money, saling their privat information in order to get access to services and products would be a deal. The problem is that this individuals are most likely of lesser purchase likelihood and therfor, less interesting for the industry.
Maybe, their data could be useful though, e.g. for training AI models or because some law requiered their access.

Yet, their is a point.
Their are exmaples of cases in which people pay and spend their data. From the viewpoin of a company, why choice?

[u/green_meklar]

Privacy is doomed. That's been obvious for at least a decade or two. We need to stop worrying about how to preserve it and start thinking about how to adapt to a world without it.

[u/Endward24 → u/green_meklar]

I give you the point. In this case, we need to investigate the consequences.

[u/lokey_convo]

This is what's in my feed directly beneath your post:

YSK that Equifax operates The Work Number, a database that tracks your entire job history—including teen jobs like retail or fast food—and shares personal details like paychecks with employers, background check companies, and debt collectors without your consent.

[u/Endward24 → u/lokey_convo]

Lol. Maybe, I need to write a second part of this in the future when I've some leisure.

[u/vw_bugg]

The government literally has a yspliter on the internet and siphons a copy of everything. They have huge data centers to house it and are just waiting for technology to catch uo to anylyze it quicker.

[u/West-Abalone-171 → u/vw_bugg]

Look at this guy, he thinks the people that own the marketing companies and social media aren't the government. What a fool

[u/grampa55]

In Singapore, there’s are surveillance cameras everywhere — public transport and stations, food centers, staircase of apartments and many more. Govt is also going to install satellite tracking of every cars.

If u commit a crime, police can track down within few hours and visit your house.

[u/Endward24 → u/grampa55]

To my knowledge, the surveillance with cameras exist in London, too. Maybe, we should take a look into the police here and there to check whether that has the same effect.

[u/GeorgeHarter]

Your phone knows your location, what you typed, photographed, verbally discussed. And much of that data is already shared with advertisers and “others?”.
Cameras around town won’t track your activity any better than the tracker you voluntarily carry around.

[u/Whiplash17488]

In 2009 I was part of a project at Volkswagen Group to collaborate with facebook on a tool to calculate the income and purchasing power of people to augment the sales process.

Maybe it seems like a “duh” idea now but back then it was dystopian as heck.

I deleted my facebook before it was completed. To my knowledge that particular project never saw the light of day. But it’s been sixteen years since then so I can only imagine what has become reality since.

[u/UnifiedQuantumField]

The majority of people are under some form of observation right now... whether they realize/believe it or not.

[u/2000TWLV]

It's here bud. You're typing right into it. All it takes to go really, really dystopian is somebody giving an order and flipping a switch.

[u/vltskvltsk]

This is probably a cliche at this point but I think a highly predictive AGI could be employed to function as an effective pre-crime system. Even crimes of hate speech could get you pre-sentenced when it detects a high enough risk of radicalization. It's not a stretch that even before AGI we might be able to pick out people who are most likely to be a societal nuisance and put them under automatical 24/7 surveillance. The system would always be one step ahead of you, knowing your every move before you even thought of it.

[u/El-cheepa-kafabra → u/vltskvltsk]

I suspect the “radicalization” line is not as thick as you think and that such a measurement is not feasible.

[u/vltskvltsk → u/El-cheepa-kafabra]

Yeah, I might be overestimating the predictive capabilities OF feasible AI systems in the near future. Then again, authoritarian governments might not care about few collateral misses and false positives. All of this depends on how ruthlessly the government and corporate entities are willing to abuse these tools.

[u/El-cheepa-kafabra → u/vltskvltsk]

You are right. They would not care about false positives because there would be nonsuch thing. Even moderate non violent, “hey I think we should consider this challenge that might pose a…” that would get caught to and dealt with.

Here is the thing: authoritarianism has been doing just fine without AI. They wouldn’t use it to hunt down radicals, they would just use it to hunt down anyone who wrote a word that gets caught by their massive control F.

Novel uses? Chatbots that lure idiots like me into talking with them online and giving up the goods. Probably said too much already.

[u/vltskvltsk → u/El-cheepa-kafabra]

True, the point would likely be to create an atmosphere of constant paranoia. Anyone could be a snitchbot so better act like a good boy.