Ubiquitous surveillence and data mining eliminates the ephemerality of our past words and actions 🧠
Through most of history, our interactions and conversations have been ephemeral, and it is how we naturally think about conversation. However, this has since changed. Companies are having fewer face-to-face meetings, friends socialize online, etc. We all behave as if these conversations were ephemeral, but they’re not. They’re all saved on private servers that we have no control over, and these on-the-record conversations are hard to delete. And with more surveillance, it is also becoming harder and harder to be ephemeral. Science fiction writer Charles Stross described this situation as the end of prehistory. We will never forget anything because we’ll always be able to retreive it from some computers memory.
One-fourth of adults have criminal records. Even minor infractions can follow people forever and have a huge impact on their lives—this is why many governments have a process of expunging criminal records after some time has passed. Losing the ephemeral will mean that everything you say or do will be associated with you forever.
Having conversations that dissapear as soon as they occur allows us to stay relaxed and comfortable and say things that we might not say if a tape recorder were running. Over the long term, forgetting and misremembering is how we process our history. Forgetting is an important enabler for forgiving. As individual or social memory fades, past hurts become less sharp, which helps us forgive past wrongs.
References
- Schneier, Bruce. (2015). Data and Goliath The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World Chapter 10. Privacy (Location 2046). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Politics / Privacy / Surveillence Status:☀️