More and more, whether we like it or not – our personal privacy is becoming less private. Anytime we sign up for a new app or account that asks us to create a username and password – our digital identity grows larger in the world. How many times a day are you deleting spam emails or notifications from whatever social media site you’re into? Whenever you’re searching the web or on social media – look at all the advertisements in the margins and the feeds that are made relevant to your most recent desires and curiosities. It’s almost as if your mind was being read.
I’ve heard that “data is the new oil”. “Likes” on Facebook and Instagram and the number of our followers build on our social currency. We are headed deeper into an unfathomable digital domain. There’s billions to be made off the digital impression of who we are, our wants and needs, and our target market demographic. We are enabling Big Brother, Siri, Alexa and the rest to have surgical precision into our private lives every time we login.
Reach over to sci-fi for a second, where in the mediocre Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica – the bereaved creator of the first Cylon (cybernetic lifeform node) takes all digital artifacts of his deceased daughter to create a hologram which eventually allows the chrome killer bots to transcend into a toaster with soul. The Japanese government is investing in the future of robots as a means to boost its ailing GDP.
I thought – what if I put milestones of my life into a spreadsheet? My life in Excel? What that translates into here is a visualization into a time continuum spanning generations. With a one-pager, I can tell my life story. I am risking more of my personal self to the digital future where algorithms can read the binary code that’s unique to me.
They say that you’re not truly dead until the last person who has known you is gone. But that’s changing now thanks to AI which is alarming and most likely inevitable. There was an open letter this past spring of 2023 warning that AI is a risk to humanity akin to pandemics and nuclear annihilation. In 2015, many tech leaders signed an open letter asking to pump the breaks and prioritize research on the impact of AI on humanity and society. It’s been predicted that we will reach the Singularity by 2045 when technology will surpass humanity and will be out of control and irreversible. Leading up to 2045, it’s predicted that human immortality will be attained by 2030. What that looks like and how it will be achieved remains to be seen. I will live forever as long as bits of my digital DNA are floating around out there.
Data, I heart you.