Are we already in the Matrix?


Focus: "Just as divine authority was legitimised by religious mythologies, and human authority was legitimised by humanist ideologies, so high-tech gurus and Silicon Valley prophets are creating a new universal narrative that legitimises the authority of algorithms and Big Data."

Points:
  • Big trend: "…given enough biometric data and computing power, this all-encompassing system could understand humans much better than we understand ourselves. Once that happens, humans will lose their authority, and humanist practices such as democratic elections will become as obsolete as rain dances and flint knives."
  • Big threat: "…humanism is now facing an existential challenge and the idea of “free will” is under threat. Scientific insights into the way our brains and bodies work suggest that our feelings are not some uniquely human spiritual quality. Rather, they are biochemical mechanisms that all mammals and birds use in order to make decisions by quickly calculating probabilities of survival and reproduction."
  • Big fear: "…we are now at the confluence of two scientific tidal waves. On the one hand, biologists are deciphering the mysteries of the human body and, in particular, of the brain and of human feelings. At the same time, computer scientists are giving us unprecedented data-processing power. When you put the two together, you get external systems that can monitor and understand my feelings much better than I can. Once Big Data systems know me better than I know myself, authority will shift from humans to algorithms. Big Data could then empower Big Brother."
  • Big takeover: "…eventually people may give algorithms the authority to make the most important decisions in their lives, such as who to marry."

Are you indeed the sum total of data collected about you? Are you willing to hand your life over to the cloud? Since the computing power that crunches all that data about you resides in the cloud, I'm reminded of the Michaelangelo fresco in the Sistine Chapel, The Creation of Adam. God, dwelling in the clouds, is reaching to Adam to give the spark of life. Will that be us, gaining the spark from algorithms instead of God?