The technological development is approaching a status that allows the realization of many dystopian ideas which have been presented in many books and films. This includes the idea that all humans could be monitored, documenting all of their actions and possibly even thoughts. Until just a few years ago, this was only possible when motivating people to oversee each other. That way, interpersonal relationships remained and the monitoring was limited in its effect. Now it seems to be possible that we are monitored by machines.
Already now we spent a big part of our day online, in a world that is provided and monitored by machines. Even if it is stated that this does not happen – we can assume that little extra effort is required to record everything that we do online, and to store it with a tag pointing to us. There is a trend to mirror more and more of our actions and thoughts in a digital twin, for example the content of our fridge, the light switches in our house, the films and series we watch, our driving profile in the car, our location at any time when we carry our phone, and of course our health record. On top of that, we also do a lot of communication with other people through the online world provided by computers. Our digital twin becomes more extensive and detailed, even without the help of surveillance cameras and face recognition. At the same time the resources to analyze all this data are rapidly growing, with algorithms that begin to adapt themselves according to the input they get. Our digital twin is not just a pile of data, but it allows predictions about our behavior. Our digital profile is evaluated, strengths and weaknesses are pointed out. The computer is busy around the clock to achieve what we often neglect in the heat of the moment: it is watching us and attempts to find our motives and to define our character. And we have to agree to that when we enter the online world.
We find ourselves facing a surveillance that knows us better than we know ourselves. At least as long as we live a typical, thoughtless life, not showing much interest in why we pursue our goals or what the meaning of our life could be. But if we decide to observe ourselves closely, then we are able to see much more than our digital twin could ever capture. That is the first step towards freedom. We need to make use of our ability to gain knowledge, and orientate it not only towards the world out there, but also towards ourselves. Only when we know who we are can we take responsibility for our life. If we do not know our own motives and shy away from the abyss we often see when facing our attention towards us, then we will loose more and more control and give our life into the hands of others.
With the surveillance and the continuously cheaper and more capable technology comes the fear of abuse. Imaginable would be an unconditional surrender of our own will to the power of the machines. Something well known and predictable is easy to control and direct. Although the control of our thoughts and fears, which is already well established with the selection of what comes into our field of view, makes physical power mostly unnecessary, many are very afraid of physical power being violently exercised. For example, robots could make sure that we stay home when a computer or some kind of test decided that we are sick. They could force us to take our pills and shots. They could ration our meals and make sure we eat only what the program determined appropriate for us. They could enforce that we follow instructions on how our house is heated, what hobbies we can pursue, where we are allowed to travel. And if we succeed to overpower the robot that takes care of us, then there will simply be another one that captures us again. It is a major concern that our possible courses of action could become increasingly limited by the physical superiority and intrusive actions of robots which are controlled by a central administration that believes to know what is best for everyone.
It does not appear to bother very many people that external control is already a reality. Our thoughts, which are ultimately the cause of our actions, are already extensively controlled with great skill by forces outside of us. That is, if we are not actively preventing this and take control of our thoughts. Even if I think what I am supposed to think, pursuing the goals presented to me, I can still maintain the illusion of being free and self-determined. That is not so easy in case of submission to physical violence; then we need to convince ourselves that we actually want what we are force to do. As a result, the threat of physical violence and control can maybe make us aware of the mental freedom we have already given up in return for comfort. We should take it back, because it is even more important than our physical freedom. This does not imply that we must prevent or fight the existence of all the data about us – it simply means that we also need to invest some time to observe ourselves, so that we know us better than the computer does.
The good news is, we can reconquer our freedom of thought even in case of physical restraints. It is still possible while we are sitting in jail. And just as abandoning or neglecting our mental freedom now threatens to result in a loss of physical freedom, regaining our mental freedom will result in a recovery of our physical freedom. Freedom remains a choice, and it must be acquired with hard work. We can do that in captivity as well. Many people, especially those with a materialistic worldview, will be skeptical about this. To achieve certainty, we must recognize that the existence of life is not the product of a physical body, but vice versa. We can get to this knowledge when directing our cognitive ability on ourselves, instead of regurgitating the thoughts that we learned.