Is Technology Leading us to a Totalitarian Society?

Is Technology Leading us to a Totalitarian Society?

Scientific American: Policy & Ethics

Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?

We are in the middle of a technological upheaval that will transform the way society is organized. We must make the right decisions now

This article found on Scientific American, outlines a world where technology will eventually lead us to a completely programmed society, where algorithms dictate who we are and what we think.  It is predicted that supercomputers will eventually surpass and replace a large part of human capabilities in the next 10 - 20 years, where approximately half of today's jobs will be threatened by algorithms.

"Technology visionaries, such as Elon Musk from Tesla Motors, Bill Gates from Microsoft and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, are warning that super-intelligence is a serious danger for humanity, possibly even more dangerous than nuclear weapons."

In Singapore today, a data-controlled society was implemented as a program to protect its citizens from terrorism, which eventually ended up influencing their economy, immigration policies, property markets and schools.  China is following suit with their version of Google, Baidu.  With Baidu, China was able to implement a project called the China Brain Project from which they involved their military to take part of and run deep learning algorithms collected about their users over the search engine.  The beginning of implementing a form of social control is realized by using these algorithms to determine which of China's citizens have the right to obtain loans, work, and travel. 

"If our judgments and decisions are predetermined by algorithms, however, this truly leads to a brainwashing of the people. Intelligent beings are downgraded to mere receivers of commands, who automatically respond to stimuli"

If our society were to be manipulated and/or nudged towards an outcome predetermined by someone/some thing other than ourselves, than what kind of quality of life can we expect for ourselves and future generations when all things are predetermined for us? 

This article further outlines specific fundamental principles to avoid the inherent disasters that will eventually come from a data-controlled society.  Should we heed the warnings that are sure to effect our lives in the near future?  How do we begin protecting our civil rights in an age where technology is advancing so rapidly than generate severe loopholes in the laws put in place to ensure democracy?   To find out more, I encourage you to fully read this article, although it is quite long, it is not only informative but very enlightening.