LIE: Passive use of the internet is harmless, part 2

In Part 1 I laid out the highlights of our big data system structure and the four major components of this system of systems:

• the smart device
• the internet and wireless service providers
• the data collector/processor
• the control system

This system of systems is unprecedented in history, and all of us are affected by it in some way. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid or ‘opt out’ of this fast encroaching, enveloping system. And it appears that we can’t completely avoid it unless we ‘bug out’ to a cabin in the woods and go off grid. So we must find a way to navigate this new world and remain faithful to God.

So we ask the question: Should we be concerned?

The short answer is yes, we should be very concerned. We should be concerned for many reasons, but not just because our privacy rights are being eroded, though they are; and not simply because corporate power is corrupting our government institutions, though they are; and not because our smartphones are making us dumb, though they are. We should be concerned for a much more fundamental reason, a reason that threatens the foundation of our humanity and our relationship to God. The gravity of this lie attacks what is real and our walk with God squarely at the root. Which brings us to our second question:

Why should we be concerned?

To put it plainly, what we’re really talking about here is a deep deception of the worst kind: it’s the deception of idolatry – to worship an idol that claims us as a god and thereby promises a perverted form of personal salvation. This system claims us, requiring us (or at least cornering us so that we effectively have no place to run) to submit to its system, sucking down our personal data to make our lives empty, fake and redundant. Let’s break it down:

The Big Data/AI System of Systems —

A  is Deceptive

This system, described in Part 1, started in earnest decades ago (at least) with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), passed in 1994.[1] It set out ‘to amend title 18, United States Code, to make clear a telecommunications carrier’s duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for law enforcement purposes, and for other purposes.’ In Section 103 this act states:

SEC. 103. ASSISTANCE CAPABILITY REQUIREMENTS. (a) CAPABILITY REQUIREMENTS.— . . . a telecommunications carrier shall ensure that its equipment, facilities, or services that provide a customer or subscriber with the ability to originate, terminate, or direct communications are capable of— (1) expeditiously isolating and enabling the government, pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization, to intercept, to the exclusion of any other communications, all wire and electronic communications carried by the carrier within a service area to or from equipment, facilities, or services of a subscriber of such carrier concurrently with their transmission to or from the subscriber’s equipment, facility, or service, or at such later time as may be acceptable to the government.[2]

In other words all telecommunications providers – AT&T, T-Mobile, etc – must make sure that its equipment can allow the FBI or any other US government agency to detect, isolate and seize any communication data that flows through its systems.

Whether this apparatus was put in place from the beginning to intentionally spy on us is open to debate; what is not debatable is how it turned out. Now, no one disputes that we have a massive, dragnet surveillance system, largely hidden, and one to which most people have signed onto passively, unaware that these ‘free’ services were actually designed to capture thousands of pieces of our personal data. Most people are only vaguely aware, if that, of this ‘agreement’ and are way too casual with their personal data. This system is an orchestrated, massively-successful deception from top to bottom.

B  is Idolatrous

This system is idolatrous because of its perverse divine traits: its omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. I’m taking only the most obvious, well-accepted divine traits – few will dispute that these traits are the sole purview of a divine being.

Omnipresence – Go anywhere in the world and you will find the internet and Google (and many other platforms). Even third-world countries, at least in major cities, now have internet services. This is truly a global system of systems which is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid, especially with the advent of smartphones and other smart devices.

Omniscience – Even young children can now easily perform Google searches and instantly find millions of facts and figures: world capitals, conversion ratios, driving directions, news stories, math equations and pornographic films – practically anything can be found quickly, confidently and almost effortlessly.  Few scrutinize sources or look too deeply. The information, whether true or false, is right there on its surface, claiming to be true, current and complete.

The sheer amount of data available now requires artificial intelligence (AI) systems, machine learning and data analytics – a superhuman, god-like-omniscient power to sift, sort, and make sense of it all. These AI systems have passed the novelty stage and are now becoming productive and democratized.

Omnipotence – Google and its brethren seek to dominate, monopolizing their domain, and methodically eliminating all alternatives. The omnipresence and omnipotence of the system eliminates all exits. No sanctuary is left for us to simply be. They create fantasy out of reality, concentrating their power into a subtle tyranny of the mind – they decide what is possible, what is true, and what is right. They claim superiority over all other forms and methods of acquiring knowledge. Though Google has its rivals, it has captured over 80% of the worldwide search engine market, clearly dominating its competition. [3] Its suite of applications crowds out its competitors by sheer force of comprehensiveness and integration.

This system of systems falsely creates these perverse divine traits through the illusion of ‘personalization.’ Big Data increasingly pretends to know us personally, speaking to us by name or by trait, in personal, even intimate language. This is obviously designed to deceive and to give the impression that a god-like entity knows us.[4]

Personalization, carried to its ultimate conclusion, will create a mix of news, entertainment, and media that only we care about. If we don’t care to know about something, meaning if we don’t click or search or share, then on those subjects, say Afghanistan or farming or politics, those subjects drop off our radar and we’re never bothered by them again; we simply will know more and more about less and less. Consequently our thinking correspondingly narrows – in content and ability – and we slowly enter our own fantasy world, a world of our own making. It’s a personalized, solipsistic world, a world of our own where we’re free to believe whatever we want and to even believe that we are in control. This of course only reinforces and facilitates the original lie: ‘you will be as God . . .’ We will more easily imagine and deceive ourselves as god over our ‘vast’ domain.

[See also LIE: I can become a god and LIE: Idolatry is rare, part 1 and part 2]

C  Falsely promises personal salvation

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and their brethren promise a digital, virtual world of endless novel experiences and diversions, limitless but context-less knowledge, and ultimately, if we surrender our DNA (if we haven’t already), perfect health and even immortality. Of course this is a deception, but the promise is nonetheless seductive. We are being forced into a corner – either accept God’s salvation or man’s. It appears that the salvation offered by the system of systems becomes more god-like, comprehensive and inevitable. And it becomes more difficult to discern the difference from that salvation to the salvation that God offers.

D  Blurs the line between our humanity as individuals and machines, between the real and the fake

The strange outcome of this massive data collection is its ability to construct a predictable simulation of you. How many data points does it take to construct a virtual and reasonably-passable version of you? Hundreds, thousands, millions? Some data are simple: height, weight, eye color, IQ, etc, but other data are more subtly derived from location, education, family background, your connections to others, occupation and careful observation.

We are also encouraged to create our own avatars. Yes, some are silly, for example the Wii’s Mii, but others are serious. And now with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems we can become a character in our own virtual world and interact in the virtual worlds of others. The more life becomes mediated through a screen, the less we’ll be able to distinguish between the real and the simulated. Through AR we will see the real world (through a screen) overlaid by any number of ‘augmentations’ (labels, dimensions, directions, instructions, etc).

But why should this matter? I can count at least five reasons:

We become:

1  Manipulatable. When a virtual you becomes as acceptable as the real you, or even preferred for cost-efficiency’s sake, that virtual self – in the wrong hands – can be reconstituted, redefined or even deleted – it’s identity theft on steroids.

2  Absorbable. A virtual you can also be absorbed and enveloped into a borg or universal mind – no more a complete you but a you combined with a thousand others. This creates the ‘hive mind.’

3  Predictable. A virtual you becomes a predictable model to be used by insurance companies, law enforcement, mortgage companies, anyone who needs to determine what kind and how much of a risk or opportunity you pose.

4  Interchangeable. It becomes more difficult to distinguish between a real human being and a fake one, thereby enhancing the unreal world and increasing deception to unheard of levels. This in turn increases doubt and makes trust much more difficult if not impossible. ‘AIs’ – artificial intelligences – and our virtual selves mingle and interact as equals or as master-slave relationships. At that point humanity essentially has changed to include another species, thereby corrupting true humanity.

5  Replaceable. As the quality of our avatars (or our robots or profiles or agents thereof) increase, so their relative value to humans also increase so that they become nearly as valuable or even more so than our true selves. This may seem fantastical but when virtual/digital life grows in intrinsic moral or religious value, it becomes easier to proportionately devalue real human life. Humans then become a ‘drain on society,’ become ‘useless eaters,’ etc, which can even lead to forced sterilization and euthanasia programs.

E  is Tyrannical

Related to the fact that AI systems are idolatrous by virtue of their omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence, they also become de-facto tyrants. Regardless of whether AI systems become benevolent or malevolent, they will still eventually become tyrants simply because we as humans will effectively have no choice but to go along with their clearly superior intelligence and capability. They may claim or even appear to be ‘for us,’ but we eventually become useless and non-functional, thereby becoming dispensable and disposable. Do you think a superior AI ‘race’ who legitimately sees humans as disposable, will put up with us for long? Or if they do, will they not institute measures that will limit our natural powers?

Whether you believe that a non-human (alien) AI class will actively be empowered or whether it will be their masters (human or demonic or an alliance of the two) posing as AI, it doesn’t really matter. In the end, it will certainly be both idolatrous and tyrannical.

So what’s the answer?

Can we extract ourselves from this monstrosity? Or is our place on the smart grid inevitable? Ultimately the answer is that each of us must evaluate our own use of these systems and earnestly seek God for answers. No amount of careful scrutiny or technical know-how will ultimately suffice. Our only answer is truly in the Lord God Almighty. Our answer is in seeing and worshipping his all-sufficiency. He alone can deliver us and if we seek him, he will show us how.

The danger is that, with each day of passive use and trust in these systems, it becomes more difficult to discern, to take action, to turn our minds from it. The danger is that, with each day that this system goes unchallenged, it grows in power and reach so that it eventually intimidates us into submission and mindless surrender, and in the process we lose our faith in God’s power to save us. We cannot resist or extract ourselves unless we engage, interact, participate actively in the kingdom of God. This system is far from being benign. It is a cancer that, if not resisted, will capture, overcome and ultimately destroy our faith.

I believe many of God’s people are approaching that cliff or have already reached the point of no return. Yet there is always hope. Remember Abraham who hoped against all hope and called those things that were not as though they were.[5]

God never promised freedom from pain or suffering or even death in this world. Jesus said:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. — John 16:33

We must brace ourselves for an inevitable take-over and a forced round-up of those who refuse to worship this beast (see the article: What is the Mark of the Beast?, part 1 and part 2). The system in place now is already a ‘soft’ take-over of our most personal and intimate details. With their rendition of your data they claim to have and control your equivalent, a reduction of you. But never forget, the real you is a million times more complex, more real, and more valuable.

This system will not tolerate non-conformists. May God give us his wisdom, strength and courage.

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though its waters roar and be troubled.
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.
There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge. — Psalm 46:1–7

Please continue to part 3.

[1] I realize the start of the surveillance state goes farther back, but 1994 seems to be a massive escalation of the effort in the United States.

[2] https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/103/hr4922

[3] https://www.netmarketshare.com/

[4] From Cambridge Analytica: https://ca-commercial.com: “We use data analytics and behavioral science to understand every individual within your audience, helping you to connect with them on a personal level.”

[5] Romans 4:17