Dataism and the fallen angel
The world where Big Data will be the oracle, equipped with all the answers and meanings for life, has already taken its firsts steps — although we pretend to be in control. This happens due to the negationist idea, according to which, turning off the machines, deactivating profiles or simply deleting data would resolve the situation, so we grant ourselves with a sensation of safety.
However, it is harder and harder to maintain this barrier safe, when we ourselves, consciently and pleasantly, feed the whole system with precious information on our lives. This not to mention here the dangers and disturbances caused by the internet’s overuse, already studied by Science and Psychology.
Naives, thinking we are in charge, we are gradually entrusting our decisions to the algorithmic, in the name of immortality, practicity and vanity. Yes: we want to avoid death as much as possible, we seek to think increasingly less about taking decisions and we migrate, torpid, to TikTok if our reach is guaranteed.
Talking about decision, just remember that we resort to Waze to choose the best route in traffic; we start consuming frequently some content that was suggested by Facebook Wacht; we choose to listen to something new indicated by Spotify; or, yet, we subscribe to a Youtube channel that was presented to us by the platform, based on our interests. (Note: do they know what are our interests or not?)
Ok, just a couple more examples: we compile routines, hobbies and interests dressed in data in our Smartphones — we let the system know when we do physical activities, along with our heart rate and performance when using our Smartwatches — and they already know very well which movie genres we like the most, just because we use a SmartTV.
We´re so integrated to the algorithmics that, consciently or not, we’ll become devoted to the 21st century’s new religion: The Dataism
The term “Dataism” was used for the first time in 2013 by David Brooks, a New York Times collumnist. According to him, “in a world of increasing complexity, relying on data could reduce cognitive biases and “illuminate patterns of behavior we haven’t yet noticed”
It is, also, the main reflexion point of Yuval Noah Harari´s book ”Homo Deus” (I made a video about this book here, available only in Portuguese) and it was categorized as a religion because, according to the author´s logic, it dismisses the function of the deities until then, which is to provide achievements, salvation, health, cure, happiness etc.
Well, if the Dataism is the new religion of the 21st century, who will be the fallen angel that will rebel?
This article seeks to scribble an answer to that question.
First of all, it’s necessary to understand the power that artificial intelligence — with machine learning combined with algorithmic — has in ruling our decisions and desires. For this, by only watching the documentary “The Social Dilemma” you will perceive yourself at the heart of the question.
Once we’ve waken up to this reality, it’s time to talk about two paths for us to be excommunicated.
1- Forget, definitely, all practicity technology, social networks and the internet brings us to reduce this impact in your life. This pathway was identified with a 250% increase in searches on Google for “Deactivate / delete Facebook Profile” between September 9 and 29 of 2020 after the movie “The Social Dilemma” was released.
Be aware that this will only reduce the impacts, but not discard the standard package of data about you that you have already provided to the system.
2 — We´ll trick the system with fake personal or business profiles and we´ll use strategies very creative to get around the collection and management of our “prayers” to dataism. Do you want an example? The vídeo “TRY NOT TO SING Dear Evan Hansen EDITION!!! + SLIME TUTORIAL (LONG VERSON) ” that exhibits a musical recorded by someone in the theather’s audience and uploaded to Youtube — What is not allowed by the copyright owner.
The whole video has no relationship with Slime at all. But, for Youtube Algorithmics, the user who watches it is a slime fan. and the A.I. is uncapable of distrusting the new language created on the publication’s comments, in where the real content of the video is spoken in a coded way, without falling, therefore, in the vigilance of the algorithms.
Conclusion
We’re putting all our efforts in accessibilizing and boosting the “internet of things”, integrating all our widgets and generating a new age of data. It´s a no return way, once the achievements and benefit weigh more than the social collapses possibilities. We won’t hand-write books just so we don’t risk having our computers invaded. We won’t cancel the Netflix account just because they know what we´re watching.
However, when everyone realizes that we will ‘evolve’ from humans to chips, just one more piece of the network, there will be a system crash driven by the attempt of interrupting this cycle. Not to mention the risk of us being subdued by machines and remaining at the bottom of the chain, the same way we did in the animal’s domestication process.
Answering the previous question, we will pass from God to Fallen Angel. Before the scenario turns dystopia into reality, we ourselves need to rebel and quickly take the reins of the game. Of course, counting that the algorithms wont predict the probabilities of our actions and neither dominate the creativity as much as the humans do.
In case you have no idea in which stage you are, just ask yourself: did I search for this article myself, or did some algorithm / social network recommend me to read it?
This´s my first article in English and was kindly reviewed by Luma Pinto