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I grew up in the pre-internet era, in a time when conspiracy theories existed but didn't get propagated in the efficient manner in which they do nowadays.

One of the most popular conspiracy theory fears of my youth was of the George Orwell inspired *Brave New World* hegemony. A theory that said that dark shadowy men were working towards a world whereby we were all surveyed and tracked every minute of every day.

A world with a camera on every corner and RFID chips inserted into our bodies and our locations beamed to a central database . . . 

Oh wait . . .

## A Self Inflicted Bravery

I have been mulling this over for sometime now, but a comment made by @o1o1o1o on my post about [Facial Recognition](https://steemit.com/science/@cryptogee/facial-recognition-the-ticking-time-bomb) yesterday, made me realise that this Brave New World of ours has been entirely self-inflicted.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, and to some degree the 90s we didn't have personal communication devices. In fact one of my favourite things to do is to tell anyone under the age of about 17 how when I was their age, if I had to meet somebody, we arranged a time and a place and then we either made it or we didn't.

I love the looks of incredulity and incomprehension as they try and figure out how they would survive in such a world. Or even better tell them how for a while there were only three TV channels in the UK, and they weren't on 24 hours a day!

So without the concept of portable personal communication devices, and reality TV, the concept of always being watched was strange and uncomfortable to the average 80s person.

Yet today, not only do large sections of the planet have smartphones with location technology, we also have cameras which we use to document an ever growing portion of our lives.

Whereas CCTV used to freak us out, and the idea of 'chips in the brain' shook us to our moral cores; now we're like, meh whatevs . . .

## Self Surveillance Society 

>*As for misidentification the blockchain holds the answer. We should all run blockchain logging off our location which we can choose to release should the need arise.*
>
> @o1o1o1o

This is the sort of suggestion that would have really freaked a lot of people out not so long ago, now and in the coming future it is perhaps not such a bad idea, especially if things like facial recognition technology take hold in society.

Though should we consider the flipside of this kind of self monitoring? It is one thing *choosing* to release this kind of information about yourself, but what if it comes to being forced to; or is simply stolen without your knowledge?

What about parent-child relationships? Every decent parent wants the best for their offspring, they want them to be safe and sound at all times. However parenting is also about letting go and letting your children find their own way in the world, in this way society can progress and our children can become better than us.

But what if they grow up in a world where they are logging their locations in real-time twenty four hours a day?

Charlie Brooker the English comedian who co-wrote the dystopian science fiction series *Black Mirror*, explored this topic in the Series 4 episode; *'Arkangel'*. Whereby a parent has an irremovable chip placed in her daughter's head which alerts her to the girl's discomfort and also whereabouts.

The episode shows the fractious relationship that ensues because of the mother's unwillingness to let her daughter live her life.

## Unknown Unknowns

As is so often the case with new and emerging technology there will always be unforeseen consequences hidden around the corner. Sometimes those consequences will seem obvious with the benefit of hindsight, and at other times they will take us completely by surprise.

As we get to the point of ultimate monitoring and self-surveillance it only remains to be seen what the *'Black Mirror'* has in store for us just around that unseen corner.

>###### ***Fun Fact:***
>Charlie Brooker called the series Black Mirror because that is what you get when you look at your inactive phone or tablet.

WHAT DO YOU THINK; IS SELF-SURVEILLANCE A GOOD OR A BAD THING; ARE WE CREATING OUR OWN ORWELLIAN UNIVERSE WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE 'SHADOWY MEN'? OR IS THIS JUST A CASE OF BENIGN PROGRESS WHICH WE WILL LEARN TO DEAL WITH?

>[Black Mirror Series - *Wiki*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mirror)

>Title Image: Yahdi Romelo on Unsplash



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