Friday, January 10, 2014

17259--Broken News

Mad as Hell

My mind is reeling from the implications of the input just sent in for processing.  A pair of news anchors, if they can still dare be called that, just read to the audience about a leading cell provider's new friends and family plan.  It wasn't so simply named.  Frankly, it was stupidly named, but that's beside the point.  The point is the anchors just did a commercial as though it was news.  If I were a rival station's news producer, I'd run a story on that, chasing down their personnel for interviews and commentaries on the scandal.

Is this the direction of things?  I'm not so naïve that I don't know the major news outlets are owned by corporate and financial interests nor that there are a lot of things they don't tell us, but are they just going to set fire to what little integrity to which they still might lay claim?  I rankled enough at the bothersome concept presented in "Minority Report" back in 2002 when electronic ad signs were personally targeting passing pedestrians via retina scan, but now commercialized news spots?  Where's the FCC when you need it?  Somebody tries to flash me a breast and it's levying fines instead of thank you notes on my behalf.  Turn regulated news time into an infomercial and what's it doing?

Nothing to see here.

I suppose the next move to watch for will be Google Glass pop-up ads.  Those will doubtlessly be as targeted as the smartsigns from the Tom Cruise film.  Like most real world developments, though, closing your eyes won't be enough to make them go away.  They'll have been targeted to your wearable device.  Your new augmented reality will likely see you bombarded by sponsored ads from every business you walk or drive near whether you look at them or not.

After they get people to start taking their edible microchips, Google will likely reveal that they don't just turn you into a password transmitter, but an ad receiver who no longer has the luxury of simply removing that stylish Google Glasswear.  That also brings us around to another film prophecy because, to add the irony-flavored coating to your high-tech treat, the power source for the internalized microchip is your own biochemistry, copper-top.

How do you like them apples?

Sure, this means constant remote monitoring of an individual's health status is speeding our way on the heels of eroding privacy and probably heralds revolutionary changes in communications, emergency services, physical security and personal computing among other industries, but it may cost you your peace of mind even if everything were to work right straight out of the logic gate.  What do you mean you don't want commercials beamed into your subconscious, your dreams, your daydreams, your fantasies...?  And you thought it was hard to get jingles out of your head before?  HA!  You'll hardly even care once the telemarketer calls start literally ringing in your ears.

If it's any consolation, even though Google has been buying up robotics companies, the advent of our subjugation by robot overlords is still probably several years off.  All you Connors out there can stay paranoid, just keep an eye on the humans...and the corporations...and the government.  I've got your back.

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