It's that time when the nearly useless requirement rolls around for us to tell you how your are tracked.
You are not tracked by us.
But you are tracked: relentlessly and ruthlessly.
There! Done!
It is no longer possible to evade the tracking. You can put some dampers on it but we now permanently live under surveillance: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from -9 months (more or less), to day 0, until the day you die and even that won't stop the tracking. You might be worth more dead than you think.
So on the good news side of things: LOTS and LOTS of folks are doing as much dampening as possible.
On the bad news side of things: There are MORE trackers than you could possibly imagine. Even the 5EYES haven't figured out all the trackers that are tracking them - which makes them very cranky indeed.
One of the interesting changes in human-computer relationships is how our roles have been reversed so quietly that hardly anyone notices.
Computers were promised to be tools for Human use.
Humans are now tools that Computers use.
It's rather interesting to see the ways in which we have become indentured 1 to computers.
An indentured person has signed a contract for a particular fixed time in return for a fixed benefit. The contract can be sold to someone else and the indentured is obligated to work out the contract.
Gee, if that doesn't sound like a Smartphone Cellular Contract: where you agree to pay for an expensive device and agree to charges that are not ALL the charges as they pile in a few they forgot to mention or glossed over, and you are obligated to use their system with all of the add-on charges that they glossed over and you cannot exit before your time has expired.
So we willingly indenture ourselves not to a company but to a system of computers. We carry it because "we must". We pay for it because "we have to". We live years of our lives supporting a system of computers because "we have no choice".
In the days of Old Empires people lived their lives in support of Pharaohs and Emperors. Now we live our lives in support of massive computer systems.
Gee ain't that grand!
In every store, everything has a bar code 2 and all sorts of nice graphic 2D matrix codes and often RFID chips in their products. They can be in boxes and clothes and shoes, in cars and even in people. Some companies offer "free RFID chip inplant days". While not "mandatory" and often "illegal" in some locales, employees queue up ready to be branded so the computer can follow them easier. Stock clerks feed the computer information similar to feeding an infant. They scan tags and ids and even use images to show the computer what it cannot see for itself: that the items are not only placed according to their tracking location but that the products are "front facing" or "positioned" exactly how the computer indicated on the layout diagrams.
There will be no deviation!
In days gone by, in market squares people would exchange coins for goods. You can see this antique setup still working at swap meets and yard sales where passersby will pick up a discarded item and pay the seller for it. Other than robbery and the weight of the coins, one of the biggest drawbacks was that people had to know how to:
- count
- add
- subtract
- figure multiples
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- 1 + 1 = 2
- 5 - 1 = 4
- 2 * 4 = 8
The tradesperson would figure out what each of the items was worth including the required taxes and levies and tell us what we owed. In many cases a handy dandy side of entertainment was included by "bargaining" 4 for a better exchange. If both parties agreed then the exchange took place.
Of course if you couldn't count or add, subtract or multiply fast enough things might not turn out as you expected. Depending on which way the scale tipped you either got a Great Deal or A Rip Off.5
After the Civil War the Cash Register was invented 6 and this allowed both the seller and buyer to watch the counting without having to worry that someone forgot to Carry the 1. The total appeared in the window and That Said John Was That.
Still there was a problem: You might know that you were owed $4.90 but if the buyer gave you $5.00 ... well What To Do Percy?
It seems that being able To Count3 is not the same skill as Making Change5 .
So cash registers became computer Point of Sale Systems 7 linking RFID codes to pricing, adding up the totals with all the taxes and levies and displaying the value of the goods. Once the buyer handed over their money the machine would tell the cashier how much to return to the customer.
Years ago I was dining at a small breakfast establishment that had a newly acquired POS (it's officially called Point of Sale but the software is often a Piece of S#@% and that name works too.). The customer ahead of us paid their bill and while the cashier struggled to deduct $11.25 from a $20.00 bill, the computer showed the exact amount owed to be returned to the customer: $8.75. I watched as the owner scolded the cashier for taking $8.75 from the till and forced her to re-count the entire cash transaction by verbally counting out the change from $11.25 to $20.00
The bill for your party is $11.25.
.75 cents makes $12.
$1 dollar makes $13.
$1 dollar makes $14.
$1 dollar makes $15.
$5 dollars makes $20.
Thank you.
The exchange took longer than it took to eat the pancakes (which were quite good by the way).
When I asked the owner why the cashier wasn't allowed to give the change indicated by the computer register, I expected it was because they didn't trust the computer (not a bad thing in truth), but I was surprised when the reason was: The cashier cannot count change properly.
Evidently the cashier didn't know what 3 quarters, 3 dollars, and a fiver looked like.
So now we have POS systems everywhere counting quarters and fivers and the number of steps the serving staff took to go from the kitchen to your table and how long you had to sit there hoping the food was going to arrive hot. The POS system tells the chiefs how many flapjacks you want and some clever systems can even weigh the garbage and calculate how much was wasted because while the flapjacks came hot, there wasn't any syrup on the table and it took 30 minutes to open the TimeLock on the storeroom door to find a new bottle of Not-Maple Syrup, all because the computer didn't tell them to replace the empty one.
Education no longer matters!
While marketing at the local super, I've watched the cashiers move away from even handling monies. Of course paper money is fiat money (it's just a piece of paper) and the coins used to be real metal but are now some amalgam recast from old dental fillings 8 9, but there was actually something physically in your hands and pockets. Now we all have plastic cards that we stuff into the maw of the massive Financial Computer System whenever we hope to make a purchase.
We HOPE we can make a purchase because we never really know what the Payment Computer System is going to agree to. There are numerous screens of numbers or requests that you have to pass through and while the systems crosscheck the POS, DEBIT, CREDIT, ATM, and ACH Financial Systems to verify your ability to exchange invisible fiat paper worth $4.90 for a loaf of bread. 7 10
While standing by helplessly but hopeful that the card won't burp up You Shall Not Pass, there is nothing anyone can do. The cashier cannot do anything because unless the computer agrees, you won't get your loaf of bread. The store manager cannot do anything because the computer didn't indicate it was OK.
We await upon the pleasure of the System.
Not that long ago, while waiting for the computer to process the people ahead of me in the line, I noticed an elderly woman. She had no groceries but she had a card in her hand. When she got to the point where the computer/cashier could process something, there was a quiet exchange between the woman and the cashier. Being too far away to hear the exchange I saw the cashier shaking her head no, the woman looking a bit frazzled and the cashier pointing a an ATM across the corridor. One of those ATMs that charge you double the amount you take out. The woman made her way to the ATM.
The impatient people waiting behind her, heaved big sighs of relief and quickly queued up their goods and shuffled their mortal coils through the Dance of The Debits; continuing along their Happy Track Day jabbering away on their smartphones, because of course, THAT was what one DOES when you are IMPORTANT!
Being more than a few people behind in the queue with my loaf of bread, I watched the woman attempt to use the ATM. She wasn't having any success. Soon a clerk come to help her. Together they shook their heads. The woman looked distraught. The kindly clerk took her to his checkout counter and pointed to the Payment System and I watch while the Dance continued. It wasn't going well at all.
At last being within earshot of the first cashier I inquired:
What is the woman trying to do? What's the problem?
She wants Cash Back from her account.Is there an issue?
We cannot give Cash Back unless you buy something for more than $1.00.
Ohhh Ahhhh Hmmmmm
The Horns of a Dilemma
There was only ONE thing to do.
I reached into my Mad Money pocket and pulled out a REAL FIAT $20.00 bill. I told the cashier to give the $20.00 to the old lady so she can buy something, which will then qualify her to put her card into the Payment Computer System so she can get her Cash Back. The kindly clerk looked at the $20.00 and at me in complete puzzlement. I said,
Sell her a packet of gum for a buck so she can get her cash back.
Light Bulbs are now LEDs but there was Illumination.
Computers are not Humans. They don't care.
Most humans don't care either but Computers don't care about them anymore than they do the rest of us.
I play several computer MMORPG video games 11 with varying degree of success. Early games were tests of human - machine interface and used simple menus to accomplish "game stuff". Advanced games provide images that look like real world ones and some activities that mimic real world actions. There are lots of variations from basic, to neat, to wonderful all the way to creepy, weird, and totally yucky.
One of the most common secondary activities in these games is to use a scripting language to automate the game play.
So... lest this small sentence get lost in the flow:
They automate game play so Their Computer can play The Big Server In The Sky without human interaction.
It's a bit like the 1983 movie WarGames 12 where you get your computer to run a simulaton against another computer because the Big System In The Sky cannot tell the difference between a simulation and reality. It cannot tell a human from another computer.
Ok there's a bit of a fudge here because every game system eventually has to work out HOW to tell if a human is actually playing or are they just pretending to play. But for the most part automated scripts work extremely well and play the game much better than any human. It's the nature of the computer: it never blinks, breaths, takes a bio, or misses a scripted action. You just rollout the script and sit back and watch Netflix while your computer plays the game for you.
In one of my games we had a fishing derby. Fishing is a popular item in many games. The goal was to catch A LOT of fish. It ran for 48 hours (that's to allow world time zones to participate). Of course there are no real fish in the game. It's a fishing simulation. Sometimes you get a fish, sometimes you don't. The simulation is designed with just enough fish rewards to encourage you to sit and click the fishing icon - in this case for 48 hours.
At a mid-way check-in by the Event Team they hoped that everyone was Having Fun and Enjoying the Event. I said,
I don't know about any people having fun ...
but I'm sure the fishing scripts are having a blast.
There is a difference, albeit small, between
Assisting a human to play
and
Eliminating the human from play.
These types of MMORPG Games are not cheap to play. They have micro-transaction stores and subscriptions and many other means to separate you from your fiat money. It's not uncommon to pay $200-$600 or more to play just one MMORPG style game. The companies that produce the games make Billions and Billions through various purchase mechanisms.13
Scripting has become very sophisticated and nearly every move in any game can be scripted. Your computer no longer needs YOU to play the game. Scripting allows you to pay a lot of money just so your computer can have fun playing with other computers.
Leave the power on.
HAL will contact you when your funds run out.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servitude
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode#Matrix_(2D)_barcodes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode#Example_images
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_numerals - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargaining
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change-making_problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_problem - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_register
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sale
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_metals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_(United_States_coin)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupronickel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgam_(dentistry) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debit_card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATM_card
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACH_Network - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest-grossing_video_game_franchises_of_all_time
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| Click to Fish |
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