25 July 2019

The Inquisition 2.0, Virtual Bordellos in Every Head, and Elon Musk and the Collective Unconscious

Harper's Weekly Review always serves as a stark reminder of how many truly weird things happen in any given week. This week's account includes these juxtaposed reports:
“These porn sites need to think more,” said the author of a paper that showed that 93 percent of pornography websites sent data to third-party domains, including Google, which had a tracker on 74 percent of porn sites. Elon Musk revealed a technology that could connect the human mind directly to a smartphone with thin threads, which would be installed by drilling small holes in the skull.

This suggests a couple of possible futures. In one, our thoughts are monitored and used for blackmail or control. In another, our impulses - no matter how odd or distasteful - are happily accommodated by for-profit providers of virtual pleasure, private bordellos in every brain.
Imagine the odd texts that you'd generate in the middle of the night while dreaming. How complicated would your relationships get in that world?
"No! It was not me. It was my subconscious!"
"Uh huh. Sure."

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