state powered complete control - a fantasy come true!?

Some professional future researchers have developed the vision of a centralised control state that would drive tears into the eyes of even the hardest official from the former Soviet Union. The Dutch futurist Marcel Bullinga expects nothing short of of every citizen controlling his surroundings himself in the near future. To this end, the technology fan, imagines a sort of "digital dashboard" that everybody is carrying around at any time, which is connected mobile to all kinds of databases, this way enabling the mistrusting citizen for instance to check on the credentials of the doctor while sitting in the doctor's waiting room. (Why anybody would want to wait in some doctor's office and then start checking credentials and not check them before going to the doctor's is Bullinga's guess.) Because of the fact that at this point in the future everything would be equipped with chips that are constantly sending data, an electronic texture would be created that registers every person and every activity.

The Dutch visionary even expects an "automatic police force", because the "clever surrounding" would be able to detect and call illegal activities. The "intelligent car" designed for private traffic will only be a first step realized in the next months or years. The end will be a chip implanted into every citizen; enforced by law. Bullinga says this is okay, because: "The law abiding citizen will gain in privacy, while criminals will lose it." Less naive one could ask, if politics will put the alternatives to us: privacy or liberty? I am afraid, the decision is already made (and there will be no vote about it ...) The current incident or issue is of no matter: surveillance of traffic or environment, controlling identity, prevention of pests, controlling moneytransfers or personal data - where a will and technological possibilities are available, these things will be done. Humankind has proven that it's will to destroy personal liberties is mighty big and the technological possibilities are growing daily.

To catch terrorists, passengeres of airplanes will be checked more thoroughly at airports in the future. Among other things, specially trained guards will mingle amongst tourists to identify people with signs of emotional stress. Who is remarked upon will be held for further interrogation. It is still open, how passengers with fear of flying will react to this ... In Moscow a computer-aided voice analysis system is being tested to detect the stress systems going hand in hand with evil ideas. Putting the lie detector to every passenger before boarding the plane?

There is only one step left to a state of total control: to connect the various databases and gates of control and to use artificial intelligence to analyse constantly for certain signs or factors. Private enterprises and corporations, never the lazy kind, will use similar means to control their employees. For example the health issue: Two years ago an insurance company in Michigan, USA, ordered its employees to stop smoking within 15 months. Four people didn't make it and were sacked. The US video rental chain Blockbuster warned its employees that there will be regular drug testing.

Waitresses in some casinos in the US were told to either stay slim or get out. Quaker Oats as well as Johnson & Johnson are pushing employees actively to reduce weight by pressing them into "wellness"-programmes. Meanwhile Wal-Mart and other chain stores as well as some leading brand producers are testing if infrared surveillance of shoppers in super markets could increase knowledge about how promotions and displays work.

The issues might change according to the zeitgeist, but it is always the longing to control that is behind these ideas, and corporations are more and more keen on not only controlling behaviour but also the thinking of their employees. And this not only at the workplace but also in their spare time, because they are afraid of declining efforts and input of their employees. They are very well empowered and encouraged by governments acting in the best of Big Brother ways. Didn't Hitler tell his German underlings that their body belongs to the state and good health is a national duty!? The signs of course are completely different today, but the wish to control all parts of human life that these ideas are based on is the same.

Because it is impossible to calculate all eventualities, such a stable system of control would flatten and erase all creativity with time and would freeze society in an everlasting paranoia and distrust. In such a world of total control, that would still keep a facade of democracy on the surface, who would be in power? Some futurists expect that economically sound cities will border off to their surrounding country, very much like medieval castles (mad cow disease or the plague?, crime tourism or hords of vikings? what really is the difference?) and in the surrounding countrysides due to lack of security and control areas of lawlessness will arise. If the citizens will ever be asked if this is the future they are looking forward to?