Technological Revenge 3

HEY!! This is…SHUT UP peasant…. Eat your bug salad…before it crawls away.

So far we have discussed how technology has not always lived up to the hype and the long history of tech being forced upon us whether we want it or not.  Then we scratched the surface of the world wide governmental surveillance of all financial transactions that the US broke the ice on and others have followed suit with.

Now let’s take a look at Financial Technology (FinTech) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

In what has unexpectedly become a past life I had 3 clients who worked on FinTech and IoT technology.  One was very enthusiastic about his contributions, at least when we first met.  Most of what details I have on FinTech came from this FinTech cheerleader.  His team was working on two competing usages for FinTech.  One was to make the entirety of the financial world completely transparent and regulated.  No one could do anything with any kind of currency without it being known in real time and each transaction completely regulated.  Their system would make it impossible to send funds of any kind across any border with out permission from regulators.  Individuals of normal means would simply not be able to gain such permission.  It costs too much.  Even without knowing anything about FinTech, it has long been apparent to me that governments have a hostile attitude towards cash transactions.  My experiences as detailed in part in my last post indicate the truth of this.   

The competing use of FinTech is the creation of a network for those who already have assets abroad to “barter” them as payment for goods and services from abroad.  Let’s say you want to buy a widget that is only available in country A but you live in country B.  You can no longer send payment of any kind and they are not going to just give it to you.  FinTech, as they were working on, would allow the possibility of you trading an asset you have in country A either directly with the seller of the widget or trading your asset to a third party who wants it who would then buy the widget for you and have the widget seller ship it directly to you.  As improbable as this may seem, I have seen the results of the first of these two uses.  I may have seen evidence of the second, but I am not yet sure.  Undoubtably, there are other ways for governments to use FinTach against us.   The other two clients hated what they were working on, so I asked why they did so.  If they didn’t someone else would.  Saying “No.” would change nothing other than their employment status.   

All three were also working on the IoT.  Folks, this is truly a dystopian horror story brought to life.  The goal is to have EVERYTHING microchipped and connected to the IoT.  Every time you open the refrigerator a report is sent noting the time and how long it remained opened.  When IoT is up and running, what was taken from the fridge, where it was when you took it out and where it is after you return it will also be known to all who have access to your account.  They want to also know how much it weighed before and after use.  The FinTech cheerleader was proud of the IoT system he was working on.  His company sought to sell this to firms that operated factories.  Embedded in the gear of every factory worker would be microchips that monitor in real time the exact movements of all those on shift.  The example he gave follows.  After the required pre-shift calisthenics the workers are marched to their work stations.  If a worker deviates from the proscribed movements during the march; say he has a misstep, gets out of step or in any way out of sync with the others or deviates an inch off course in a step, he is immediately pulled out of formation and brought the the manager”s office for interrogation.  “Are you feeling well today?”  “When did you go to bed last night?”  “Did you fall asleep right away?”  “How much did you drink last night?”  “Did you and the misses have a little fun after you turned in for the night?”  “Are you on any medication?”   The wayward worker must explain how it came to be that he was not able to stay in-sync with his fellow workers.  This is to ensure work place safety and product quality, you see.   This conversation took place around ten years ago.  They are building this right now.  As you read this, IoT is being tested and used in limited capacities in preparation for universal implementation.   While I can not say for certain as it has been a long time, I think it was from one of these clients that I heard that this is the reason for 5G.  5G is necessary for the IoT to function as designed.

As this post would be longer than I’d like it to be otherwise, next up is the new postage surveillance system.