Nono.MA

Yuval Noah Harari on The World After Coronavirus and Surveillance Technology

APRIL 10, 2020

Here are my highlights from Harari's publication on the Financial Times:

[W]e should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes.

[…]

In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these aren’t normal times.

[…]

Hitherto, when your finger touched the screen of your smartphone and clicked on a link, the government wanted to know what exactly your finger was clicking on. But with coronavirus, the focus of interest shifts. Now the government wants to know the temperature of your finger and the blood-pressure under its skin.

[…]

In recent years both governments and corporations have been using ever more sophisticated technologies to track, monitor and manipulate people. Yet if we are not careful, the epidemic might nevertheless mark an important watershed in the history of surveillance. Not only because it might normalise the deployment of mass surveillance tools in countries that have so far rejected them, but even more so because it signifies a dramatic transition from “over the skin” to “under the skin” surveillance. 

[…]

The downside is, of course, that this would give legitimacy to a terrifying new surveillance system. If you know, for example, that I clicked on a Fox News link rather than a CNN link, that can teach you something about my political views and perhaps even my personality. But if you can monitor what happens to my body temperature, blood pressure and heart-rate as I watch the video clip, you can learn what makes me laugh, what makes me cry, and what makes me really, really angry. 

Read the full essay.