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Many amazing technologies have come into widespread use, during the techno-pandemic that we are experiencing. But in an age of tech enlightenment, we cannot ignore the dark side of technology. 

Consider that there are cases where science fiction has evolved into science-facts. We are crossing so many lines that, some days, it would be easy to mistake Silicon Valley’s “Big Tech” for George Orwell’s “Big Brother.” It is uncontested that there is some scary technology out there. 

Driverless cars are operating, as taxis in Phoenix. Drones are making deliveries in Florida. Computer chips are being implanted into the brains of test pigs at Neuralink with the idea that a human test may be "coming soon". 

The fact remains that some technologies have scary potential and a few were frightening from the start. You have to wonder if the tech geniuses who are creating them have considered the downside. 

Elon Musk and other visionaries have acknowledged there are some dangerous possibilities to many technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI).

Is Big Tech the new Big Brother? 

1984 was George Orwell’s classic 1949 science fiction novel.  It was a powerful example of cautionary fiction set in a dystopian society. A place where everyone lives from birth-to-death in a state of mass surveillance and brainwashing. It popularized such terms as “Big Brother is watching you”, "doublethink", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", "telescreen", and the “Thought Police”.

When Orwell wrote his novel most homes didn’t even have a TV. And some didn’t have a phone. But we live in a world of devices. Orwell’s vision of a “telescreen” comes in every size and shape these days. And everyone carries an iPhone with them at all times.

Social media is constantly streaming, and Big Tech is literally everywhere. In the wake of COVID-19, the techno-pandemic has deepened our dependence on, and immersion in technology.

Instagram is accused of spying on its users. Facebook just settled a lawsuit for gathering the biometric and facial data of millions of users, without their knowledge. 

Zoom falsely and repeatedly claimed it is using  “end-to-end encryption,” which is the basic internet standard to protect users’ communications on a platform. But it doesn’t have end-to-end encryption and a class-action lawsuit against it is pending.

Even the Walt Disney Company along with Nickelodeon, the parent company of Viacom, and others have agreed to settle a lawsuit with parents for allegedly embedding software that harvests the personal data of children and sending that data out to networks of advertisers.