One of the goals of the Obama administration and the environmentalist lobby is what is called the “smart grid.” This is a shorthand description for an electrical delivery system that includes individual usage monitoring devices installed at each home which feed information back to power monitoring and control stations which would use this information to better manage how to provide electricity to reduce waste in the grid.
The reality of such a system is that detailed, real-time individual monitoring of individual home electric usage is essentially a window into the habits, lifestyle and material goods of the home owner. Electrical devices have easily distinguished power usage profiles. When your refrigerator turns on, the electrical demands it places on your power supplier are distinctly different than when your television turns on. When you take a shower your water heater kicks on. If you own a large screen plasma television, that has a different signature than a 21″ CRT television.
All of this information can be cross-referenced with other information gathered about your activities. For example, your TV turning on can be cross-referenced with your cable channel selection, so anyone who really wants to know would be able to tell not only that your cable box was on, but that your TV was actually on, greatly increasing the likelihood that you were actually watching that show. Cross referencing could include phone usage and internet use. If you don’t think the government is already able to monitor your email and internet use, you are fooling yourself.
Up until now this sort of information has been protected almost entirely by the idea of security by anonymity. In other words the likelihood that the government would go to the trouble to monitor your own activities closely enough for you to care is much, much less than the likelihood of you getting hit by lightning.
But that’s no longer the case. Modern computer systems can handle vast amounts of information and can crunch through petabytes of data. Even your own modest home computer can process tremendous amounts of data, but computer systems owned by government entities are and will be several orders of magnitude more powerful than your home computer.
All it takes for your actiivies to be mapped to the point that someone would know your daily habits down to the websites you visit, the TV shows you watch, what days you wash your clothes, how frequently you use your treadmill or stair climber, what temperature you set your thermostat to, or what electronic toys you like to play with, all it takes to map them is massive data collection and massive data processing.
Big Brother is coming folks. And as far as I can tell, there is no way to stop him.
3 users commented in " Brave New World "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackShit, Orwell’s coming, but Huxley’s been here for years. They’re not taking anything away from us. We’re* giving it up freely.
*The collective we, that is. Republicans do it in the name of security, libs in the name of the environment.
True, but I think both sides do it mainly in the name of ignorance.
Absolutely. Mostly. There are some, I think, that truly think the country’d be better off if the majority of folks had to be told what to do.
And there are times, man, there are times I wonder if they aren’t right. If for nothing else than to reawaken the antidespotic feelings that have got to still be rolling around in our DNA somewhere.
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