Infringement on our human rights? - Freedom to think

Trust thought for today - Just finished a great new book by Susie Alegre, an international Human Rights lawyer - Freedom to Think - the long struggle to liberate our minds. It is a very clear and engagingly written look at how we are inadvertently, post by post, click by click giving away the most fundamental of our human rights - the freedom to think.

Companies know us better than we know ourselves, accumulate knowledge of our thoughts, emotions, hopes, dreams, the state of our mental and physical health in real time, and sell it to whoever wants to use it, who in turn intervene to shape our next thoughts. Our freedom to think what we like, and not have it used against our better interest, is breeched.

Surveillance and potential neurotech applications in the workplace and predictive policing, which seek to look into our heads to identify our very emotions, thoughts, views and decide whether we get or keep a job or our liberty, or not, fundamentally breeches this most important human right. The fact that it is used when it doesn't even work properly and can't really read our thoughts as well as they say, is also problematic, as organisations think it does and that matters too. A classic example of Bullshit Tech.

Human Rights issues and laws will increasingly impact the shape of tech development beyond ethics, and companies who haven't thought of that need to start. A salutary read, even for those in the sector who read alot.

The book also reminded me that George Orwell was a genius to have predicted this so well in his book 1984. I keep meaning to re read, and this wil be the stimulus to do that.

Book found here