Pop Goes the Weasel

When I think about what the world will look like in the future, the models I fall back on are the typical settings we see in movies like Star Wars, The Matrix, and Terminator. In those dramas we see warriors fighting the enemy with light-sabers and other more conventional weapons. We see good people incarcerated and made prisoners by the evil powers. We see our friends, other freedom fighters, physically punished, tortured, and painfully abused.

I often wonder if I will eventually make so much ruckus that I am arrested and put into the gulag, or at the very least be quarantined in some facility for refusing to take some poison concoction forced on me to avoid some bird, monkey, elephant, or weasel virus. Although I flatter myself to think I would be important enough for the state to spend the money and time to hunt me down, take me into custody, and pay for my incarceration.

But then I realized there are other ways to punish us. The classic visions of Warriors for Freedom fighting through masses of clone robots are only classic, and likely outdated, visions. We live in a brave new world, fighting the enemy will not be classic. It will be a new sort of fight involving AI, machines, robots, and more than likely unseen, and non-mechanical foes we can’t take down with a light-saber.

The first such punishment that comes to mind is chemical or biological. Since it is clear that humans can be individually targeted with cell phones (and soon microchips) it is simpler than ever to attack the individual rather than be faced with the necessity of identifying the group as a mass. Of course, law enforcement has always targeted the individual, but as stated earlier in this article, finding and arresting one criminal takes time, money and human resources. It also takes evidence of wrongdoing—a “case” if you will.

In our brave new world alleged criminals can be identified and targeted, spending practically nothing and exhausting nearly no resources. They also will not need to be convicted, or even be charged with a crime. Cell phones can soon (if not already) be designed to administer a deadly, or debilitating, electronic response. Other varieties of pathogens one day (or now) will be injected and dispensed in various ways.

Let me back off a bit and present something a tad less science fiction-y. I think most criminals against the state will be dealt with in more overt, and old-fashioned, ways. There is still nothing more effective in eliciting fear amongst the useless eaters than a good jackboot on the back of the neck of a hapless dissenter. What better way to show who’s boss than breaking down the door of a poor shivering shrew with automatic weapons drawn and laser dots dancing frantically on the body and face of the terrified accused—with family, friends, and neighbours in attendance.

But again, most of us will not be the shakers and movers a rebellion is accustomed to dealing with. Most of us will be more annoying to the state than much of anything else. And it will be far too expensive to house us all in custom-built quarantine facilities designed to hold masses of people—no matter how romantic that may seem to be. Sure, these facilities will still exist, filled with shivering shrews brought in on more serious infractions. But what about the rest of us? The millions of us who just don’t get along with the state—the countless thorns in the Emperor’s side?

The agenda has something special for us.

It will be so easy to make our lives miserable, and almost impossible for us to easily navigate through our day. We will be inundated with constant surveillance and personal scrutiny. We will be told to present our IDs, our vax cards, our driver’s licenses, our passports, our retina scans, our bio scans, again and again, and again. And, if we show up on Uncle Stalin’s list, we will be confronted with countless “problems” and “errors.” “Sorry, sir, do you have another form of ID, this scan didn’t seem to work.” “Step over here please and have a seat, a robot will be with you in a moment.” “Sorry,” the disembodied voice bleats out at the grocery store, “Your ID has expired—you have insufficient funds to pay for your bananas—there is a booster missing from your mandated schedule—you have not paid your recent speeding ticket (which you never actually received because you never speeded).

On the phone during a routine call to your insurance provider due to some mysterious text you received, “Please call this number right away, if you do not call within 30 minutes your house will be uninsured.” After frantically dialing the number (when was the last time we “dialed” a number?) we hear the robot voice say, “Please select one of the following options . . . ” and the option you need is not one to choose from.

Of course, there will be no way to talk to a human being, and because you are on the “list” targeted for “annoyance,” nothing will ever get resolved. Your bank accounts will be closed for a day, then, for no reason, open up again. There will be endless problems with your balances, endless mysterious charges on your credit cards, endless issues with your utilities, your internet, your WIFI, your phone. And nothing will be resolved, and there will be no human to talk to about it.

You will spend countless hours trying to resolve all of these problems only to be jockeyed around electronically, on internet chats, and on phone calls with robots. You will get endless hangups forcing you to have to start over again after being on the phone for an hour. On and on and on and on, the monkey chases the weasel—until finally, “pop” goes the weasel. And the weasel is you. Pop.

This is the nature of future punishments for crimes never committed. We will all be criminals of some kind, even the sheep will be tormented. But those of us who have raised our voices and have been individually identified as troublemakers will get the treatment first—and the most.

It is so easy to do. So easy to target, and so easy to carry out the sentence. It will really cost nothing, as all of it will be carried out by using algorithms to convict, and AI and robots to execute.

Pop.

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