If you’re new to the segment you are no stranger to how much I love Andrew Torba the founder of Gab. Gab is an amazing uncensored media platform (note threats are not allowed). It’s wonderful to see someone sticking a finger in the eye of big tech which is basically taking over our lives in so many ways. Those censored, banned and cancelled for their political opinions have found a home on Gab. Torba has fought a one man war against censorship. In my mind he is a hero of our time: like Breitbart and later Trump.
This week Torba introduced us to his thoughts on the “Gab Phone,” by posting to his uncensored video adjunct service Gab TV. In the video Torba explains that he wants to move us away from Big Tech using us as their guinea pigs and products via their apps. The basic message is: minimize your smart phone getting rid of apps that track you physically, experientially and through cyberspace. Use browser based services and install an OS not owned and operated by Apple or Google.
A Google Pixel 4 running the open operating system Graphene OS is one of Torba’s possible future recommendations. This gives you most of the functionality of a Google phone including (apparently) back door access to some of the apps on the Google Play store. But, without all the tracking that would be done by Google or Apple. He also has a cool little lite smart (dumb?) phone that is apparently very cheap. It has a “Kindle-type” display and minimalist functions such as phone and text.
Torba’s motivations are laudable: preserve the sovereignty of the individual (my words not his). Be a human being for crying out loud: put your phone down. Get outside use and experience the body Our Lord has given you. Fight the move to Transhumanism where the Big Tech Oligarchs are going to be implanting chips in our brains. The smart phone, in Torba’s opinion, is just a prototype for the Brain Machine Interface (BMI). Let’s stop the move to Transhumanism, which he clearly dislikes, by going the opposite direction of cell phone tracking. Excellent ideas with worthy goals.
But here’s where I think Torba’s logic runs astray: the movement to Transhumanism in my opinion is inevitable. While the smartphone with its graphical user interface, productivity tools and GPS tracking may be *serving* as the prototype for some sort of Transhumanism Brain Machine Interface: it wasn’t designed that way as part of some sort of vaguely implied conspiracy. It’s not some evil plot. Smart phones evolved to meet a human need.
For example: the GUI evolved at Menlo Park not to take over your body. It evolved to speed your data entry and result interpretation thereby increasing your productivity. Once invented at Xerox its use, it could be argued, was inevitable. People want things better faster and cheaper. It’s naturally built into humans because it reduces suffering. Imagine doing your taxes with paper and pencil these days: see what I mean?
So as these implanted BMI chips become available their use will become inevitable and widely available. Imagine you are back in the 1970s and your kid is taking Chemistry class.
80’s Mom: “No Little Billy, put down that 9 digit LED calculator! That’s the gateway to Satan’s BMI. Here use this slide rule instead!”
If you find my argument absurd think again: for a time hand held calculators were banned in Chemistry during the late 70s and early 80s. We see how long that lasted. People will want their kids to be as productive as possible and not left behind the other kids: getting in better schools, getting better grades, and enjoying more lucrative careers and lifestyles. Over time those kids will prosper, and the kids still “using the slide rule” well … they will still be “very nice people.”
Even if the United States consumer market were to buck this trend: our fate is inevitable. The Department of Defense will be forced to incorporate Transhumanism and the Brain Machine Interface into weaponry for our soldiers. To ignore it would be the equivalent of arming our soldiers with muskets to invade Iraq via sailing vessel. We’re not going to do that as is evidenced by the huge investment by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) investment in the BMI.
And who will our soldiers be fighting? Therein lies the *real* rub: the Communist Chinese and the Iranians. In all likelihood the enemies of freedom will certainly embrace this technology. And for us to ignore it would not only be at our own personal peril, but to the demise of God’s Great nation on earth. So as much as I love you Andrew, I think your fight against Transhumanism is off course.
So what should we be doing? I agree with getting outside and minimizing things like social media usage. Shut off notifications. I love to run. I think I’m even going to start leaving my phone and smart watch at home. Stop watching my pulse, tracking my distance and jiving to The Rolling Stones while I lope. Enjoy my body, the fresh air, and the sunshine. Great idea Andrew.
But don’t fight Transhumanism. I dare hesitate to say it, but embrace it. Understand it and God’s purpose for it in the universe. Use it for good. Internationally regulate it like nuclear power, nuclear weapons and biological weapons. But don’t ignore it, fight it or ban it. To do so would be at our free Nation’s peril.
Transhumanism…remarkably interesting subject. My first thoughts, “Do I want to be plugged in to the Matrix? Of course, it needs more examination and the pros and cons weighed.
First con, it’s an evasive introduction into the brain, no matter how heavy or light it is still something with which you’re not born. What kind of long-term effects will it have, positive or negative?
First pro, it can connect your brain to control areas that may be out of control or influence. Perhaps things such as epilepsy, blood pressure, schizophrenia, depression, and a multitude of other human defects and frailties can be controlled or changed.
The next pros and cons are more about good vs. potential abuse. Naturally, the good will be promoted as the technology goes forward. Things like helping amputees control new mechanical limbs, control of diabetic insulin, heart rhythm, appetite for weight control, and any number of diseases that can ravish a human body. But what about abuse. People can be tracked in every step of their lives, a tremendous invasion of privacy. Need population control, just send out the randomly selected signal and eliminate a half million people. Improper thoughts (not sure who will set the standard) and zap, that’ll be cured. Worse yet, some Elite buys their way into the technology and uses it to shag partners, “Hey, Programmer, here’s a hundred thousand, make that person desire me.”
Farfetched you say, well it is technology. 60 years ago, Dick Tracy was talking on a nonexistent wristwatch, things were researched for weeks through publications and Encyclopedias, papers and legal communications were typed on some clumsy machine that most people found foreign. How do you do those things now? Tell you what, call me on your cell, text me a website, and after you have all the information put it in a Word Document and we’ll email it to our colleagues.
Hmm…Transhumanism? This could be the time for rules and laws before the development of the technology and have them in place before the game.