My, aren’t these interesting times we are living in.
Politicians not only on both sides of the aisle in the US, but also in Europe (namely the UK) are asking that Facebook, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, come to explain the company’s handling of the now current scandal involving the misuse of data and information of millions of users. The company that is blamed for misusing this information, Cambridge Analytica, was purported to have worked with the Trump Administration on making psychological profiles of people using their Facebook information in order to market to them and garner votes. Talk about mind control! A multi-billion dollar tech giant being summoned to members of government to explain their involvement in alleged unethical activities is exactly the theme that is so often shown and discussed in modern day cyberpunk themes. It is reminiscent to me of the company in Robocop, pushing to get congress to agree to cybernetics and robots to be sold and used in the United States. The current state of the world definitely feels a bit surreal. I wake up, turn on the news, see these things, go to work, see the news again on the tv in our lobby, work, come home, and to relax boot up my xbox to play Deus Ex Human Revolution and again see different tech mega-corporations involved in shady dealings. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I love cyberpunk so much. In addition to being simply visually striking, mentally stimulating, and fun, it can also act as a stark warning for different paths that we as a people do not want to walk down.
You can read more about this developing story with Zuckerberg and Cambridge Analytica here:
