#15 Creating the Future of Self-Sovereign Technology

The current trend in connected technology is for the public to act as micro broadcasters. Being an influencer as a career, the volume of followers and likes on social posts is super important. Everyone is an armchair politician, and everyone is an expert. People can be as hateful as they like.

All this is causing damage that is increasingly visible - from increased cases of depression to suicidality rates.

It's also at an expense that's increasingly visible. That expense is your online identity being misused and information being biased by controlling forces that adjust what info you're exposed to and therefore influenced by.

In terms of cost benefit, the benefit of being socially connected and 'seen' outweighs the cost as our ego is the driving force.

For that to change, as a human race we'd need to forego the fiction of ego (and therefore greed and comparison) so it isn't a determining factor. Or, the damage of identity abuse and information bias would need to be way more visible/material/palpable.

I'd love for us to move further from the ego-driven state into a higher consciousness and understanding...and perhaps we're moving towards that...but what I suspect will happen sooner is proper negative outcomes that are unarguably linked to how we as a society are being coerced and manipulated by technologically controlling forces.

I imagine a time when we don't just enter our details randomly into 'free' services that are only free because we're the product.

I imagine a time when we know the value of our digital identity and won't sacrafice it without thought.

I imagine a time when the cost benefit of using social tools is explicitly known and not taken lightly.

I imagine a time when we view standard technology platforms with a significant degree of skepticism.

I imagine a time when we see and feel the absolute consequences of losing control of our identity and privacy - in a way that isn't covered up by the egotistical 'benefit' of popularity or gain.

When or if this time happens, what will be needed is self-sovereign tools and platofrms - self-sovereign meaning we, individually, are in control, we have the ultimate power over the tools and platforms.

We will need modern technology that serves us individually rather than large, faceless organisations making billions of our private information.

We will need operating systems that connect our lives digitally, whilst retaining our individual rights in the process.

We will need a digital connectivity tissue that interfaces with the online world whilst insulates us in the meantime.

I feel duty bound to build for the alternate future as it's my life's mission - I don't have an option - I can't tell my kids that I just sat and watched the world burn.

Success or failure in this isn't about whether what we're building is popular - it's based on whether it exists or not.

If our platforms exist then we've 'won' as we've presented an alternative to the current solutions that use humans as batteries.

If it turns out that more than 1 or 10% of people think what we're doing is relevant, then great...but the ambition isn't dominion, the ambition isn't market share. The ambition is humane alternatives. Options for the future.

Maybe bookmark this for the future - you may find the video becomes historically relevant as we march headlong into an exponentially changing future, hell bent on replacing humans with smarter machines, forgoing our privacy for convenience, and accepting the loss of ourself in exchange for slick platforms which are basically comparison machines where we can seek actualisation through egotistical popularity.

Let's see how it plays out and I'll see you there.

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Jonathan is Founder of SELF (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://self.app⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), the Sovereign Ethical Lifestyle Filter - your personal, private and adaptive AI, delivering your web, your way.