We have entered a new era of tech. Web 3.0, including blockchain/the distributed web, cryptocurrency, the metaverse, 5G and before too long, quantum computing (The Need, Promise, and Reality of Quantum Computing), which will certainly be a huge game-changer.

After all the loss of privacy we’d experienced during Web 2.0h???, as we now like to call it, as capturing all our personal data was supposedly all in the name of selling us yet another pair of, say, sneakers. Oh, and connecting the world through social, too, as it was the social web after all, no matter how anti-social it became over time. But considering how much more the next era in tech is promising – and let’s not forget robotics, connected glasses, eg the upcoming Apple Glasses, the Internet of Things, AI, Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, et al are also in the mix – what a wonderful era of promise awaits us! We’re finally going to get it all right and in fact, to help you prepare, head’s up: “To succeed in the future, you MUST learn web3, @Mishadavinci tweeted.  These 7 world-changing concepts get you up to speed.”

 

Speed Is what needs to concern you

As a reminder, if you want to know where all of this is going, look back to where and what it has brought us to date.

In 2019, Listverse flagged 10 Things You Won’t Believe Can Spy On You (But Do), including your car, your robo vacuum and even your toothbrush, and sure your believed it – and knew it –  but They’re putting tracking devices in cheese now – in the name of bringing a halt to fraud, of course, but tracking devices are also being placed into common grocery products and you have to ask why. And remember: it’s food. Those tracking devices are being ingested.

 

Are Your Clothes Spying on You? “Microsoft partnering with Eon plans to digitally tag 400,000 clothing items by 2025, and what it means for the future of our privacy,” Lori Pulichino reported in Medium back in 2020. “The idea behind this new technology seems to be two-fold: to provide transparency on the journey of an item from manufacturing to consumer and finally to waste recycling, and to create a feedback loop for manufacturers, brands, and stores to build on the brand relationship with the consumer post-purchase.” All well and good, but as Pulichino noted, once the genie is out of the bottle, there’s no going back. Think they’re not tracking a whole lot more?

You do have to ask if you really need a tracker in, say, your underwear? If the answer is yes, well, that’s between you and your family proctologist and we’ll just leave it at that.

 

Also do keep in mind that cybersecurity is rarely top of mind as a consideration in the tech community, so ingestible tracking devices? How could this possibly be a bad idea? Of course, it’s all being done in the name of blockchain tracking and ethics and sustainability, but wasn’t Facebook about bringing people closer together, after all, and never mind whatever else they were doing. Just stay focused on the talking points.

 

Speaking of trackers, Internal Documents Show Amazon’s Dystopian System for Tracking Workers Every Minute of Their Shifts. Soon to be coming to an employer near you? Technology is there to help make us more efficient, after all…

 

With agriculture coming online at lightning speeds, “Modern “smart” farm machinery is vulnerable to malicious hackers, leaving global supply chains exposed to risk, experts are warning,” BBC News reported.  And The UK government and the FBI have warned that the threat of cyber-attacks is growing. “Hacking into a fleet of tractors, suddenly, you’ve got the power to affect the yield in whole areas of the country.”

The Mouse Experiment

As for the promised utopia of Web 3.0, we will bring your attention to John B. Calhoun’s Mouse Utopia Experiment, conducted in the ’60, which asked the question, according to FEE, “What would happen if animals in the wild could count on human sources for their diet and never have to hunt or scrounge? What if, in other words, we humans imposed a generous welfare state on our furry friends?

“The turning point in this mouse utopia, Calhoun observed, occurred on Day 315 when the first signs appeared of a breakdown in social norms and structure. Aberrations included the following: females abandoning their young; males no longer defending their territory; and both sexes becoming more violent and aggressive. Deviant behavior, sexual and social, mounted with each passing day. The last thousand mice to be born tended to avoid stressful activity and focused their attention increasingly on themselves.”

Or re-read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

 

Technology has undoubtedly made our lives easier in many ways, but more often than not, it has displayed a dark underbelly that has been of overriding concern. And do you believe that will change any time soon or at all?

Now, here we are in the Web 3.0 era, and we were thinking about names. Web 1.0, Web 2.0. Now Web 3.0. So, what’s with the Dot Oh’s, anyway? Is this a college course? You do have to wonder, and at this juncture, and all things considered, hopefully we’re finally learning. Onward and forward.