As Baby Boomers are gradually phased out in the war against attrition, digital GPS technology has overtaken the paper and reliable folded maps of redundancy in navigating humanity towards a universal destination. This is an indication of both a hindrance for those battling for free will, and a boost to the polar opposite side endorsing the rekindling of 20th century dictatorships.
While critical thinking skills have noticeable dwindled over the last few decades thanks to the vicious public education cycle and subsequent adherence to affirmative action, situational awareness has become a privilege cancelling out eons of beneficial evolutionary predominance. As a result of the coalescence between electronic advances and a growing apathy, an individual’s perception of their position or place on the proximal universe has become warped. This condition is just part of the recipe of totalitarian regimes flexing their bureaucratic muscles, and along with dynamic software technology, the perceived truth can be continuously altered, leading to an Orwellian ecosystem of indoctrination.
The innovations of big tech in forging digital mapping platforms which first gained popularity in the mid-1990’s compatible with the first generation of web browsers were never intended to be used for nefarious purposes. However, rogue governments and select organizations are now employing the electronic matrices to subdue populations starting with the younger demographics and working their way up the generational ladder. With this reverse engineering task of grooming thought patterns and cultural morays, the young and the naive are Guinea pigs in the dangerous campaign to achieve ultimate control.
While popular software suites such as Google Maps and Bing Maps are vital tools for end users on a global scale to navigate their own regions, clones of the mapping websites and apps have been launched by governments in multiple nations deliberately coded to mislead citizens for the sake of ideological survival. Of course Google’s family of digital mapping suites is blocked in China, which allows the state to determine the content that is available to the populace. Combined with inability of individuals lacking an innate sense of direction, populations can be rerouted, as destinations appearing on the screen of the smartphone are continuously altered.
As the internet allows for the insidious to spread propaganda and enhance surveillance, the trending application of digitally amending the layout of a country or a city to purposefully misdirect is simply another facet of the next-gen influential tools. Although predominately utilized as an electronic herding harness, the foundation of the software has also been applied to beneficial purposes. Most notably, protestors demonstrating against the Chinese legal system overtaking Hong Kong common law had access to a mapping app showing the location of law enforcement cadres. Ironically, Apple removed the software from its online store as a blatant example of the hypocrisy percolating from the big tech boardrooms.
Disturbingly, the smartphone screen has become a template for perceived reality by the masses and is being exploited to engineer society. As improvisation is being stamped out, the world is devolving into a very predictable place, an environment optimal for the sordid designs of current and future tyrants.
The young and restless are being rewired to distrust content published on paper and lack the attention span or capability to simply unfold a map and browse the document to find the shortest route between point A and point B. This universal mental fatigue surrounding a traditional mundane task is illustrated through a noticeable change in driving habits over the last 15 years, as vehicle navigation infrastructure is interlaced with GPS technologies, as pulling into the parking lot of a gas station to read a map has become a rarity. Cognitively processing data in weighing traffic patterns, direction, and known routes through instincts has become a dormant skillset, and turns individuals into oblivious zombies susceptible to coercion. A simple hiccup in the system causes a driver signaling left to suddenly veer across two lanes of traffic and execute a right turn, the abruptness of the maneuver a horrific example of how humanity has become subservient to and reliant on technology. If the digital grid fails, will people truly be lost less than give miles from their homes?
With social media already a proven means of delivering misleading information, the latest offerings of software programs integrated by people with bad intentions are already efficacious in producing a desired effect, and those battling these tyrannical monsters must remain vigilant in keeping track of the rapidly changing technology. As crossing the street and looking right and left is no longer a teaching moment for parents in positioning children on the track of attaining critical thinking skills, except in a political sense, AI has arrived as a surrogate babysitter at the worst possible time.