Facebook's Big Brother

Our parents and grandparents grew up always being afraid of Big Brother having cameras on the street corner or listening in with high power microphones... but somehow they've left us with a government that is far worse.

Those of us from the Millennial generation were born into the worst kind of Big Brother state.  Our lives are in text messages and e-mails, on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.  We shop with credit cards and carry smartphones that log our location nearly ever minute of our lives.

This data is logged, stored, analyzed and parsed to provide information for advertising companies.  It's just sitting there, waiting for Big Brother to ask with his impossible to refuse National Security Letter.  Since this data sits in the hands of very, very few companies like Facebook we really need to start holding them to a MUCH higher standard as far as our privacy is concerned.  Every slip they make, every opt-out program they implement leaks more of your private data ends up in the hands of the Informational Awareness Office.

Privacy and Security are not exactly integral to the system.

Singularity

How many people's names can you remember?

In a world with 24/7 cellphone Internet with cloud services, how many names can you store and access nearly as fast?

Do you speak French? Google Translate does. Know the atomic weight of Potassium? Wikipedia that junk. What is happening at this very second in #Tallahassee (Twitter)? Not having to constantly waste time/energy remembering these things leaves plenty of Brainwidth for other, more important things.

Now, you can buy a 700Mhz Linux machine on a chip with wireless for ~$25. That puts this type of information within reach of basically every person on the planet.  In 2 years it will likely cost half as much.


In 10 years, what will happen to us as a civilization when uncensored, unlimited information is cheaper than air?

Google+

I'm really starting to enjoy Google+, Hangouts add a whole new dimension to social networks.

In Google+, instead of only being limited to speaking to your friends via text/instant messages you can invite up to 10 people to join you in a group video chat.  Since it is very easy to setup and use, I can see it being easier to keep in contact with all but the most computer illiterate in your family.