124
6 A Planetary-Scale Threat
generations would forgive those who have brought such a system on the way. In fact,
in the meantime, scientists, philosophers, and ethics committees increasingly speak
up against the use of a Citizen Score in connection with life-and-death decisions,
whatever personal data it may be based on; most people like to be treated equally
and in a fair way.
74
6.17 Technological Totalitarianism and Digital Fascism
Summarizing the previous sections about worrying digital developments, I conclude
that the greatest opportunity in a century may easily turn into the greatest crime
against humanity, if we don’t take proper precautions. Of course, I don’t deny the
many positive potentials of the digital revolution. However, presently, it appears we
are in an acute danger of heading towards a terrible nightmare called “technological
totalitarianism”, which seems to be a mix of fascism, feudalism and communism,
digitally reinvented. This may encompass some or all of the following elements:
– mass surveillance,
– profiling and targeting,
– unethical experiments with humans,
– censorship and propaganda,
– mind control or behavioral manipulation,
– social engineering,
– forced conformity,
– digital policing,
– centralized control,
– different valuation of people,
– messing with human rights,
– humiliation of minorities,
– digitally based eugenics and/or euthanasia.
This technological totalitarianism has been well hidden behind the promises and
opportunities of surveillance capitalism, behind the “war on terror”, behind the need
for “cybersecurity”, and behind the call “to save the world” (e.g. to measure, tax,
and reduce the CO 2 consumption on an individual level). Sadly, politicians, judges,
journalists and others have so far allowed these developments to happen.
74 Nagler et al. [17], Dewitt et al. [18], Bigman and Gray [19]; Automatisiertes und vernetztes
Fahren, Bericht der Ethikkommission, Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur
(June 2017); https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Publikationen/DG/bericht-der-ethik-kommis
sion.pdf, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318340461; COVID-19 pandemic: triage for
intensive-care treatment under resource scarcity, Swiss Medical Weekly (March 24, 2020) https://
smw.ch/article/doi/smw.2020.20229; Deutscher Ethikrat: „Der Staat darf menschliches Leben
nicht bewerten”, ZEIT (March 27, 2020) https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2020-03/
deutscher-ethikrat-coronavirus-behandlungsreihenfolge-infizierte, https://www.ethikrat.org/filead
min/Publikationen/Ad-hoc-Empfehlungen/deutsch/ad-hoc-empfehlung-coronakrise.pdf.
6 A Planetary-Scale Threat
generations would forgive those who have brought such a system on the way. In fact,
in the meantime, scientists, philosophers, and ethics committees increasingly speak
up against the use of a Citizen Score in connection with life-and-death decisions,
whatever personal data it may be based on; most people like to be treated equally
and in a fair way.
74
6.17 Technological Totalitarianism and Digital Fascism
Summarizing the previous sections about worrying digital developments, I conclude
that the greatest opportunity in a century may easily turn into the greatest crime
against humanity, if we don’t take proper precautions. Of course, I don’t deny the
many positive potentials of the digital revolution. However, presently, it appears we
are in an acute danger of heading towards a terrible nightmare called “technological
totalitarianism”, which seems to be a mix of fascism, feudalism and communism,
digitally reinvented. This may encompass some or all of the following elements:
– mass surveillance,
– profiling and targeting,
– unethical experiments with humans,
– censorship and propaganda,
– mind control or behavioral manipulation,
– social engineering,
– forced conformity,
– digital policing,
– centralized control,
– different valuation of people,
– messing with human rights,
– humiliation of minorities,
– digitally based eugenics and/or euthanasia.
This technological totalitarianism has been well hidden behind the promises and
opportunities of surveillance capitalism, behind the “war on terror”, behind the need
for “cybersecurity”, and behind the call “to save the world” (e.g. to measure, tax,
and reduce the CO 2 consumption on an individual level). Sadly, politicians, judges,
journalists and others have so far allowed these developments to happen.
74 Nagler et al. [17], Dewitt et al. [18], Bigman and Gray [19]; Automatisiertes und vernetztes
Fahren, Bericht der Ethikkommission, Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur
(June 2017); https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Publikationen/DG/bericht-der-ethik-kommis
sion.pdf, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318340461; COVID-19 pandemic: triage for
intensive-care treatment under resource scarcity, Swiss Medical Weekly (March 24, 2020) https://
smw.ch/article/doi/smw.2020.20229; Deutscher Ethikrat: „Der Staat darf menschliches Leben
nicht bewerten”, ZEIT (March 27, 2020) https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2020-03/
deutscher-ethikrat-coronavirus-behandlungsreihenfolge-infizierte, https://www.ethikrat.org/filead
min/Publikationen/Ad-hoc-Empfehlungen/deutsch/ad-hoc-empfehlung-coronakrise.pdf.