As we enter deeper into a dystopian hellscape, even pasta sauce companies are entering the mass surveillance, data harvest game. Prego partnered with StoryCorps to launch “The Connection Keeper,” a device equipped with two microphones that I intended to record dinnertime conversations among families.
“The recordings are designed to help families preserve the authentic sounds of time spent together, creating a personal archive to revisit for years to come. Families will have the option to preserve their recordings private within the StoryCorps archive or share them publicly as part of a special Prego Collection. Public recordings will also be preserved at the Library of Congress, so they can be accessed for generations to come,” the company stated on its website.
Although this is more of a publicity stunt, one must question who would be willing to voluntarily record their personal, intimate conversations with family. Previous generations of authoritative governments are rolling in their graves. Ironically, our family dinner conversations are already tracked and recorded by the devices we willingly use (i.e., cell phones), but in this situation, people are active volunteers.
Data harvesting has become a monumental mission for governments and corporations that want to know how to control and extort you, specifically you. There is not a piece of technology left that does not actively track your movements to predict future behavior, and eventually, subconsciously control that behavior.
The future of AI depends on the data it will be provided, as no human can decode the endless stream of real-time incoming information. Go outside, touch the grass, and hope that the collective consciousness of humanity remains intact as we move closer to the inevitable societal reset.