Hacker's perspective on Mr Robot -1984 of our world?
I just finished watching Mr. Robot - a TV series about a hacker fighting against the top 1 percent of the 1 percent and wants to take them down and make everyone free. And it made me wonder, are we being shown the truth so we wake up? Or, are we being made fun of for not seeing it? Is this the Orwell's 1984 of our times?
This show really speaks to me as it emphasizes some of my values (mainly Freedom). This is also very relevant for me right now. I am a hacker and I got offered a job in a huge conglomerate which some also call EvilCorp long before Mr. Robot existed. [ My thoughts on that are here ]
Image Source(direct link to img)
Is Mr. Robot trying to make us aware of what's happening in the world?
Let's break it down. In Mr. Robot there are two main players that want to rule the whole world, eCorp and China. One could argue that this is the first hint to our current reality. We have China as well :D.
But let's be serious. China is a big player in global economy and it is well known for spying on its citizens (Okay, which government isn't) and being a big fan of limiting people's rights and exercising their power over its citizens (Again, one could say which government doesn't do that).
And because China is such a huge player, it could bring down the whole economy if it wanted to. I don't know why they'd want to though there are some possibilities that by doing that they'd increase their global power.
And then there is eCorp. The founder of this company publicly admits that he wants to matter. He wants to have a strong legacy and the best way to do that is to have a global control of people, doing that mostly by control over money and governments. That reminds me of two Google founders.
Image Source(direct link to img)
So how is that identical or similar to what's happening in our time?
Well, first of all, we have few conglomerates that possess lots of power and information. That's undeniable. And there is obviously lobbying in US.
Then there is war on cash. Many countries are banning big cash transaction and notes with high value, from Czech Republic, India, Sweden, Australia. This is frightening as the power over us increases that way. Though hopefully it's just a sign that more people are waking up and more people will seek alternatives and this is just an aggressive attempt to keep the control.
Then, without spoiling too much, in the series there was a daily allowance for cash withdrawal. And this has happened before as well, in Cyprus, Latin America, Greece, etc. Basically you lose access to your "wealth". And we have been shown what effect it has on local non-corporate businesses and people in general.
Bitcoin is also mentioned extensively and there is a big push against it as it's used by "questionable people".
And as a cherry on top, a controlled crypto currency has been deployed and used in the Series. And we can see this happening in South Korea for example, and other big banks are toying with the idea and putting lots of research and resources into researching block-chain technologies.
Final thoughts
There is a havoc in the show. People are protesting because their money are being taken away. The reason in the show is the big hack (which also takes away everyone's debt). Though I think we won't see something like that happening in real life. Just from a Hackers perspective it would require shitloads of resources to pull off something like that.
But what's likely to happen is that the governments will "trigger" similar events as in the show (riots, cash confiscation, outlawing cryptocurrencies, etc.) and we might end up living in a similar reality as in the show after the hack.
And another thing to consider is that the conglomerate will exercise their power more and more to change people's opinions, influence elections, censor "unwanted" information or even take down the whole internet as we know it (main DNS is owned by NATO now).
And that's scary. We might have some dark times ahead of us.
But after those dark times, a new light shall emerge because people will take back their control and their rights. At least I like to stay positive :).
What are your thoughts?
About the Author;
Hi, I am Joe and I love freedom.
Freedom of all sorts, social, financial, emotional, physical, freedom from your stuff or place.
My biggest passion is to show that it is possible to live life being free, work towards my freedom, and help others obtain their own versions of freedom.
I also love exploration and experimentation (of all senses).
My articles are about all of this (Freedom, exploration, experimentation)
as well as my own transparent and authentic experiences.
This is very good TV show. Everything they show about computers and linux are authentic. I even checked some of the ip-addresses showed in it and one of those pointed to a security company. 😄
Haha, thats hilarious :D. What was the company?
Yea, I am really impressed by it. I binge watched it after dismissing it as "Oh, another silly hacker show from Hollywood". But when I watched first episode I was hooked.
And yes, very authentic. Even the bloody tools they use there are authentic. Not just some random thing to print text on screen, but real tools, real commands. Very impressive :).
I don't remember. It was on season 1 when that main character was analyzing ddos attack.
Mesh Net technologies are the future for internet freedom. You will have more privacy then today and you can connect it with free crypto currencies. The freedom loving people will find their way back to light.
Yes, I agree. We will find our way and we will point a flashlight at people who want to follow. But it might be a hard fight at the beginning.
And also the biggest problem is that it requires being tech savyy, and most people thing they can't do something like that, so they give up before even starting. Which is a shame for all of us.