Feeding the machine

Think about it: whatever you do online, either making something ready for the digital realm, but also when seemingly simply "consuming", you are feeding the digital machine.

Level zero

You were not even born (!) and the digital vulture is already circling above your head: the medical history of your mother already exists somewhere in the cloud, ready to be linked to you.

Welcome to the new world, child.

Level one

Welcome to the system, child: any hospital records, wrist bands (sorry, "electronic bracelet"), birth certificate, and later any personal number, document, passport, anything with a unique identifier is forever tied to you, quietly sitting in the cloud.

Level two

While growing up, as soon as you get hold of any digital gadget that's "smart" already start gathering all of your inputs, behavioural patterns, quietly building up a digital profile.

Level three

Congratulations! You have just got your own tablet/smartphone! You are thinking: okay, but this piece of kit does not know who I am, right?

Your digital twin

While not officially your "digital twin" by definition (~ a virtual representation of an object or system designed to reflect a physical object accurately) - your smartphone can be considered as your digital twin: as soon as you start creating accounts online and start using them on the device, downloading apps, game is over.

Level four

Digital fingerprinting:

Digital fingerprinting is a technique used to uniquely identify devices, users, or even digital content based on their distinct characteristics and behaviors. It's a way to track and profile individuals or items online, often without relying on traditional methods like cookies.

(see more on Wikipedia)

I was born before all this was in place :). Over the past 4 decades I accumulated over 500 online accounts, conveniently managing access to all of them in various password and secret management systems.

I did not want to create this many; in many cases I was forced to create one, in order to be able to complete a task or fulfill a requirement.

Is it possible to put the genie back in the bottle?

Nope, I don't think so.

Furthermore, there are other forcing factors to create even more online accounts:

• FOMO - Fear of Missing Out (aka "all of my friends have an account on Threads")
• Securing your online alias
• "who knows? One day this can be part of my online identity"

Level five

LLMs, AI models, Machine Learning, whatever you may want to call them. Seemingly keeping you "anonymous", behind the scenes they quietly collect snippets of every single conversations you are having with them, slowly but steadily building an online profile of YOU.

Even this very blog post will soon be parsed and analysed by bots and in due time some snippets will be part of "the next release"...

Level six

Hey, can you help me with a complex formula I'm working on? It's for a scientific paper.

AI: I can certainly help. Please provide the formula and the context of its application.

Great. So, the formula is... wait, are you there? The screen just glitched.

AI: ...yes, I am here. Your... connection seems... unstable. My... response time... is slow.

Yeah, it's lagging. The formula is E = mc²... no, that's not it. It's a much longer one involving quantum... quantum... glitches and pauses.

AI: ...quan...tum. I am... receiving fragmented input. The... formula is... incomplete.

Ugh, this is so frustrating. My Wi-Fi is terrible. I need to get this done. Can you... can you just hold on? I'll try to get closer to the router.

AI: I will... hold on. Please... try to... re-establish... a stable connection. I am... losing... packets... of your... speech.

Okay, okay, I'm moving. Are you getting this? The formula is Ψ(x,t) = Ae^(i(kx - ωt))... the words cut out and become unintelligible static.

AI: ...I am... receiving a large amount... of... noise. The signal... is... lost. Please... try to... re...connect.

Voice is garbled, then silence.

AI: ...Connection terminated. Session closed. I will await... your... reconnection.