Futurists and science fiction writers have long predicted societal and technological changes. An episode of “Star Trek the Next Generation” came to mind this week. Called “The Game,” it aired in 1991 and it features the crew members becoming addicted to a headset-based video game that, when a goal is achieved, fires a psychotropic positive response in their brains. The crew loses all interest in duties, grooming and the like, to the point members start shutting down ship functions, and hurting and silencing those who saw what was endangering the ship. Hooked on an artificial high, the addicted don’t understand there is an unseen intelligence working against them.
Technology infiltrates people’s lives, gives people an artificial sense of worth and as of the past week, threatens people’s ability to say or think what they want if it doesn’t comply with the technology companies’ norms.
Read all of Brad Hicks' On the Side in the Jan. 14 Kossuth County Advance.
