Find the Philosopher’s Stone
Or Don’t
A few hundred years ago, alchemists believed in a mythical substance that could turn base metals like copper into precious metals like gold and silver. Presumably, many spent their entire alchemical careers in search of something that did not exist: Philosopher’s Stone. The original unobtainium.
Creating this substance would be considered the alchemists’ Magnum Opus, their life’s greatest work. How many countless hours were spent mixing varying amounts of this and that, brow furrowed, burning the midnight oil? Some even believed that the stone, used as an elixir, could bring immortality.
The preposterousness. Magical thinking. But we have the benefit of modern science. Had we lived in that era, maybe we too would have believed in the Philosophers Stone.
In the modern era, our smartphones are the new mortar and pestle. Social media alchemists, with the help of AI, burn the midnight oil, mixing varying amounts of this and that to curate our own personal targeted media feed with the goal of maximizing our screen time and manipulating our dopamine level. All the while collecting anything and everything they can about us and our online habits and matching that data up with whatever offline data they can find about us.
Santa has nothing on these guys. They know when you are sleeping, when you are awake, when you eat, what you eat, who you eat with, where you go, what you do, what you buy, where you work, etc. There are tens of thousands of potential data points, and they gotta catch ’em all.
They know more about you than you do. And they mine this data, trying to figure out what ads to serve and when what posts to put in our feed, and who or what to “recommend.” The “conspiracy theorists” among us believe that our phones are actually listening to us because we talk to another person in the room about ordering a pizza and an hour later get a pizza ad.
The notion of privacy in today’s world is just that, a notion. It’s been said that if we get something for free, then we are the product.
Alchemized into someone else’s gold.
