I have been thinking a lot about digital sovereignty lately and how quickly the internet is turning into a weird blend of surreal slop and centralized control. It feels like we are losing the ability to tell what is real because of how easy it is for trillionaire tech companies to flood our feeds with whatever they want.
Specifically I am curious about what I call “kirkification” which is the way these tools make it trivial to warp a person’s digital identity into a caricature. It starts with a joke or a face swap but it ends with people losing control over how they are perceived online.
If we want to protect ourselves and our local communities from being manipulated by these black box models how do we actually do it?
I want to know if anyone here has tried moving away from the cloud toward sovereign compute. Is hosting our own communication and media solutions actually a viable way to starve these massive models of our data? Can a small town actually manage its own digital utility instead of just being a data farm for big tech?
Also how do we even explain this to normal people who are not extremely online? How can we help neighbors or the elderly recognize when they are being nudged by an algorithm or seeing a digital caricature?
It seems like we should be aiming for a world of a million millionaires rather than just a room full of trillionaires but the technical hurdles like isp throttling and protocol issues make that bridge hard to build.
Has anyone here successfully implemented local first solutions that reduced their reliance on big tech ai? I am looking for ways to foster cognitive immunity and keep our data grounded in meatspace.
I think it’s easier when as an elder we saw the stages of the internet. We built it. We know it does not have to be like this but big tech has seduced a lot of people with convenience and they pay for that with their money, their autonomy and their privacy.
We know there is a credible choice it just takes some effort and some critical thinking.
I have never seen the need to utilize every tech trend going nor embrace my life overtaken by app after app…but I like to keep my control close.
I certainly agree we have two versions of ourselves a real one and a virtual one, and a lot of people can’t distinguish between them or when the crossover happened.
What can you do?
-Become more analogue, pick up some cds from the charity shop, don’t skip, learn to listen and dance again. -Remind people of the happiness they can find offline. -Support indie movements and tech rather than commercialised products. -Buy less so you don’t keep pouring into the pockets of the rich…to use against you. -Teach your young ones about control of their tech and how to regain privacy.
Please feel free to add to this list. It’s good to have suggestions.