Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother
The current digital ecosystem is bringing to life predictions made by Marshall McLuhan 60 years ago in Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother. Since the earliest news reports about the “Information Super Highway” in the mid-1990s, technology has grown exponentially over the last three decades. It has reached the point where only a few mega-corporations control every aspect of our lives. WGBH investigative journalist Phillip Martin speaks with numerous individuals about the modern impact of technology and how they relate to predictions made by media guru Marshall McLuhan back in the 1960s.
Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother Synopsis
Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother is a documentary directed by Fred Peabody (All Governments Lie, The Corporate Coup d’État) that explores the impact of technology on humanity. Some of the issues tackled in the film include social media algorithms that send user data to advertisers, the rapid development of generative AI, and the use of digital surveillance software. All of these concerns are compared to the predictions that Marshall McLuhan made in a pre-digital world.
My Thoughts on Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother
As someone in his early-mid 40s, I was born at an interesting time in history. While I remember a pre-digital world of the late 1980s/early 1990s, I was also one of the earliest generations to embrace new technologies. It’s for that reason, I can’t help but partially view Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother as being partially fear-mongering by an older generation that has always seemed wary about technology.
While Digital Tsunami brings up some incredibly valid concerns, the entire film is presented in such a way that it makes technology seem like a big, scary monster. In addition to the usual fears about the tech monopoly of the Silicon Valley tech giants and a general lack of privacy online, the film also spreads fears about AI being developed to the point that it protects itself or that the military is secretly developing murder drones that use facial recognition to find and kill its targets. As someone part of one one the first technology-friendly generations, it is hard for me not to be bothered by the tech-phobia that a film such as Digital Tsunami tries to spread.
While it’s easy to generate fears about a lack of online privacy or AI taking away jobs from humans, the truth is that technology is here to stay, whether we like it or not. It is for that reason, I wish that Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother took a more objective stance that focused on the positives, in addition to the negatives. As each successive generation embraces technology more and more, we should focus more on adapting, rather than comparing the modern world to the warnings of a media guru from six decades ago.
