That is it! The President of the United State rendered useless by private US companies that did not agree to his actions or his views. A miracle indeed! Pause for a moment and try to imagine privately owned apps in Russia, Turkey or in Saudi Arabia or even in Uganda trying to do something like that to the president of their country. Interestingly Twitter attempted something like that during the Uganda elections. They were quickly placed in their right position when the government banned the social media companies from the country. Twitter had to come back and quickly do a face saving turn. But alas, in America the great, the President can be silenced by a private company. Democracy must really be crazy.
For those of us who disliked Trump, the action by the social media giants was a beautiful welcome. For at long last it silenced the voice and opinions of the one we most hated. For those of us who loved him, it was a stark realization of the ability of our opponents to cut us out of the mainstream system. A flawless coup in the digital world.
In another article, I spoke about how as Africans in not “owning the systems” it will be virtually impossible for us to ever rule or lead the world. The recent happenings to the generally regarded most powerful president of the free world makes the whole scenario even scarier. But I must say also potentially exciting. For it tells us that, private entities can take over the world easier than before. And so for us Africans, even if our governments are failing us, we should not be discouraged, we can do to them what has been done to Trump.
That aside though, what has happened in a beacon of democracy is a very alarming one. I say so because, the highest ideal of democracy was that the people choose their leaders. But if privately owned entities can render publicly chosen leaders so useless and handicapped then we are in for a terrible ride of the future where a few own the systems. It makes democracy akin to dictatorship, just that in this case the dictator is not the political government or individual, but the privately owned digital organizations. And that is extremely dangerous. For private business has a clear objective private profit at all cost. So it is politics, but at least in democratic politics there is the semblance of the masses owning the government and the myth of the government taking care of the rights and needs of the people. Private organizations don’t think like that! Today I disagree with the opinions of Trump so I find no problem with the action of the tech giants. The problem comes when tomorrow I have a different opinion from Twitter or the owners of Twitter about an issue.
But can we blame them or any of the social media company for the action they took? No not at all. For they are private entities and they serve their private objectives. So yes, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook etc can choose who to allow and who to deny. The reason for their decision is up to them. They do not owe me a satisfaction. They may owe me a reason for their action, but I am not the justifier of their actions. They justify their own actions. They are Gods of their world, their words and their worth. So, when tomorrow they disagree with my opinion about the Blackmans’ position and begin to demand the black power must rise, they have the right to delete me from their world they have created. After all, one of their commandments to us the creatures roaming in their world are; ‘thou shalt not insight violence by asking your followers to stand up for what they believe’. Everyone must believe what Twitter says to be the truth!
It is in the above that makes me shiver a bit about the actions of the tech giants’ against the president of the United States. Not because I like him or dislike him, nor agree to his actions or disagree. But that the arbiters of the tools of communication in the growing digital world we live in now are abrogating unto themselves the right to determine what truth is and what a lie.
We Need “Appless” Phones
I believe it is time we seriously consider a new form of communication for the future. A new and novel means of reaching out to the people we love and who believe in what we believe in. The first thing we need to realize is that, we cannot and can never achieve our own objectives as long as we are using some else’s private tool as our main system of communication. In another words don’t build your home on some else’s land and more so land that you do not own.
I am speaking to communication because; it is one of the major ways of keeping a vision or dream alive. The first thing we have to do is eradicate the reliance on private apps as our main means of communication to our fan base. Twitter must go, but even then, if we develop our own app, Google can take it off the app store. Then again, if we set up our own website, Amazon or any one of them can simply refuse to host our services. That is level one.
Level two is the phones themselves, in the article I mentioned earlier I recommended that we produce our own phones; here I dare say we go further than producing our own phones. We must produce a new type of communication technology that does not rely on sim cards to communicate with each other. That is, simless phones. For, as long as our communication runs through a private organization like say MTN or Glo, they can shut down our communication even if the apps don’t. Take note that so far I am only speaking to private entities owning the systems, not governments. They are a different ball game all together and will be discussed at a latter day.
But then how do I get millions of people to follow me and hear my voice all at once without using a privately owned app or going through someone else’s private system. To solve this problem we have to look at it from the communication perspective of humans. Each human being is born or created with the default communication and receiving systems. You do not need an external person or third party to speak to another person or to hear from another person. Once you can amplify your voice or extend your image to the right level, you can reach anyone who has ears to hear or eyes to see. Unless, they have faults with their ears and eyes.
That is how I propose we look at the development of the new type of communication devices or for want of better word phones. But I hesitate to call these future communication devices phones. Because “phone” is just the name we have given to today’s technological communication device. I am sure, people in the time when they used drums and pigeons to send messages did not envisage or assume that they will need things like phones to keep communicating. I believe what was on their minds was either bigger or better drums or more or faster pigeons.
So, I envisage that, whatever that we will have to develop soon to eliminate these private apps, sim cards and phones, will not necessarily be more advanced phones. They may be totally new undiscovered yet means or tools and or forms of communications. This tool or tech should be one that should be able to connect us to not just people anywhere in the world, but anywhere in the universe or solar system. It again should be one that can allow me to get millions of people across the planets and universe to follow and hear my voice at any time “applessly”. It will be and must be a new technology totally unlike the phone as we know it today, which relies on a sim card, network towers or satellites and apps.
What will this technology be like? I do not know yet, but one thing I know, it must be like a human being. It comes with its default communication systems that does not rely on a third party or external system to reach out to another.
In closing I will like to draw your attention to something else I look forward to seeing or developing. That is, a paper printing ink that cannot be captured by the phone camera. Ever since the invention of the camera and the phone, there has been lots of leak of printed confidential information. Because, people are able to quickly take their phones and take shots or pictures of these documents. Imagine an ink that cannot be seen by the camera but only by the organic eyes.
That is what we will need in the future to win the war against the machines. For once our communications are written and printed on old technology like paper; they cannot see it to read it. For once they rise up; anything we do online is within their purview. The battle must be and will be won the old way, using old technology. So yes, I am looking forward to printed ink that cannot be read or seen by the machine, camera or phone, whilst we are working on the apless-simless phone, what I call the ASP!
jtdNarnor 19th Jan 2021 (20:04)
