Episode 14 - Sam Hall

TBD - To Be Determined

Theme: Information IS power.
Time: 45:29

Episode Connections
Films. Raiders of the Lost Ark. No Way Out. Enemy of the State. Minority Report. Running Man. Gattaca.
TV episodes, series. X-Files.
Music. Johnny Cash, “Sam Hall.”
Ideas. Authoritarian societies. Patriot Act. Data-driven society. Data is used to monitor citizen attitudes toward the government and the state of the world. Data can be altered … for the right end. You can even create people who exist only in the data warehouse — enter Sam Hall. The first experiments with manipulating news events. Do the rebels have a mind-alteration device? They do if the right person says they do. Information can even destabilize an entire government. The key to a successful rebellion … moles! This story could easily be published today. Mythology of the centralized information state and the technical priesthood. Does the US really maintain files on everyone? What are the implications of today’s digital information society? How much does it overlap with the surveillance state? Internet access feeds confirmation bias. Cambridge Analytica. Data correlations. Targeted advertising. Many pop culture connections follow. Deepfake video. “Control of information has always been associated with control of society.” Cyberpunk connections.
Whoa - Hmmm - WTF. Bill says hmmm + whoa. Dan say whoa + hmmm. Sadly, it is too plausible for WTF.

Previous episode: J.G. Ballard, “The Voices of Time”
Next episode: Cyril Cornbluth, “The Marching Morons”

Music Credit: "Ouroboros" Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Link: Creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/