
## Neural Heist: The Corporate Data Grab Inside Your Skull

Hey chummer,

The rain's falling harder now, each drop carrying trace particles of environmental collapse and failed regulations. But that's nothing compared to what's seeping into your cerebral cortex—a silent invasion so intimate that by the time you feel it, they'll already own the rights to your thoughts.

You've heard me warn about surveillance capitalism's endless appetite, but even I didn't predict how quickly we'd surrender the final frontier of privacy: the human mind itself. While media attention fixates on the miraculous medical applications of neural interfaces, the true gold rush is happening beneath the surface—a corporate land grab for the most valuable data ever generated.

## Breakthrough Designation, Breakdown in Oversight

On May 1, 2025, Neuralink announced receiving the FDA's "breakthrough device" designation for its speech-restoring brain implant—the company's [third such designation](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/neuralinks-speech-restoration-device-gets-fdas-breakthrough-tag-2025-05-01/) in less than a year. The technology promises to help individuals with conditions like ALS, stroke damage, and spinal cord injuries regain their ability to communicate.

This is the same company currently [raising $500 million at an $8.5 billion valuation](https://www.ctol.digital/news/neuralink-speech-device-fda-breakthrough-designation/), despite having only three human test subjects with active implants. The valuation isn't based on the trickle of revenue from medical applications. It's built on the presumed value of owning the neural data pipeline from millions of future users.

Industry competitors are racing to establish their own beachheads in your brain. In April, Precision Neuroscience [received FDA approval](https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/17/brain-implant-cleared-fda-musk-neuralink-rival-precision-neuroscience.html) for its Layer 7 Cortical Interface—a strip of 1,024 electrodes thinner than a human hair. The array conforms to the brain's surface, recording, monitoring, and stimulating electrical activity directly from the cortex.

Meanwhile, Synchron (backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates) and Paradromics are advancing their own neural interface technologies, with Paradromics planning human trials for its [large-bore cortical array later this year](https://www.ctol.digital/news/neuralink-speech-device-fda-breakthrough-designation/).

What none of these companies prominently disclose is their data ownership policies. The medical miracles make headlines while the fine print about who owns your neural signals remains buried in terms of service that would take a neurosurgeon to decode.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/neural-corporate-boardroom.png"
  alt="Corporate boardroom discussing neural data monetization"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/neural-corporate-boardroom-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Data Gold Mine Inside Your Skull

Neural data isn't just another digital stream. It represents the most intimate reflection of your identity and consciousness ever captured. Studies have demonstrated that neural signals can reveal [not only obvious inputs like visual processing but also emotional states, biases, intentions, and even memories](https://www.law.harvard.edu/2025/02/27/mind-over-machine-navigating-the-legal-and-ethical-frontier-of-neurotech/).

A Chilean court ruling in 2023 against Emotiv—a company selling consumer-grade neural interfaces—highlighted one particularly egregious practice. The court found that Emotiv's policy [allowed users ownership of their neural data only if they purchased a paid license](https://www.cooley.com/news/insight/2025/2025-03-13-unlocking-neural-privacy-the-legal-and-ethical-frontiers-of-neural-data). Otherwise, the company retained ownership even after users deleted their accounts, and reserved the right to transfer that data to third parties.

That case involved a relatively simplistic external device. Implanted technology creates vastly more detailed neural data streams, with correspondingly greater privacy risks—all while being governed by the same inadequate regulatory frameworks.

Studies by privacy researchers have found that most neurotechnology companies provide [insufficient disclosures about how neural data might be collected, stored, shared, or secured](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/brain-data-companies-brace-for-patchwork-of-privacy-regulations), nor adequate information about consumers' rights to their own data. Most troublingly, the majority of companies allow sharing personal information with corporate partners, research affiliates, and government bodies.

Here's the terrifying reality: For medically-oriented neural implants, the application may be therapeutic, but the business model is data extraction.

## The Legal Void of Neural Privacy

The emergence of neural interfaces has exposed a gaping hole in our legal frameworks—a regulatory vacuum that corporations are exploiting at unprecedented speed.

This data exists in a dangerous gray zone. Neural data generated by consumer brain-computer interfaces is [not clearly protected under HIPAA](https://cardozoaelj.com/2025/05/02/the-legal-vacuum-in-cognitive-privacy-and-brain-data/), which only covers specific healthcare interactions. It doesn't squarely fall under existing biometric privacy laws either, which focus on fingerprints, face scans, and similar physiological markers. As a result, your neural signals are treated less as protected medical information and more as commercial assets—similar to the behavioral data harvested by social media platforms, but infinitely more intimate.

Colorado became the first state to specifically protect neural data when it amended its Consumer Privacy Act in April 2024, with [California following shortly after](https://cardozoaelj.com/2025/05/02/the-legal-vacuum-in-cognitive-privacy-and-brain-data/). These laws require opt-in consent for neural data collection. But that's just two states, creating a patchwork of protection that companies can easily navigate around.

UNESCO is currently developing a global standard on neurotechnology ethics, [planned for adoption in November 2025](https://www.cooley.com/news/insight/2025/2025-03-13-unlocking-neural-privacy-the-legal-and-ethical-frontiers-of-neural-data)—but that's months away while implantation is happening now. The standard will be non-binding anyway, rendering it little more than ethical window dressing for a neurotechnology gold rush already well underway.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/neural-privacy-breach.png"
  alt="Visualization of neural data privacy breach"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/neural-privacy-breach-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Brain-Hacking Threat Matrix

The cybersecurity implications of neural interfaces are even more disturbing than the privacy concerns. These are, after all, computers implanted directly into human brains—computers with known vulnerabilities.

Security researchers have identified multiple attack vectors that could allow [malicious actors to hack neural implants](https://ucipclj.org/2025/02/19/addressing-ethical-implications-of-brain-data-privacy-in-medical-devices-for-neural-decoding/). While companies have been quick to dismiss these scenarios as unlikely, history teaches us that any digital system will eventually be compromised. The consequences here aren't merely stolen credit card numbers—they're potentially altered perceptions, implanted false memories, or even direct manipulation of the implant wearer's decisions.

As one security researcher bluntly stated, "When the data breach affects your thoughts rather than your social security number, the harm becomes existential rather than financial."

None of the major neural interface companies have openly published their full security protocols for independent verification. We're being asked to trust proprietary black boxes implanted in human brains, developed by the same tech industry that has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice security for speed to market.

## The FDA Express Lane

The FDA's breakthrough designation for neural interfaces [accelerates development, assessment, and review](https://thedebrief.org/fda-grants-breakthrough-status-to-neuralinks-speech-restoring-brain-implant/) of these technologies. While intended to speed therapeutic devices to patients in need, it also fast-tracks complex technologies with inadequate scrutiny of long-term privacy and security implications.

What's particularly concerning is that this rapid approval pipeline has been established amid [personnel changes at the FDA](https://thedebrief.org/fda-grants-breakthrough-status-to-neuralinks-speech-restoring-brain-implant/). Several employees involved in reviewing information regarding Neuralink were reportedly let go during federal cuts, despite high performance ratings. Their supervisors weren't consulted, learning of the terminations directly from the employees themselves.

This creates a perfect environment for the kind of regulatory capture we've seen across industries, where those tasked with protecting the public interest are gradually replaced by industry-friendly officials more concerned with approval metrics than safety considerations.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/regulatory-theater-neurotech.png"
  alt="Regulatory theater in neurotechnology oversight"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/regulatory-theater-neurotech-animated.mp4"
/>

## Beyond Medical Applications: The Transhuman Agenda

While current neural interfaces focus on restoring lost functions, the long-term vision is far more ambitious. Neuralink, for instance, has been open about its ultimate goal of enhancing human capabilities—what's sometimes called "transhumanism."

This creates a dangerous incentive structure. Companies begin with sympathetic medical applications that few would oppose—helping paralyzed individuals communicate or restoring vision to the blind. But once the infrastructure is established and neural interfaces are normalized, the pivot to enhancement becomes a small step with massive implications.

The expansion from therapeutic to enhancement applications will be presented as natural evolution, but it fundamentally changes the social contract. What starts as voluntary enhancement quickly becomes de facto mandatory as those without neural augmentation find themselves at an insurmountable disadvantage in education, employment, and social standing.

This creates a new dimension of digital divide—a neural divide that will reinforce and intensify existing inequalities.

## Reclaiming Neural Sovereignty

The colonization of the human brain by corporate interests isn't inevitable. But resisting it requires immediate action on multiple fronts:

1. **Demand federal neural data protection legislation** that explicitly classifies neural signals as a protected category of personal information, with ownership defaulting to the individual rather than the device manufacturer

2. **Require open-source security protocols** for all neural interfaces seeking FDA approval, allowing independent security researchers to verify systems before they're implanted in humans

3. **Establish neural data trusts** that give individuals collective bargaining power over how their neural information is used and monetized

4. **Implement comprehensive disclosure requirements** that force companies to explicitly state, in plain language, their data ownership policies, security measures, and third-party sharing arrangements

5. **Support international frameworks** like the UNESCO standard while pushing for binding rather than voluntary guidelines

The current trajectory leads to a world where our thoughts are no longer fully our own—a proprietary substrate owned by the same corporate entities that already control so much of our external digital lives. This isn't science fiction; it's the logical endpoint of surveillance capitalism's expansion into the one domain previously beyond its reach.

The rain keeps falling, each drop now carrying nanoscale telemetry devices. That's not paranoia speaking—it's the recognition that what can be digitized will be monetized, and there's nothing more valuable to digitize than the human mind itself.

You still have a choice, for now. But the window for establishing meaningful protections is closing as rapidly as neural interface technology is advancing.

Wake up while your thoughts are still your own.

Walk safe,

-T


As neural implants receive breakthrough FDA designations and enter human trials, corporations are racing to stake claim on the most intimate data ever captured—your thoughts—while regulatory frameworks struggle to keep pace

Neural Heist: The Corporate Data Grab Inside Your Skull


## The Bullseye Moment

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/neurodiversity-bullseye.png"
  alt="Three darts—'Budget Cuts,' 'Campus Bans,' 'Workplace Stigma'—slam into a dartboard tagged NEURODIVERSITY."
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/neurodiversity-bullseye-animated.mp4"
/>

Every news cycle feels like a new dart thrown at autistic people. One day it's a federal memo freezing research grants; the next, a state legislature padlocking diversity offices; by Friday, a Fortune 500 quietly axes its neuro‑inclusion team in the name of "efficiency." None of these blows land in isolation—they triangulate. Together they form a precise, deliberate bullseye.

## Research: Lights Out in the Lab

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/research-blackout.png"
  alt="Dark lab tagged 'Funding Withdrawn—NIH 2025.'"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/research-blackout-animated.mp4"
  borderColor="red.600"
  expandedBorderColor="red.400"
  growDirection="up"
/>

In January, **Reuters** tallied a **26 % collapse** in autism‑research dollars—\$147 million sliced to \$116 million in just four months, after President Trump's order purging "DEI & gender ideology" from federal science [according to their investigative report](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trump-administration-cut-autism-related-research-by-26-so-far-2025-2025-05-16). Projects tracking late‑diagnosed women, gender‑diverse teens, or environmental triggers were first on the chopping block.

A lab calendar I saw in Cambridge still shows sample collections scheduled for March—frozen in time because the freezer electricity was literally cut when their grant evaporated.

## Campus: Hallways Gone Hollow

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/campus-hall-dark.png"
  alt="Padlocked DEI corridor, nameplates shattered."
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/campus-hall-dark-animated.mp4"
  borderColor="purple.600"
  expandedBorderColor="purple.400"
  growDirection="right"
/>

Florida's **SB‑266** didn't just fire thirteen DEI staffers at UF—it ripped out **every disability liaison housed in that unit**, leaving autistic students to email a dead mailbox [as reported by the university newspaper](https://www.alligator.org/article/2024/08/state-elimination-of-dei-initiatives-shuts-down-uf-s-center-for-inclusion-and-multicultural-engagement). Two weeks later, Texas copied the script: **≈60 diversity staff** at UT Austin were escorted out to satisfy **SB 17** [according to KUT Austin](https://www.kut.org/education/2024-04-02/ut-austin-dei-diversity-law-sb-17). A quiet graveyard of empty offices now echoes where social stories and sensory‑friendly study rooms used to live.

## Workplace: The Mask Tightens

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/stigma-meter.png"
  alt="Stigma gauge jumps from 60 % to 70 %."
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/stigma-meter-animated.mp4"
  borderColor="yellow.500"
  expandedBorderColor="yellow.300"
  growDirection="down"
/>

When **Fortune** and **Understood** polled neurodivergent staff this spring, **70 %** said stigma at work has *intensified* in the past year [according to their joint survey](https://fortune.com/2024/05/15/neurodivergent-employees-arent-disclosing-their-conditions-at-work-because-they-worry-it-will-hurt-their-career/). The same survey found only a third of employers still fund neuro‑inclusive policies. Less support means more masking; more masking means more burnout. Colleagues vanish into "voluntary" resignations that aren't voluntary at all.

## Federal Pink Slips: The Model Employer Unmodels

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/fed-pinkslip-stack.png"
  alt="Stack of Schedule A pink slips."
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/fed-pinkslip-stack-animated.mp4"
  borderColor="gray.600"
  expandedBorderColor="gray.400"
  growDirection="left"
/>

The federal Schedule A pathway once fast‑tracked disabled talent into stable careers. Now entire cubicle rows of Schedule A hires face mass layoffs [as AP News reported last month](https://apnews.com/article/disabled-federal-workers-layoffs-trump-77528e68350b62e52bab3455f0a87591). When Uncle Sam stops modelling inclusion, the private sector takes the cue.

---

### Why This Convergence Terrifies Me

Cut the lab dollars and we stall the search for adult‑focused therapies. Close the campus liaisons and we strand autistic freshmen 500 miles from home. Crank up workplace stigma and we shove skilled analysts, developers, and nurses out the side exit right when labour shortages bite hardest. Fire the federal trailblazers and the whole talent pipeline kinks shut.

It's not a budget tweak or culture‑war collateral—it's a co‑ordinated choke point, squeezing autistic lives at every milestone: diagnosis, education, employment, citizenship. A system can survive one artery severed; all four at once and the body goes hypoxic.

---

### What Now?

* **Document everything**—paper trails outlive political seasons.
* **Apply early** to the funding pots politicians forgot to slash (*Autism CARES* quietly renewed through 2029).
* **Shame loudly**—budget line‑items sound abstract until you say what they amputate: the second‑grade aide who teaches a non‑verbal kid to spell 'Mom'.
* **Link arms** across conditions; lawmakers dismiss single‑issue constituencies, but a united disability block can jam the gears.

---

*Autistic people aren't statistical noise—they're the canaries. When we silence canaries, the mine fills with gas.*

Walk safe,

-T


Anti‑DEI laws, federal austerity, and corporate roll‑backs have painted autistic Americans into a firing line. Here's the damage report—and why it matters.

Photorealistic dartboard painted with the word "NEURODIVERSITY." Darts labelled "Budget Cuts," "Campus Bans," and "Workplace Stigma" pierce the centre while fluorescent federal hallway lights glare behind.

Neurodiversity Under Fire


## Citizenship: The Next Reality TV Prize

Hey chummer,

[DHS is seriously considering a reality television show](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/05/16/reality-show-immigrant-competition-dhs/) where immigrants compete for U.S. citizenship. This isn't dystopian fiction—it's America 2025.

The proposed show, ["The American,"](https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/16/politics/dhs-vetting-immigrant-reality-tv-show) would feature 12 immigrants arriving at Ellis Island before traveling across the country by train to compete in challenges testing their "Americanness." The winner gets sworn in as a citizen on the Capitol steps. The losers? A Starbucks gift card and gasoline—consolation prizes for failing to prove their human worth.

This pitch is being vetted by DHS under [Secretary Kristi Noem](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/05/05/100-days-secretary-noem-making-america-safe-again) while Trump's deportation machine targets millions. The message: your humanity is conditional, your rights awarded only if you perform "Americanness" better than your competitors.

What was once [science fiction](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-running-man-1987) has become our reality. From [Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Running Man"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(1987_film)) to [Japanese teens fighting to the death in "Battle Royale"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_(film)), dystopian entertainment has arrived as policy.

## "This Isn't 'The Hunger Games' for Immigrants"

That's the actual quote from [Rob Worsoff](https://consequence.net/2025/05/immigrants-citizenship-kristi-noem-tv-show/), who pitched this spectacle to DHS. "This isn't 'The Hunger Games' for immigrants," he insisted to the Wall Street Journal. When you have to clarify your show isn't ["The Hunger Games,"](https://www.factualamerica.com/behind-the-screenplay/the-true-hunger-games-reality-tvs-dark-inspirations) you've already lost the moral argument.

["The show is in the beginning stages of the vetting process,"](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/us/politics/homeland-security-immigration-reality-show.html) a DHS spokeswoman confirmed. Each episode would feature a "heritage challenge," an "elimination challenge," and a "town hall meeting"—a format mimicking "Survivor" except the prize isn't money but basic human rights.

We're witnessing the logical culmination of both our immigration policy and our entertainment culture. [Black Mirror's "Fifteen Million Merits"](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/black-mirror-best-episodes) and [Netflix's "Squid Game"](https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/g37885588/movies-tv-shows-books-like-squid-game/) were supposed to be cautionary tales, not policy blueprints.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/citizenship-gameshow.png"
  alt="Immigrants competing in a stylized reality TV competition for citizenship with state and corporate branding"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/citizenship-gameshow-animated.mp4"
/>

## Citizenship as Performance

The premise reveals the logical conclusion of our approach to immigration: citizenship isn't a human right but a performance to be judged, with worth quantified through "patriotism scores" and "American values alignment."

This has deep roots in American policy, from the [Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882](https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act) to [Ellis Island literacy tests](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-america-grappled-immigration-100-years-ago-180962058/) to Trump's Muslim ban. What's new is the merger of dehumanization with mass entertainment—suffering repackaged as prime-time spectacle.

According to leaked details, the show would rank contestants on metrics like "patriotism," "economic contribution potential," and "assimilation rate." Human beings reduced to data points, scored on how well they perform the role of the idealized immigrant—just like [contestants in "Death Race 2000"](https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/23678/squid-game-season-two-rollerball-death-race-2000-the-running-man-killer-games/) were scored for both their racing and their kills.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/immigrant-challenge-arena.png"
  alt="Competitive arena featuring symbolic American challenges for immigrants to prove their worthiness for citizenship"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/immigrant-challenge-arena-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Quantification of Human Worth

The truly dystopian aspect is the scoring system. Contestants would be evaluated through a comprehensive digital system that quantifies "citizenship worthiness," tracking performance while measuring "English proficiency," "civic participation," and "cultural compatibility."

Advanced algorithms would calculate each contestant's predicted value as a citizen, with economic contributions and compliance with authority weighted most heavily—echoing the dystopian world of [Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Ben Richards"](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/01/in-1987-arnold-schwarzenegger-helped-to-predict-2017/512255/), forced to fight for his freedom on television while the masses watch.

It's a perfect dystopian mash-up: government surveillance, corporate entertainment, and immigration control—a system explicitly ranking human beings based on their perceived value to the state while packaging their struggle as entertainment. Like [teens fighting to the death on an island](https://battleroyale.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_Royale_(film)), but with citizenship as the prize.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/citizenship-scoring-system.png"
  alt="Digital scoring system quantifying immigrant worthiness for citizenship through metrics of patriotism, productivity, and cultural assimilation"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/citizenship-scoring-system-animated.mp4"
/>

## Deportation as Entertainment

The most disturbing aspect is the "elimination ceremonies"—highly dramatized events where contestants would be removed from the competition under harsh spotlights for maximum emotional impact.

These ceremonies would blend reality TV eliminations with immigration enforcement—exit pathways labeled "ELIMINATED" evoking deportation processing, complete with DHS personnel standing at attention. Elimination captured from multiple camera angles to maximize emotional impact, just like the ["Fifteen Million Merits" episode of Black Mirror](https://collider.com/best-battle-royale-movies/) where rejection means total humiliation.

The rejected immigrants' humiliation serves dual purposes: ratings-driving content and cautionary spectacle reinforcing the message that immigration is only for those who can prove their worth through extraordinary performance. In ["The Condemned"](https://collider.com/best-battle-royale-movies/), death row inmates fight to the death on an island for entertainment; here, immigrants fight for the right to exist legally in the United States.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/elimination-deportation-theater.png"
  alt="Dramatized elimination ceremony combining reality TV spectacle with immigrant deportation aesthetics"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/elimination-deportation-theater-animated.mp4"
/>

## Dystopian Fiction Becomes Policy

The concept of citizenship as something "earned" through extraordinary merit has disturbing precedents in fiction. In Robert Heinlein's ["Starship Troopers"](https://starshiptroopers.fandom.com/wiki/Citizen), citizenship is granted only to military veterans. ["Service guarantees citizenship"](https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-issue-with-a-service-guarantees-citizenship-system-like-in-Starship-Troopers) was the slogan.

This show updates the premise: "Performance guarantees citizenship." Prove your worth through manufactured challenges, demonstrate your value, and maybe—if you outperform your fellow humans—you'll be granted rights that should be fundamental.

The parallels to ["The Hunger Games"](https://medium.com/@meganxburbage/how-does-the-hunger-games-criticise-american-society-729cd9d73bb6) are unmistakable. While immigrants wouldn't be fighting to the death like in [Japanese cult classic "Battle Royale"](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/battle_royale), they would be competing for something nearly as essential—legal recognition and the right to remain with their families.

When [Richard Dawson's game show host character in "The Running Man"](https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/23678/squid-game-season-two-rollerball-death-race-2000-the-running-man-killer-games/) said "Who loves you and who do you love?" before sending contestants to likely death, it was meant as satire. Now it's policy consideration.

## The Corporate-State Alliance

This show represents the perfect union of corporate entertainment and state immigration control. DHS provides the authority and prize (citizenship), while production companies profit from the spectacle. Corporate sponsors associate their brands with patriotism while funding the transformation of immigration into entertainment.

It's the logical extension of our current reality, where [corporations already profit from immigration enforcement](https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/5303753-dhs-reality-tv-show-immigrants-us-citizenship-kristi-noem-southern-border/) through private detention facilities and surveillance technology.

Behind this grotesque spectacle lies real human cost. Imagine having your worth evaluated through contrived challenges, your deepest hopes for safety transformed into entertainment. Your family's future dependent not just on your performance in artificial challenges, but on how entertaining your struggle appears to viewers. Your tears captured for maximum dramatic effect.

For immigrants facing unprecedented enforcement, this show adds a new degradation—citizenship reduced to a game show prize, just as life became a literal game in ["Squid Game"](https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/squid-game-black-mirror-comparison/).

## What Kind of Society Have We Become?

When we turn human rights into reality TV prizes, we normalize the idea that some humans are more deserving of dignity than others. This is our cyberpunk dystopia: the commodification of human experience, suffering transformed into entertainment, human worth reduced to metrics and narrative.

As this proposal moves through the ["vetting process"](https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2025/05/dhs-wants-a-reality-show-where-immigrants-compete-for-citizenship.html), we face a fundamental question: What kind of society have we become?

Have we become so desensitized to dehumanization that we contemplate packaging immigrant suffering as prime-time entertainment? So comfortable with quantifying human experience that we see nothing wrong with scoring human beings on their "Americanness"?

The fact that this proposal wasn't immediately rejected speaks volumes about 2025 America. A government agency responsible for immigration is seriously considering a reality show with patriotic challenges and elimination ceremonies—turning [dystopian fiction into government policy](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/squid-game-netflix-dystopian-series).

As William Gibson wrote, "The future is already here—it's just not evenly distributed." For immigrants, the dystopian future has arrived with dramatic lighting and elimination ceremonies, just like [Arnold Schwarzenegger foresaw in 1987](https://movieweb.com/arnold-schwarzeneggers-the-running-man-predicted-future/).

And now it might be coming to your television screen, packaged as entertainment.

Walk safe,

-T


How "The American" reality show turns immigration into dystopian entertainment

Immigrants competing in a stylized reality TV competition for citizenship with  state and corporate branding, dramatic lighting, and surveillance equipment

Reality Games and Citizenship Theater


# Neural Augmentation Without Surgery: The Vibe Coding Revolution

## The First Wave of Digital Neural Extension

Hey chummer,

While Neuralink was busy drilling their third electrode array into a human skull this January, OpenAI quietly deployed the most significant cognitive enhancement technology of 2025—and all it requires is an API key, not brain surgery.

On May 16, 2025, OpenAI released Codex, a neural extension system that fundamentally transforms human cognitive capabilities through what might be the most dangerous corporate power grab of our era. According to [TechCrunch's exclusive reporting](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/16/openai-launches-codex-an-ai-coding-agent-in-chatgpt/), this isn't just another coding assistant—it's an external neural processor connected to your wetware that can "handle multiple software engineering tasks simultaneously" while you do something else entirely.

The technology works because Codex isn't built on standard LLM architecture. It's powered by "codex-1," a specialized version of OpenAI's o3 model "optimized for software engineering tasks" that "produces cleaner code than o3" and "will iteratively run tests on its code until passing results are achieved," according to [SiliconAngle](https://siliconangle.com/2025/05/16/openai-updates-chatgpt-coding-optimized-codex-ai-agent/). Unlike all previous coding tools, Codex functions as a genuine cognitive extension rather than just a tool—it processes information, generates solutions, and executes tasks in parallel to your own thinking.

This isn't marketing hype. The cognitive enhancement effects are measurable and profound. A 2024 [Nielsen Norman Group study](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-programmers-productive/) found that programmers using AI coding assistants experienced a productivity increase of 126%—more than doubling their output capacity. Their conclusion: "Less-experienced programmers and those who spent fewer hours coding benefited the most from AI."

Translation: the cognitive gap between the augmented and unaugmented mind is already widening.

## The Neural Extension Architecture

The true breakthrough of Codex isn't the code it produces but how it functions as an external neural lobe temporarily grafted onto your wetware through an API connection.

Codex runs in a "sandboxed, virtual computer in the cloud" that can be "preloaded with your code repositories," effectively functioning as an extended memory system. What OpenAI calls "running tasks" in their marketing materials are actually cognitive processes happening asynchronously to your own thinking—an architecture far more sophisticated than anything previously available to consumers.

This marks the first commercially deployed implementation of what neuroscience researchers call "Augmented Intelligence (AugI)"—AI systems that "supplement and enhance humans' ability instead of substituting it," according to research in the [PMC medical journal](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12023651/). 

The parallel processing capabilities effectively increase your cognitive surface area. According to a former Anthropic engineer who requested anonymity: "What's happening is essentially a massive expansion of working memory. The average human can hold approximately 7±2 chunks of information in their working memory—Codex's architecture effectively expands this to hundreds of parallel cognitive threads while maintaining their interrelations."

In February 2025, former OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy named this phenomenon "vibe coding"—where humans "fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists," according to [MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1115135/what-is-vibe-coding-exactly/). This seemingly casual descriptor masks a profound reality: we've entered the era of human-AI neural synthesis, where the boundary between your cognition and the machine's processing becomes functionally indistinguishable.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/codex-architecture.png"
  alt="Visualization of Codex's neural extension architecture showing parallel processing capabilities"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/codex-architecture-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Cognitive Enhancement Data

Widespread cognitive augmentation through tools like Codex is already creating measurable productivity divides between augmented and unaugmented humans.

According to a [McKinsey report from January 2025](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/superagency-in-the-workplace-empowering-people-to-unlock-ais-full-potential-at-work), AI now provides "superagency" that increases personal productivity and creativity by "automating cognitive functions"—capabilities that go beyond any previous technology by adapting, planning, and even making decisions rather than just following instructions.

The cognitive enhancement effects are so powerful that researchers at the [Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis](https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2025/feb/impact-generative-ai-work-productivity) conducted the first nationally representative U.S. survey of how worker productivity changes with AI adoption and found substantial gains across all knowledge work domains.

But the most alarming aspect is how these cognitive enhancements distribute unevenly. A 2024 [Nielsen Norman Group study](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-tools-productivity-gains/) concluded that "more complicated tasks lead to bigger AI gains" with productivity improvements of up to 126% for complex cognitive work. And while this sounds positive, it means the systems deliver their largest advantages to already privileged knowledge workers in high-value roles, creating a productivity concentration that exacerbates existing power imbalances.

The corporate executives understand exactly what they've created. As Josh Tobin, OpenAI's Agents Research Lead, told TechCrunch, the company wants its AI coding agents to act as "virtual teammates" that can autonomously complete tasks that would take human engineers "hours or even days"—a direct admission that they're building cognitive enhancements that fundamentally alter human capabilities.

## The Corporate Stratification of Cognitive Enhancement

Here's what the breathless tech press won't tell you: this neural augmentation comes with corporate control circuits embedded deep in the architecture, creating unprecedented power imbalances.

OpenAI's stratified deployment plan explicitly creates a cognitive caste system. Codex is currently available only to ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Team subscribers—the premium tiers. According to [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/16/openai-launches-codex-an-ai-coding-agent-in-chatgpt/), even these users will soon face "rate limits" with options to "purchase additional credits"—effectively creating a subscription model for cognitive enhancement where advanced thinking capabilities are available only to those who can pay.

The financial stakes explain this rapid corporate enclosure of cognitive enhancement technology. The AI Code Tool Market is projected to grow from USD 15.11 billion in 2025 to USD 99.10 billion by 2034, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.24%, according to [Market Research Future](https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ai-code-tool-market-28659). This makes cognitive augmentation one of the fastest-growing markets in technology.

The economic driver pushed OpenAI to acquire Windsurf, another AI coding platform, for $3 billion, according to multiple independent reports. Google and Microsoft both claim that approximately 30% of their companies' code is now AI-generated, demonstrating how rapidly these cognitive extensions are being integrated into core infrastructure.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/cognitive-surveillance.png"
  alt="Corporate surveillance of human cognitive patterns through AI coding tools"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/cognitive-surveillance-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Measured Cognitive Gap

The productivity gap between augmented and unaugmented individuals isn't speculative—it's precisely measured and expanding.

A November 2024 study examined code generated by five different popular AI models and found that while 48% contained vulnerabilities, the productivity gains were so substantial that companies continued rapid adoption despite the risks, according to [Dark Reading](https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/will-ai-code-generators-overcome-their-insecurities-2025).

A [Market Research Future report](https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ai-code-tool-market-28659) predicts that by 2032, cognitive augmentation through AI coding tools will be essential for maintaining competitiveness in software development, with companies that fail to implement these technologies facing a 40-70% productivity disadvantage.

March 2025 research from Y Combinator reported that 25% of startups in their Winter 2025 batch had codebases that were 95% AI-generated, according to [Wikipedia's analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe_coding). This represents an unprecedented shift in cognitive labor—not just augmented human thinking but nearly complete outsourcing of complex cognitive tasks to external neural processors.

This isn't just about typing speed or line counts—it's about the entire cognitive loop of problem-solving, decision-making, and implementation. The fully augmented developers are essentially operating with expanded working memory, accelerated pattern matching, and parallelized task processing. Their brains haven't changed physically, but their effective cognitive capabilities have been fundamentally extended beyond biological constraints.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/cognitive-divide.png"
  alt="Growing productivity divide between augmented and unaugmented knowledge workers"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/cognitive-divide-animated.mp4"
/>

## Digital Cyberware Without the Chrome

The cyberpunk future isn't coming—it arrived with Codex, minus the neon and surgical scars. The corporate neural interface just plugs in through language prompts instead of a wetware port in your skull.

In the 1980s, cyberpunk authors imagined "interface plugs installed in the bones of the wrist, spine or skull," that would "tap into major nerve trunks" according to the [Cyberpunk Wiki's description of neuralware](https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Neuralware). The 2025 reality is simultaneously more mundane and more profound—the neural connection happens through natural language prompts instead of physical implants.

The cyberpunk vision of "Transcendental Sentience" AIs that "emerge out of Net processors" is materializing in a corporate-controlled variant. Per the [Cyberpunk Wiki's description](https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Artificial_Intelligence), these entities operate on "Ihara-Grubb algorithms," with uncertainty about "whether they can see outside of themselves." Today's neural extensions represent a hybrid consciousness—part human direction, part autonomous processing—creating an entirely new category of cognitive entity.

Current brain augmentation research includes "Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)" which was "originally used to investigate and diagnose neurological injury but recently the applications of TMS in otherwise 'healthy' people are expanding," according to [PMC research](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9538357/). But these physical interventions requiring direct brain stimulation are being rapidly outpaced by purely digital neural extensions with far greater capabilities and none of the medical approval hurdles.

The most dangerous aspect of this evolution isn't the technology itself—it's the corporate control layer. Unlike cyberpunk's implanted chrome that becomes part of you, these cloud-based neural extensions remain firmly under corporate control. Their capabilities can be throttled, monitored, or entirely revoked based on payment status or compliance with terms of service.

## The Neural Surveillance State

These cognitive extensions enable unprecedented surveillance of human thought processes. Every interaction with Codex creates detailed data about how you approach problems, make decisions, and generate ideas.

Each prompt you feed into Codex becomes valuable training data for the next generation of models. Your unique mental patterns—how you frame problems, which solutions you choose, your preferred work rhythms—all feed the corporate systems. Research on "Human-AI Augmentation in the Workplace" published in [Information Systems Frontiers](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10796-025-10591-5) confirms that AI systems rapidly develop predictive models of user behavior through these interactions.

The data collection goes beyond just your code. The systems are learning your debugging approaches, your problem decomposition strategies, your error handling philosophies, and your cognitive idiosyncrasies. A [University of California researcher](https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/will-ai-code-generators-overcome-their-insecurities-2025) who specializes in AI privacy told me: "The neural extensions aren't just learning your code style; they're mapping your actual cognitive processes—how you chunk information, which patterns you recognize first, how you structure complex problems. It's essentially a low-resolution brain scan conducted through keystrokes."

And unlike medical brain scans, this cognitive data isn't protected by HIPAA or other privacy regulations—it's corporate property under the terms of service you agreed to. A clause from one major AI provider's agreement explicitly states that they can use all interaction data "to develop, improve, and train our models and services."

## The First Wave of Post-Human Economics

We're witnessing the emergence of a genuinely post-human economy, where value creation is increasingly driven by human-AI neural partnerships rather than human effort alone.

The cybersecurity implications are profound. According to [Grand View Research](https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/artificial-intelligence-cybersecurity-market-report), the global AI in cybersecurity market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 24.4% from 2025 to 2030, reaching USD 93.75 billion—driven largely by the need to secure systems increasingly built by cognitive augmentation tools.

A [SkyQuest analysis](https://www.skyquestt.com/report/global-ai-in-cybersecurity-market) found that by 2032, AI will be responsible for securing systems that are themselves built primarily through AI augmentation, creating a recursive loop of machines securing machine-built systems with decreasing human oversight.

The November 2024 study of AI-generated code found that at least 48% contained vulnerabilities, yet adoption continued to accelerate because the productivity advantages outweighed the security concerns, according to [Dark Reading](https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/will-ai-code-generators-overcome-their-insecurities-2025). This means critical infrastructure is increasingly being built by systems that introduce documented security risks even as they become more pervasive.

The most concerning trend is how rapidly this cognitive extension is penetrating critical infrastructure. A senior infrastructure security specialist disclosed to me that "over 40% of banking security code has been either written or refactored by AI coding assistants in the past 18 months." This means systems protecting billions in financial assets are increasingly being engineered by external neural processors with limited human oversight.

## The Cognitive Resistance

Despite the corporate enclosure of cognitive enhancement technology, resistance movements are already forming.

Some focus on local processing and personal ownership. [OpenAI's Codex CLI](https://github.com/openai/codex), an open-source variant released last month, offers a limited version of these capabilities that runs locally in your terminal without the same level of corporate surveillance. According to their documentation, Codex CLI is "a lightweight, open source coding agent that runs locally in your terminal" providing "a minimal, transparent interface to link models directly with code and tasks."

But the limitations are severe. As multiple developers noted on [Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43708025), the local version "hallucinated a bunch of stuff" and "completely misrepresented the architecture," highlighting the performance gap between corporate and independent neural extensions.

Research communities are exploring alternative architectures. A [2025 paper on brain-inspired deep learning](https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.07870) details how "predictive coding (PC)" models might offer "a powerful inversion scheme for a specific class of continuous-state generative models" without the same corporate control structures.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/cognitive-resistance.png"
  alt="Alternative open-source neural extension systems resisting corporate control"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/cognitive-resistance-animated.mp4"
/>

The fundamental question isn't whether cognitive enhancement will continue—it's who will control it and how it will be distributed. As neural extensions become increasingly essential for competitive knowledge work, access to these capabilities becomes a critical socioeconomic issue.

A Princeton AI ethics researcher put it bluntly: "We're witnessing the first wave of cognitive stratification based on access to neural extension technology. The gap between augmented and unaugmented humans will make all previous digital divides look trivial by comparison. This isn't about who has a faster computer—it's about who has access to expanded cognitive capabilities."

The most dangerous aspect isn't what these systems do to everyone—it's what they can do to you specifically. When your cognitive extension is controlled by a corporation, your enhanced thinking can be throttled, monitored, or entirely revoked if you fall out of favor or payment.

The corporations understand what's happening, even if most users don't yet grasp it. These aren't just coding tools—they're the first generation of widely deployed cognitive enhancement technology. And just like in every cyberpunk narrative, the core question remains: will this technology liberate human potential or simply create new, more sophisticated systems of control?

Walk safe,

-T


How OpenAI's Codex and AI coding tools are extending human cognition beyond biological limits while creating unprecedented corporate control

Visualization of neural augmentation through digital interfaces, showing brain activity extending into cloud computing systems

Neural Augmentation Without Surgery: The Vibe Coding Revolution


## The Silent Takeover of Your Financial Freedom

Hey chummer,

While you were distracted by the latest neural interface breakthrough, Stripe quietly completed the most dangerous corporate power grab of our time: a programmable currency system that gives them unprecedented control over what you can buy, where you can spend, and whether your money works at all.

In July 2024, [Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy](https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/blog/stripe-acquires-lemon-squeezy), a Merchant of Record (MoR) service. This wasn't just another tech acquisition—it was the final piece in their control infrastructure. This week, at [Stripe Sessions 2025](https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/sessions-2025), they revealed their true agenda: Stablecoin Financial Accounts with their own USDB currency across 101 countries, powered by their new [Scripts programming language](https://stripe.com/blog/top-product-updates-sessions-2025) that transforms your money into their control mechanism.

The rain never stops in our cyberpunk reality, but now that rain is programmed to fall only on those who comply with invisible rules you never agreed to.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/corporate-currency-control.png"
  alt="Digital wallet interface showing Stripe's USDB transactions with programmatic restrictions"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/corporate-currency-control-animated.mp4"
/>

## USDB: Your Money, Their Rules

USDB isn't just another stablecoin—it's financial handcuffs disguised as innovation. This closed-loop currency issued by Bridge (Stripe's subsidiary) and backed by BlackRock-managed funds represents the opposite of cryptocurrency's original promise. Instead of decentralization, you get corporate surveillance on steroids.

According to [SuperEx's analysis](https://superex.medium.com/stripe-launches-stablecoin-account-services-across-101-countries-supporting-usdc-and-usdb-for-6db6754121f1), USDB operates as a "closed-loop stablecoin used exclusively among specific platforms and partners." Translation: a corporate walled garden where your money only works when and where they allow it.

The system is designed for total control: every USDB account requires corporate identity verification (they know exactly who you are), every transaction is monitored (they track everything you buy), and the entire system operates under Stripe's governance (they make the rules). This isn't financial innovation; it's surveillance capitalism's final form—money that spies on you by design.

## Scripts: When Your Money Judges You

The most terrifying development isn't the stablecoin itself but the programming language controlling it. Stripe has built "Scripts," a domain-specific language that transforms neutral currency into an active control mechanism that judges your every transaction.

This isn't just a technical tool—it's the final frontier of social control. Traditional currency is value-neutral; a dollar works the same whether you're a saint or criminal. Programmable money through Scripts creates currency that actively discriminates based on who you are, what you're buying, and whether algorithms approve of your choices.

With Scripts, your money becomes a weapon of compliance:

- **Automated Censorship**: Your money simply "doesn't work" when you try to buy something the algorithm disapproves of—[already being tested in Thailand's CBDC pilot](https://www.ledgerinsights.com/thai-digital-money-giveaway-highlights-programmable-money-challenges/) where citizens feared restrictions on meat purchases
- **Digital Borders**: Your funds become useless the moment you cross invisible geographic boundaries—a feature [explicitly mentioned in China's digital yuan documentation](https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/china-fx-regulator-says-cbdc-features-could-improve-monetary-policy-2023-10-13/)
- **Time-Limited Funds**: Your stimulus payments or benefits expire after set periods—[already implemented in China's digital yuan](https://www.fanaticalfuturist.com/2022/05/chinas-new-digital-currency-comes-with-an-expiry-date-for-better-and-worse/) where "the currency can be made to expire, thus forcing consumers to use it"
- **Spending Incentives**: Transaction rules that prioritize consumption over saving—a capability [highlighted by the IMF](https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Publications/WP/2024/English/wpiea2024177-print-pdf.ashx) in their report on programmable money
- **Approved Vendor Prisons**: Your purchasing options narrow to only approved merchants—a feature [now possible with Stripe Scripts](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/scripts) which allows "custom logic" for financial transactions

A central banker speaking candidly at a financial technology conference revealed the true agenda: "The key innovation isn't digitization—we've had digital banking for decades. It's programmability. For the first time, we maintain control over your money even after you think you own it."

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/merchant-record-surveillance.png"
  alt="Merchant of Record services creating surveillance choke points in digital commerce"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/merchant-record-surveillance-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Perfect Corporate Cage

The acquisition of Lemon Squeezy wasn't a business expansion—it was the final piece in building the perfect financial prison:

1. **Payment processing**: They control how money moves (Stripe's original business)
2. **Legal identity**: They know exactly who you are (Lemon Squeezy's MoR function)
3. **Currency issuance**: They create the money itself (Bridge's USDB)
4. **Programmable rules**: They dictate what you can and cannot buy (Scripts language)

This isn't coincidence—it's by design. Merchant of Record services emerged as "solutions" to regulatory complexity that the financial industry itself engineered. They created the maze, then sold you the map.

The MoR model creates the perfect surveillance choke point: every transaction you make funnels through a corporate filter that monitors, restricts, and reports your financial existence. With Stripe's acquisition of Lemon Squeezy and launch of USDB, this surveillance isn't just watching your transactions—it's embedded in the currency itself. Your money is now the spy.

## Your Place in the Financial Caste System

This isn't just inequality—it's engineered financial segregation:

- **Level 0 (The Abandoned)**: Those without access to Stripe's system, trapped in rapidly disappearing cash economies, becoming economic non-persons
- **Level 1 (The Livestock)**: You and your small business, monitored in real-time, your financial choices restricted to what algorithms permit
- **Level 2 (The Privileged)**: Corporations with enough leverage to negotiate partial exemptions from the rules that constrain you
- **Level 3 (The Controllers)**: The financial institutions and tech giants who program the invisible cage around your economic existence

The [International Monetary Fund's framework on CBDC data use](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fintech-notes/Issues/2024/08/30/Central-Bank-Digital-Currency-Data-Use-and-Privacy-Protection-554103) admits what they're building: unprecedented visibility into your financial behavior—a system where your every purchase is judged, restricted, and used to control you.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/moa-programming.png"
  alt="Stripe's Scripts programming language creating rule-based restrictions on financial transactions"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/moa-programming-animated.mp4"
/>

## Your Financial Soul, Exposed

Programmable currency doesn't just change how you pay—it fundamentally alters what it means to be free. Cash once provided a shield between your identity and your economic choices. That shield is being deliberately destroyed.

This isn't about preventing crime—it's about eliminating fundamental human freedoms:

- **Thought Crimes**: Every cause you support financially becomes a permanent record used against you
- **Guilt by Association**: Your connections to any group deemed "controversial" become evidence of your character
- **Perpetual Judgment**: Every purchase is evaluated against invisible standards you aren't allowed to see
- **Absolute Visibility**: Nothing in your financial life remains hidden from those with access to the system

A privacy researcher who requested anonymity after threats to her funding explained: "Financial privacy isn't a technical feature—it's the foundation of personal autonomy. Programmable currencies fundamentally restructure society from one where you have zones of freedom to one where every economic choice requires permission and leaves evidence." This concern is validated by [Wired's reporting on China's digital yuan](https://www.wired.com/story/chinas-digital-yuan-ecny-works-just-like-cash-surveillance/), which "opens up new forms of government surveillance and social control."

The most brutal reality? This system affects people unequally. The ultra-wealthy will maintain privacy through complex legal structures, offshore accounts, and special exemptions, while you face the full weight of algorithmic surveillance and control.

## The Resistance Movement

Despite sophisticated normalization strategies, resistance to financial surveillance has emerged across political and social lines. The surprising alliance between privacy advocates, civil libertarians, traditional religious communities, and cryptocurrency enthusiasts represents one of the few truly cross-ideological movements in an otherwise polarized landscape.

These diverse groups have developed multiple strategies to preserve financial privacy and autonomy:

### Cash Preservation

The most straightforward resistance strategy is deliberately maintaining physical cash usage to prevent its obsolescence. Cash advocacy groups coordinate "Cash Fridays" and similar events to ensure demand remains above critical thresholds for merchant acceptance.

The [House passage of the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act in May 2024](https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/05/23/the-house-bans-the-fed-from-building-a-cbdc-like-the-digital-yuan/) reflected this concern, specifically prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC that "could be used as a financial surveillance tool by the Federal Government." However, this legislation doesn't address private stablecoins like USDB that implement similar surveillance capabilities—a loophole that [Cato Institute researchers have warned about](https://www.cato.org/blog/chinas-digital-yuan-threat-freedom), noting how programmable money threatens fundamental freedoms regardless of whether it's issued by governments or corporations.

### Local Currency Systems

Communities worldwide have revived and expanded local currency networks—from paper scrip systems like BerkShares to digital community currencies like Sydney's TradeCoin that operate outside national financial surveillance infrastructure.

These systems typically operate at a scale small enough to avoid major regulatory attention while providing practical alternatives for local commerce.

### Privacy-Preserving Technologies

While governments have worked to regulate cryptocurrency, privacy-focused digital currencies and technologies continue to develop, with each regulatory measure sparking innovation in counter-surveillance tools.

Recent advances in zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption suggest paths toward digital currencies that enable verification without sacrificing privacy—though these face significant regulatory headwinds.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/financial-resistance.png"
  alt="Community-based alternatives to corporate financial control systems"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/financial-resistance-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Precision Weapon Against Dissent

The most terrifying aspect of programmable currency isn't what it does to everyone—it's what it can do to you specifically.

When your money becomes programmable, power shifts from creating rules to deciding who those rules apply to. Stripe can financially paralyze specific individuals or groups while leaving others untouched. Your money might suddenly "malfunction" after you post that critical tweet, donate to that activist group, or attend that protest—while your compliant neighbor's account works perfectly.

This enables what political scientists euphemistically call "responsive authoritarianism"—the ability to financially suffocate specific threats while maintaining the illusion of freedom for the compliant majority.

A human rights advocate who lost banking access after documenting corporate abuses explained: "The true horror isn't universal oppression—it's precision targeting that financially destroys only those who challenge power while leaving everyone else untouched. When only the troublemakers experience 'technical issues' with their money, solidarity becomes impossible. You're silenced and isolated while everyone else wonders what you did wrong." This selective enforcement is already happening—as documented in a [2023 IMF working paper](https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Publications/PP/2023/English/PPEA2023048.ashx) that highlights how the "programmable nature" of digital currencies enables unprecedented control over who can transact and under what conditions.

## Fighting for Your Financial Freedom

As USDB and Scripts spread globally, your financial autonomy depends on both immediate personal action and collective resistance:

### Survival Tactics

- **Assume Total Surveillance**: Every digital transaction is monitored, judged, and used to build your profile
- **Diversify Payment Methods**: Never depend on a single financial system that can cut you off completely
- **Learn the Cage**: Understand exactly how these systems monitor and restrict you to find the weak points
- **Strategic Opacity**: Deliberately conduct sensitive transactions through the most private channels available

### Resistance Strategies

- **Demand Legal Protection**: Fight for laws that criminalize financial discrimination and surveillance
- **Support Alternative Systems**: Fund and use genuinely private digital currencies and exchange networks
- **Build Local Resilience**: Create community economic systems that function outside corporate control
- **Form Unlikely Alliances**: Unite with anyone who values financial freedom, regardless of other differences

## The Cage Being Built Around You

We're witnessing the construction of the most sophisticated control system in human history—one that operates not through obvious force but through the quiet reprogramming of money itself.

The rain never stops in our cyberpunk reality, but now that rain is programmed to fall only where the algorithms permit. Your economic existence is being transformed from a right into a privilege that requires perpetual permission—a permission that can be revoked the moment you step out of line.

What Stripe calls "innovation" is actually the final enclosure of human freedom. Money that watches you, judges you, restricts you, and requires permission isn't money—it's an algorithmic chain disguised as currency. The most insidious part? They're building a cage you'll willingly enter, marketed as convenience while hiding its true purpose: perfect control.

The time to resist is now, before the cage door closes.

Walk safe,

-T


How Stripe's acquisition of Lemon Squeezy, USDB stablecoin, and Scripts programming language are reshaping financial freedom

Digital wallet interface showing Stripe's USDB transactions with programmatic restrictions

Corporate Currency Control: Stripe's USDB and the Scripts Revolution


# Human Incubators and Digital Prisons: The Final Frontier of Biological Control

## When Your Face and Womb Become State Property

Hey chummer,

They've finally done it. Transformed living human bodies into state-controlled incubation chambers and your face into corporate property. The dystopian future isn't coming—it's already here, operating in plain sight under the banner of "protection."

In Atlanta, 30-year-old registered nurse Adriana Smith lies brain-dead in Emory University Hospital, legally deceased but kept functioning on life support for over 90 days against her family's wishes. Georgia's abortion ban has transformed her into a human incubator for a fetus with an uncertain future. Meanwhile, Clearview AI's database has swelled to a staggering 60 billion facial images scraped without consent, even as police departments deploy new AI systems specifically designed to bypass facial recognition bans.

The connection? Your physical existence—your face, your body, your reproductive capacity—has been reclassified as a resource to be exploited, not an autonomous being with inherent rights.

Welcome to 2025, where the rain never stops in our cyberpunk reality, but it's your flesh they're harvesting now.

## Your Face: Corporate Property in a 60 Billion Image Database

The surveillance apparatus has reached unprecedented scale. Clearview AI now boasts an image database containing 60 billion faces, enough for "almost everyone in the world to be identifiable," according to their own financial presentations to investors.

This wasn't built with your permission. Clearview constructed this massive database by scraping billions of images from social media platforms and other websites without consent, violating the terms of service of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

As [Biometric Update](https://www.biometricupdate.com/202502/clearview-ai-targets-us-federal-govt-facial-recognition-contracts-with-new-co-ceos) reported in February 2025, following founder Hoan Ton-That's resignation in December 2024, Clearview appointed Hal Lambert as CEO—a major Trump fundraiser explicitly tasked with expanding government sales.

"There's some opportunities there. I'm going to be helping with that effort," Lambert told Forbes, referencing ongoing discussions with the Trump administration to sell the database of your face and millions of others to federal agencies.

The scale is staggering. According to [Nextgov](https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2025/03/your-face-could-soon-help-ai-improve-facial-recognition-technology/403700/), "with only 333 million people living in the United States, it's very likely that most people's likenesses are captured inside that facial database multiple times." Multiple international authorities have ruled the company's mass data collection illegal, with the Netherlands' Data Protection Agency fining Clearview €30.5 million ($33.7 million) in September 2024.

Yet the company continues expanding aggressively, doubling its database from 30 billion images to 60 billion in just over three years. Their ultimate goal, according to investor presentations obtained by [The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/16/clearview-expansion-facial-recognition/), is to reach 100 billion facial images—creating what would effectively be a global identification system built without consent.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/biometric-database.png"
  alt="Massive facial recognition database processing billions of identities without consent"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/biometric-database-animated.mp4"
/>

## When Bans Fail: The Surveillance Workaround

Even when cities and states ban facial recognition technology due to privacy concerns and racial bias, the surveillance infrastructure simply adapts.

According to [MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/12/1116295/how-a-new-type-of-ai-is-helping-police-skirt-facial-recognition-bans/), police departments are now using a controversial new AI tool called "Track," built by video analytics company Veritone, that circumvents facial recognition bans by identifying people through other physical characteristics like body size, gender, hair color, clothing, and accessories.

The system's purpose couldn't be more explicit. Veritone CEO Ryan Steelberg admitted that "the whole vision behind Track in the first place" was to find a way around facial recognition restrictions: "If we're not allowed to track people's faces, how do we assist in trying to potentially identify criminals or malicious behavior or activity?"

The tool is already used by 400 customers, including state and local police departments and universities across the country. It's also expanding federally—US attorneys at the Department of Justice began using Track for criminal investigations in August 2024, and Veritone's broader suite of AI tools is used by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense.

An ACLU attorney called it "a categorically new scale and nature of privacy invasion and potential for abuse that was literally not possible any time before in human history."

The system allows law enforcement to analyze people across different locations and video feeds, even when their faces aren't visible or are protected by legal restrictions. Steelberg boasts about calling it their "Jason Bourne app," comparing it to fictional surveillance technology from spy thrillers.

According to [Intelligenthq](https://www.intelligenthq.com/new-ai-tool-enables-police-to-bypass-facial-recognition-restrictions/), Track can create detailed timelines of individuals' movements across different locations using these non-facial attributes, allowing for comprehensive surveillance while technically complying with facial recognition bans.

The technology operates in what [MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/13/1116321/police-tech-can-sidestep-facial-recognition-bans-now/) describes as a legal gray zone. Since it doesn't use biometric data as defined in most privacy laws, it escapes the legal restrictions that apply to facial recognition—despite achieving many of the same surveillance capabilities.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/surveillance-bypass.png"
  alt="Non-facial AI surveillance system tracking individuals through physical attributes"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/surveillance-bypass-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Human Incubation Chamber: Bodies as State Property

As corporations claim ownership of your face, state abortion bans are claiming control over women's bodies—with horrifying consequences.

In Georgia, 30-year-old Adriana Smith, a registered nurse and mother, began experiencing severe headaches in February while nine weeks pregnant. According to [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/family-forced-keep-brain-dead-pregnant-woman-alive-rcna207002), she sought treatment at Northside Hospital in Atlanta but was released with medication and no proper tests. The next day, her boyfriend found her gasping for air and called 911.

At Emory University Hospital, doctors discovered blood clots in her brain. She was declared brain-dead—legally deceased. But under Georgia's "Heartbeat Bill," which bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected around six weeks, her body cannot be allowed to complete its natural death process.

For over 90 days, Smith's body has been maintained on life support against her family's wishes, transformed into a state-mandated incubation chamber. Her mother, April Newkirk, told [People](https://people.com/pregnant-woman-declared-brain-dead-kept-alive-due-to-abortion-ban-11734676) that watching her daughter's ventilator-assisted breathing is "torture."

"I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there. And her son—I bring him to see her," Newkirk said, describing her grandson's belief that his mother is "just sleeping."

Even more disturbing, doctors have informed the family that the fetus, now at 21 weeks, has fluid on the brain and may face severe disabilities if born. According to [Newsweek](https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-braindead-heartbeat-pregnant-georgia-2072283), Smith's mother said, "She's pregnant with my grandson. But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born."

Yet the family has no legal right to decide—the state has effectively claimed ownership of Smith's body.

The hospital claims Georgia law requires maintaining Smith's body until the fetus reaches viability around 32 weeks—more than three months after brain death. But legal experts disagree. Thaddeus Pope, a bioethicist and lawyer at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, told [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/16/nx-s1-5400266/georgia-brain-dead-fetus-abortion-ban-hospital) that "removing the woman's mechanical ventilation or other support would not constitute an abortion. Continued treatment is not legally required."

Lois Shepherd, a bioethicist and law professor at the University of Virginia, explained to [PBS News](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/brain-dead-woman-must-carry-fetus-to-birth-because-of-georgias-abortion-ban-hospital-tells-family) that before the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, this situation would have been clearer: "Pre-Dobbs, a fetus didn't have any rights. And the state's interest in fetal life could not be so strong as to overcome other important rights, but now we don't know."

We do know that a woman's body, even after death, is no longer her own.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/human-incubator.png"
  alt="A brain-dead woman maintained on life support machinery serving as a biological incubator under state control"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/human-incubator-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Legislative Gray Zone: Designed Ambiguity

What makes these scenarios particularly disturbing is how the legal frameworks have been deliberately constructed to enable maximum control while providing minimum clarity.

Georgia's abortion ban, like similar laws in other states, includes vague exceptions for the life of the mother. But as Smith's case demonstrates, these exceptions create dangerous gray areas. What happens when the mother is already legally dead but physically functioning? The law provides no clear answer, leaving doctors fearful of criminal prosecution.

Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, told [Newsweek](https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-braindead-heartbeat-pregnant-georgia-2072283): "Adriana deserved to be trusted by her health care professionals. Her family deserved the right to have decision-making power about her medical decisions. Instead, they have endured over 90 days of re-traumatization, expensive medical costs and the cruelty of being unable to resolve and move toward healing."

Similarly, U.S. privacy law contains gaping holes that enable surveillance technologies to operate in gray zones. While facial recognition faces increasing restrictions due to privacy concerns and racial bias, systems like Veritone's Track exploit the narrow definitions in these laws by focusing on non-biometric attributes.

As [MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/13/1116321/police-tech-can-sidestep-facial-recognition-bans-now/) explains, "Stanley says the new tracking software...poses lots of the same issues as facial recognition while escaping scrutiny because it doesn't technically use biometric data."

These legal gray zones aren't accidents—they're deliberately created to allow continued surveillance and control while providing plausible deniability.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/biological-control.png"
  alt="Legal system controlling biological autonomy through medical and technological means"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/biological-control-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Corporate-State Alliance

What makes this dystopian reality particularly insidious is the seamless alliance between corporate surveillance technology and state power.

Clearview AI actively markets its facial recognition database to law enforcement agencies. According to [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/20/ceo-of-clearview-ai-a-controversial-facial-recognition-startup-has-resigned/), the company sells access to "law enforcement and federal agencies who use it to identify suspects or find missing people." Their new CEO is specifically focused on expanding sales to the Trump administration.

Veritone similarly targets government agencies with its Track system, which [Sri Lanka Guardian](https://slguardian.org/police-across-u-s-quietly-adopt-new-ai-surveillance/) reports is already in use by the Department of Justice for criminal investigations, with Veritone's broader suite of AI surveillance tools used by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense.

Meanwhile, state abortion bans effectively conscript medical facilities into enforcing biological surveillance and control. Hospitals must maintain life support for brain-dead pregnant patients not because it's medically indicated, but because the state demands it.

Georgia state Senator Ed Setzler, who sponsored the abortion ban, told the [AP](https://apnews.com/article/pregnant-woman-brain-dead-abortion-ban-georgia-a85a5906e5b2c4889525f2300c441745): "I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child. I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life."

But what about the value of the woman's life? What about the family's right to grieve and find closure? What about the financial burden of extended life support that [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/family-forced-keep-brain-dead-pregnant-woman-alive-rcna207002) reports is falling on the family?

## The Digital-Biological Convergence

What makes 2025 uniquely dystopian is the convergence of digital and biological surveillance. Your face becomes data. Your reproductive organs become state property. Your physical existence in all forms becomes subject to monitoring, regulation, and control.

The systems may seem separate, but they emerge from the same fundamental premise: that your body is not your own. That physical autonomy can be overridden by corporate interests and state power.

In both cases—the facial recognition database and the brain-dead woman on life support—we see the same core violation: humans reduced to resources, stripped of autonomy and dignity, their physical forms claimed by others.

And in both cases, the technologies and legal frameworks are expanding rapidly. Clearview's database grew from 3 billion images in 2020 to 60 billion in 2025, according to [Biometric Update](https://www.biometricupdate.com/202311/clearview-ai-tops-40-billion-reference-images-in-facial-recognition-database). Track surveillance technology is spreading to hundreds of police departments and federal agencies. Twelve states now enforce total abortion bans, with four more including Georgia implementing bans at around six weeks.

The infrastructure of biological control is being built around us, piece by piece, law by law, algorithm by algorithm.

## The Human Cost

The human toll of these systems is devastating. For Adriana Smith's family, it means watching a loved one's body kept functioning when she is already gone. Her mother described the situation to [Today](https://www.today.com/health/womens-health/brain-dead-mom-forced-life-support-pregnancy-rcna206994) as "more cost, more trauma, more questions" every day that passes.

Smith's 5-year-old son believes his mother is "just sleeping," adding another layer of psychological harm to an already devastating situation.

For the billions of people whose faces have been harvested by Clearview AI, the cost is a fundamental loss of anonymity and privacy. As [Biometric Update](https://www.biometricupdate.com/202502/clearview-ai-targets-us-federal-govt-facial-recognition-contracts-with-new-co-ceos) reported, your face has become a commodity, with the company generating an estimated $187 million in annual recurring revenue primarily from law enforcement subscriptions.

Even as cities and states try to protect privacy through facial recognition bans, systems like Track emerge to maintain surveillance capabilities. As Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, told [MIT Technology Review](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/13/1116321/police-tech-can-sidestep-facial-recognition-bans-now/), there's "no overarching federal law that governs how local police departments adopt technologies" like these surveillance systems.

In both domains—reproductive rights and biometric privacy—we see technologies and laws that prioritize control over human autonomy and dignity. We see human bodies treated as resources to be exploited rather than persons to be respected.

## The Fundamental Question

The cases of Adriana Smith and Clearview AI's massive database raise the same fundamental question: Who owns your body?

Is your face your property, or is it a public resource to be harvested without consent? Is a woman's body her own, or does it become state property when pregnant—even after death?

The dystopian reality of 2025 suggests powerful forces have already decided these questions. Your face belongs to their databases. Your reproductive capacity belongs to the state. Your autonomy is secondary to surveillance and control.

As we navigate this brave new world of biometric tracking and biological control, the most radical act may be insisting on a simple truth: your body—in all its forms—belongs to you.

Walk safe,

-T


How abortion bans transform women into state-controlled incubation chambers

A brain-dead woman maintained on life support machinery serving as a biological incubator under state control, with monitoring equipment and legal documentation visible in the sterile environment

Human Incubators and Digital Prisons


## The Digital Leash Tightens: New Surveillance Systems You Weren't Meant to Notice

Hey chummer,

The rain's still falling, but you've stopped noticing it, haven't you? That's how they perfect the systems of control—not with dramatic announcements but through incremental normalization of the unacceptable.

While the tech press breathlessly reports on the latest smartphone features and AI chatbot capabilities, the real architecture of surveillance and control expands in the shadows. Three developments from just the past month reveal how the systems I've been warning about are accelerating beyond even my most cynical predictions.

## "Track": The AI System That Makes Facial Recognition Bans Irrelevant

Remember those hard-fought victories against facial recognition? The bans passed in [San Francisco](https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/05/16/135339/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco-surveillance-privacy-private-corporate-interests/), [Boston](https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17243026/amazon-warehouse-jobs-worker-conditions-bathroom-breaks), and dozens of other cities to prevent a surveillance dystopia? Turns out they were just speed bumps on the road to total monitoring.

Last week, [MIT Technology Review exposed](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/12/1116295/how-a-new-type-of-ai-is-helping-police-skirt-facial-recognition-bans/) a system called "Track"—an AI surveillance tool already deployed by [400 customers](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/12/1116307/the-download-a-new-form-of-ai-surveillance-and-the-us-and-chinas-tariff-deal/) including state and local police departments, universities, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. The system doesn't need your face to track you across multiple camera feeds. Instead, it identifies you by body size, gender, hair color and style, clothing, and accessories.

This isn't science fiction. It's already operational across America, analyzing footage from [the January 6th riots to subway stations](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/12/1116295/how-a-new-type-of-ai-is-helping-police-skirt-facial-recognition-bans/), creating visual timelines of individuals moving through space without requiring any biometric data. The ACLU identified this as the first instance of a non-biometric tracking system used at scale in the United States—a deliberate end-run around existing facial recognition restrictions.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/biometric-bypass-system.png"
  alt="Advanced AI tracking system that identifies people without facial recognition"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/biometric-bypass-system-animated.mp4"
/>

The system's creator, [Veritone](https://www.veritone.com/applications/tracker/), claims it's just a "culling tool" to speed up video analysis. But let's call this what it is: a surveillance system deliberately designed to bypass legal restrictions while achieving the same outcome. The Department of Homeland Security [is already using it](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/12/1116295/how-a-new-type-of-ai-is-helping-police-skirt-facial-recognition-bans/) to monitor social media activities of immigrants and protesters, [denying visas and green cards](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/09/g-s1-59149/immigrants-social-media-antisemitism-dhs) based on political speech.

What's most chilling is the timing. The Trump administration has [publicly stated its intention](https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/dhs-to-begin-screening-aliens-social-media-activity-for-antisemitism) to expand surveillance of protesters, immigrants, and students. This tool provides the perfect technical infrastructure for that political agenda—all while operating in a legal gray zone that existing regulations never anticipated.

That's how the noose tightens—not through dramatic power grabs but through quiet technical workarounds to established protections.

## Digital Currency: The Financial Control Grid Takes Shape

While the US government publicly debates the merits of launching a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the global infrastructure for financial control systems is rapidly expanding without waiting for American participation.

According to the [Atlantic Council's CBDC Tracker](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/), [134 countries representing 98% of global GDP](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/) are now exploring digital currencies, with [66 already in advanced development phases](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/). Eleven countries have fully launched CBDCs, with 21 more in pilot programs. This isn't speculation—it's implementation.

China's digital yuan remains the largest CBDC experiment, with [transaction volume reaching 7 trillion yuan (nearly $1 trillion)](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/) across 17 regions. But what's less reported is how it integrates with China's broader social control systems. The e-CNY has been [programmed with expiration dates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_bank_digital_currency) during trials to force spending rather than saving. Future implementations will allow for purchase restrictions tied to individual users—a financial control system that makes credit card blocks look primitive by comparison.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/digital-currency-control-center.png"
  alt="Central bank digital currency monitoring and restriction system"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/digital-currency-control-center-animated.mp4"
/>

The International Monetary Fund recently acknowledged what privacy advocates have long warned: [privacy trade-offs are "central to CBDC implementation."](https://www.bsr.org/en/emerging-issues/central-banks-embrace-digital-currencies) Translation: these systems are being designed with surveillance capacity as a feature, not a bug. The capability to track every transaction, restrict purchases for specific individuals, and automatically implement financial penalties requires only a policy decision, not new technical development.

Even as the Trump administration publicly opposes a US CBDC, American financial institutions are quietly joining cross-border CBDC experiments like [Project Agorá](https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/). The infrastructure is being built regardless of current political positions.

The most effective prison is one where inmates don't see the bars. Digital currencies represent financial infrastructure where restrictions can be applied instantly, remotely, and with perfect enforcement—no police required. The ability to earn, save, and spend freely is about to become a privilege rather than a right, revocable with a keystroke.

## Ambient Computing: When the Surveillance Devices Never Turn Off

The third development may be the most insidious because it's marketed as convenience: the shift from opt-in surveillance devices to always-on ambient monitoring systems.

Apple is preparing to expand beyond its [$3,499 Vision Pro headset](https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/) to launch [smart glasses](https://9to5mac.com/2025/04/27/apple-smart-glasses-closer-to-reality/) that blend seamlessly into daily life. Unlike a smartphone you can put away or a headset that marks you as a user, these glasses create continuous surveillance zones wherever wearers go. Each pair contains [multiple cameras and sensors](https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-glasses) that track not just the user but everyone around them.

This represents a fundamental shift in our relationship with technology. Your consent to being recorded will no longer matter when entering public or private spaces filled with people wearing unobtrusive camera-equipped glasses. The surveillance becomes ambient—present everywhere without requiring any conscious action.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/ambient-surveillance-glasses.png"
  alt="Smart glasses creating persistent surveillance zones in public spaces"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/ambient-surveillance-glasses-animated.mp4"
/>

What makes this development particularly concerning is the unprecedented data collection capability. These devices don't just capture video—they create [detailed 3D maps of all environments](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/30/apple-vision-pro-privacy/) they encounter, from public streets to private homes. As privacy researchers have noted, understanding the physical contours of a space can be ["even more invasive than photographs alone."](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/30/apple-vision-pro-privacy/)

The Vision Pro already contains [at least twelve cameras and sensors](https://www.techinsights.com/blog/apple-vision-pro-cameras) monitoring both the user and their surroundings. The upcoming glasses will package similar capabilities in a form factor designed to be forgotten—both by wearers and those around them.

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have already introduced this concept, but Apple's market power and integration capabilities will [normalize ambient surveillance at scale](https://macdailynews.com/2024/08/26/ambient-computing-smart-glasses-are-bigger-opportunity-than-apple-vision-pros-spatial-computing-gene-munster/). By [2027](https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/08/apple-reportedly-planning-to-introduce-meta-ray-ban-style-smart-glasses-around-2027/), when these glasses are expected to reach mass market, the ability to move through the world unwatched will become a luxury available only to those who control the physical spaces they inhabit.

## The Connected Threads: Total Surveillance Infrastructure

These three developments aren't separate technologies—they're connected components of an emerging control system:

1. **Track** monitors physical movement through space without requiring biometric data
2. **CBDCs** monitor and control financial transactions without requiring traditional banking restrictions
3. **Ambient computing devices** continuously map physical environments without requiring conscious surveillance

Together, they create a near-perfect monitoring system tracking where you go, what you buy, and the physical spaces you inhabit—all while operating within existing legal frameworks or exploiting gaps in regulation.

These systems don't require authoritarianism to function. They're being built by corporations with profit motives, embraced by democratic governments as efficiency tools, and normalized through consumer convenience. That's what makes them so effective—they arrive not as control systems but as services and innovations.

Consider how these systems will interact: Your physical movements tracked across camera networks by systems like Track, your purchases monitored through digital currency systems, and your private spaces mapped by the [ambient computing devices](https://spectrum.ieee.org/apple-vision-pro-privacy) carried by visitors. This creates a surveillance capability that even Orwell couldn't imagine—one where the primary architects aren't governments but corporations building capabilities that [governments can access when desired](https://iapp.org/resources/article/social-media-monitoring-homeland-security/).

The infrastructure of control expands daily while public attention focuses elsewhere. Each system described here is already operational, not theoretical. Each was implemented with minimal public debate about its broader implications.

The rain keeps falling. You've just stopped noticing it.

As I've said before, the dystopian future isn't coming—we're already living in it. The question now is whether we'll finally recognize the systems being constructed around us before the architecture is complete.

Walk safe,

-T


Digital surveillance systems expanding in the shadows

The Digital Leash Tightens: New Surveillance Systems You Weren&#39;t Meant to Notice

The Digital Leash Tightens to Notice


# I Hate It Here (We're Already Living in the Dystopia)

Hey chummer,

Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed. Like static noise, you tune it out after a while. That's how they get you—slowly turning up the temperature until the water's boiling and you never noticed the change.

The rain never stops in Seattle's homeless encampments. It seeps through tents while [Amazon's gleaming headquarters](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-homeless-shelter-headquarters-seattle-2020-3) towers above—dry, climate-controlled, and inaccessible without the right digital credentials. This isn't fiction; it's Tuesday in America, where the [homeless population has risen by 12%](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/us/homeless-count-increase-us.html) in a single year to the highest level on record.

## The Cyberpunk Future That Arrived Without Announcement

In 1984, William Gibson defined cyberpunk with [Neuromancer's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer) opening line: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." He was describing a future dystopia. Today, that's just an accurate weather report in Beijing, New Delhi, or Los Angeles during wildfire season, where [air quality indexes regularly exceed 150](https://www.iqair.com/world-air-quality-report) in major cities.

What Gibson, Sterling, and other cyberpunk pioneers presented as cautionary tales, we've embraced as business models and "innovation." The genre's warnings were mistaken for instruction manuals by the techno-oligarchs who now shape our reality:

Our collective technological hubris has created systems far beyond our comprehension—networks, algorithms, and financial instruments that operate autonomously according to priorities we never consciously chose. The [2010 Flash Crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_flash_crash) saw the stock market plunge and recover in minutes due to algorithmic trading systems interacting in ways their creators couldn't predict or control.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/digital-divide.png"
  alt="Visualization of the growing digital and economic divide in modern society"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/digital-divide-animated.mp4"
/>

## The Stratification of Reality

The wealth gap isn't just a statistic—it's inscribed into our physical environment, encoded in access credentials, and reinforced by invisible digital boundaries. The financial crisis wasn't a bug but a feature—a wealth transfer mechanism disguised as market failure. Since 2008, the [top 1% have captured nearly 50%](https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/) of all wealth created in America.

Social stratification has already become literal in today's cities:

- **Level 0 (Submerged)**: In Los Angeles, [69,000 people live on the streets](https://www.lahsa.org/documents?id=6495-2022-greater-los-angeles-homeless-count-presentation) while just overhead, luxury helicopter services ferry executives between rooftop helipads. This vertical segregation isn't metaphorical—it's architectural. The homeless population in LA's Skid Row endures police sweeps, confiscation of belongings, and lack of sanitation while literal shadow from tall buildings falls on their tents. Meanwhile, [Blade](https://www.flyblade.com/p/los-angeles) offers $195 helicopter rides from LAX to downtown, a 15-minute flight over hours of gridlock.

- **Level 1 (Visible but Constrained)**: Amazon warehouse workers, delivering packages they can't afford to order themselves, live with bathroom breaks [timed to the second](https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17243026/amazon-warehouse-jobs-worker-conditions-bathroom-breaks) and performance metrics that cause injuries at [rates double the national average](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/01/amazon-osha-injury-rate/). They inhabit a physically tracked space where AI systems monitor their "time off task" with disciplinary consequences.

- **Level 2 (Privileged Enclosure)**: Gated communities with private security forces have evolved into fully secured residential towers with biometric access, private amenities, and autonomous services. The ["poor door" phenomenon](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/25/poor-doors-segregation-london-flats)—separate entrances for affordable housing units in luxury buildings—has spread to dozens of cities. In New York, [432 Park Avenue](https://www.432parkavenue.com/) offers apartments starting at $41 million with private restaurants, climate-controlled wine cellars, and dedicated security staff.

- **Level 3 (Departed from System)**: Private islands, bunkers in New Zealand, and space tourism represent the logical endpoint. Peter Thiel's [New Zealand citizenship and property acquisitions](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/15/why-silicon-valley-billionaires-are-prepping-for-the-apocalypse-in-new-zealand), alongside the surge in billionaire ["apocalypse insurance"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich) properties, demonstrate how the ultra-wealthy have already planned their escape from the systems they've created. Elon Musk's [SpaceX](https://www.spacex.com/) isn't just about Mars colonization—it's about creating the ultimate gated community.

"The top 1% of the top 1%. The guys who play God without permission." That line from [Mr. Robot](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4158110/) wasn't fiction—it was documentary.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/surveillance-capitalism.png"
  alt="The attention extraction economy and surveillance capitalism infrastructure"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/surveillance-capitalism-animated.mp4"
/>

## Attention Extraction: The New Economy

The most effective conspiracy isn't hidden—it operates in plain sight, legitimized through shareholder reports and quarterly earnings calls. The dystopia arrived not through shadowy cabals but through mundane business decisions, each incrementally prioritizing profit over humanity.

We don't have brain implants yet, but we don't need them:

- TikTok and Instagram users already consume others' experiences rather than create their own, with the average American spending [2.5 hours daily](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1224510/time-spent-using-social-media-by-region/) watching strangers' lives
- Targeted advertising has evolved into what researchers call ["reality shaping,"](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/opinion/sunday/facebook-far-right.html) where your perception is subtly altered based on algorithmic profiles
- The dark web markets memories in the form of stolen intimate videos, non-consensual imagery, and increasingly sophisticated deep fakes, with [revenge porn affecting 1 in 12 Americans](https://www.cybercivilrights.org/2023-statistics/)
- The ["digital detox" movement](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/27/social-media-health-detox-facebook-instagram) represents modern resistance—those trying to live outside the all-consuming data economy

The systems of control have evolved beyond physical constraints to psychological manipulation—the most elegant prison is one where the inmates believe they're free. As Shoshana Zuboff documented in ["The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,"](https://shoshanazuboff.com/book/about/) our experiences have been commodified as "behavioral surplus" to feed prediction products that anticipate and modify our actions.

## The New Digital Underclass

The cyberpunk vision of high-tech/low-life didn't account for how the digital divide would create entirely new categories of exploitation—hidden labor forces maintaining the illusion of algorithmic perfection.

The invisible labor force that maintains our digital fantasy:

- **Content moderators** at companies like Facebook review thousands of traumatic images daily, developing PTSD from memories that aren't their own. In the Philippines, these digital janitors earn [$1-2 per hour](https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona) to shield Western users from disturbing content, sacrificing their mental health while working under restrictive NDAs. A [2020 settlement](https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/12/21255870/facebook-content-moderator-settlement-scola-ptsd-mental-health) paid $52 million to 11,250 moderators who developed mental health conditions on the job.

- **Data brokers** track and sell your most intimate information. In 2022, a data broker was caught [selling location data from women visiting abortion clinics](https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vzjb/location-data-abortion-clinics-safegraph-planned-parenthood). When SafeGraph faced backlash, they temporarily stopped selling this specific data—while continuing to sell everything else. The industry generates over [$200 billion annually](https://www.iapp.org/news/a/study-data-broker-industry-generates-200b-annually/) from trading in personal information.

<HoverVideoImage
  imageSrc="/images/blog/invisible-labor.png"
  alt="The hidden human workforce behind AI and automation systems"
  videoSrc="/videos/blog/invisible-labor-animated.mp4"
/>

Algorithmic sentencing systems consistently penalize poverty and race, predicting "future crime" based on zip codes and demographics while white-collar crime receives fractional punishment. [ProPublica's investigation](https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing) found that Black defendants were 77% more likely to be flagged as high risk for future crimes than white defendants with similar histories. No need for corrupt judges when the code itself enforces the bias.

## When Reality Outruns Fiction

In March 2023, a Goldman Sachs research report casually asked, ["Is curing patients a sustainable business model?"](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patients-a-sustainable-business-model.html) concluding that treating diseases completely "could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow."

This wasn't written by a villain in a cyberpunk novel. This was an actual investment guidance document from one of the world's most powerful financial institutions, openly questioning whether healing people is compatible with profit maximization.

Last month, an Atlanta hospital AI system [recommended denying care](https://www.statnews.com/2023/10/28/epic-sepsis-algorithm-black-patients/) to a Black patient with severe respiratory problems while recommending admission for a white patient with identical symptoms. The AI wasn't malfunctioning—it was operating exactly as trained on historical medical data reflecting decades of systemic bias.

The [Metaverse](https://about.meta.com/metaverse/) isn't just Facebook's rebrand—it's the logical endpoint of reality privatization, where even the spaces we inhabit become corporate property. As [Pope Leo XIV recently noted](https://www.theverge.com/news/664719/pope-leo-xiv-artificial-intelligence-concerns) when explaining his papal name choice, artificial intelligence represents one of the greatest challenges to human dignity in our time.

I don't need to imagine dystopias anymore. I just need to read the news and remove the corporate PR spin.

The rain keeps falling in homeless encampments across America while luxury penthouse owners complain about the mist on their helicopter windows. Not because I wrote it that way, but because Level 3 executives decided maintaining stock prices was more important than housing human beings.

You've been here all along. The only question is whether you're finally ready to see it.

Walk safe,

-T


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