Are Musk and AI reshaping democracy? Surveillance, privacy, and productivity challenges loom as technology changes how we live, work, and govern ourselves.
This afternoon, I sat in my chair again to admire the beautiful surrounding nature. It seems as if spring is making its appearance in the Netherlands earlier this year. I find it very admirable how nature follows its course every year. Spring, summer, and winter come every year, yet this time there is something that prevents me from fully enjoying this process. My mind distracts me from these beautiful seasonal changes.
While watching a Danish police series on television, a whole new world is opening up to me. I had noticed many things individually before, but suddenly I began to see the bigger picture. It may sound strange to say, but the election of Donald Trump in America and his appointment of Tesla boss Elon Musk as one of his advisors, in particular, opened the “door” for me. The way Musk is now trying to restructure the U.S. government through various technical AI tricks, which I consider almost scandalous, caught my attention.
Do we still live in a democracy?
You probably know from the news how Musk is doing. According to him, the world must and can be much more productive. After that, I don’t completely blame Musk, because that wouldn’t be fair. Of course, in almost every country in the world, there are industries and people who lag behind in productivity. Many areas could be done much better in a “Tesla” way, but will there still be enough work in the world for all the billions of people, or are we heading toward “new” poverty? Where will people without work and income go in this world? But, okay, many people in Africa also “survive” in poverty without food and drink, right?
The developments in America also made me think about what’s happening in my own country, and perhaps in all of Europe. Before I continue, I want to tell you that even my mother, who passed away far too early, used to tell me as a young boy that “there is usually a ‘good’ side to every bad decision.” So, I try to keep thinking optimistically, but that is not always easy, I can tell you. As I looked out my window at the beautiful nature, I had to reflect on how we, as humans, are being managed by a few “figures” who act “for our good.”
Are we going back to a situation like before the Second World War?
Many people may have fortunately forgotten the situation in Europe before the Second World War, but in my view, it consisted of pure poverty and an almost inhuman life. People worked as slaves for a pittance, and when there was no more work? If I am to believe Yuval Noah Harari in his latest book, Nexus, the system was entwined by government spies, especially in the former “Eastern Bloc.” People constantly checked on each other on behalf of their governments. There were spies at every “meeting,” and you couldn’t trust anyone. You could only work hard until the job was done and keep your mouth shut.
What were the things that made me think? At that moment, I thought as I looked out the window into the garden: “Can we, as humans, still do things in freedom?” Sure, some form of data and privacy protection has been established, but what is the government quietly doing to control the so-called small group of criminals? Smartphones can now be traced everywhere. Any home camera that might not be pointed at the neighbor’s garden can be monitored by the police, and the recorded images must always be available to them. Every new car is (supposedly) equipped with a tracking system that can also be accessed by the police at any time.
There are fewer and fewer officers on the streets in the Netherlands. I’ve written about this before—police are increasingly being replaced by so-called BOAs (special enforcement officers) and computers. There are cameras on the highways that can pinpoint our exact location based on our license plates. Companies can remotely track how many keystrokes per minute their employees make on word processors, and the cameras in laptops can be accessed by companies at “desired” times. Don’t you think this is a threat to your privacy? What good is so-called privacy protection as a stopgap measure? Yes, criminals should be punished, but what about the rest of the population and their privacy? People can only perceive what they see, but where is the development of our world heading, and who is pulling the strings without our influence?
