March 28, 2024

Pavel Durov on dystopia that is being brought to life

Pavel Durov on dystopia that is being brought to life

In his channel, Pavel Durov wrote a post about individual human freedoms these days. Introducingtranslation of his article.

We used to think that the world is getting better withevery year, but when we talk about individual rights and freedoms, then everything turns out to be exactly the opposite. Most studies show that people are less free now than they were a few years ago.

20 years ago we had a decentralizedthe Internet and a relatively unlimited banking system. Today Apple and Google censor information and applications on our phones, and Visa and Mastercard restrict what goods and services we can pay for. Each year, we all give more and more control over our lives to a few heads of companies that we did not elect.

Most of us choose to weartracking devices - our smartphones – and allow corporations to use our private information to target us with content that distracts us with cheap entertainment. 

Unlike 20 years ago, we are now surrounded by surveillance cameras. In countries like China, these cameras use artificial intelligence to prevent anyone from hiding.

In 2017, China surpassed the United States, becoming the mostthe largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power. This showed the whole world that individual freedoms are not needed for economic development. Seeing China's success, many countries become authoritarian and discard basic human rights such as freedom of speech, movement, and group gathering.

Who will fix it all?

The most active and creative minds of our generationtoo busy playing in the free market sandbox or releasing digital content to glue others to their devices. Others seem to be too distracted by the prevailing cheap entertainment to critically reflect on the trend and take action.

Watching this, I wonder – Whatwill become the legacy of our generation. Will we be remembered in history as those who allowed a free society to turn into a dystopian nightmare? Or will we be remembered as those who defended the freedoms that previous generations fought so hard for?

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