hen I think about what the world will look like in the future, the models I fall back on are the typical settings we see in movies like Star Wars, The Matrix, and Terminator.

In those dramas we see warriors fighting the enemy with light-sabers and other more conventional weapons. We see good people incarcerated and made prisoners by the evil powers. We see our friends, other freedom fighters, physically punished, tortured, and painfully abused.

I often wonder if I will eventually make so much ruckus that I am arrested and put into the gulag, or at the very least be quarantined in some facility for refusing to take some poison concoction forced on me to avoid some bird, monkey, elephant, or weasel virus. Although I flatter myself to think I would be important enough for the state to spend the money and time to hunt me down, take me into custody, and pay for my incarceration.

But then I realized there are other ways to punish us. The classic visions of Warriors for Freedom fighting through masses of clone robots are only classic, and likely outdated, visions. We live in a brave new world, fighting the enemy will not be classic. It will be a new sort of fight involving AI, machines, robots, and more than likely unseen, and non-mechanical foes we can’t take down with a light-saber.

The first such punishment that comes to mind is chemical or biological. Since it is clear that humans can be individually targeted with cell phones (and soon microchips) it is simpler than ever to attack the individual rather than be faced with the necessity of identifying the group as a mass. Of course, law enforcement has always targeted the individual, but as stated earlier in this article, finding and arresting one criminal takes time, money and human resources. It also takes evidence of wrongdoing—a “case” if you will.

Read more: Pop Goes the Weasel

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