iv. Is Überveillance science
fiction or science fantasy? Will it be the reality in the future?
In the future is our world going to
be under Uberviellance? Will Uberviellance become a reality in the future?
Uberviellance is a slang term used
to describe an exaggerated and omnipresent 24/7 electronic surveillance. A
present example of Überveillance is the televisions show ‘Big Brother’, where all the competitors in the Big Brother House
are under surveillance and we can watch it from the outside world.
The question is, could the world become one big brother house ruled by Gretel Killeen.
Science fiction deals with things that have the potential to
happen whereas fantasy deals with things that could never happen. Basically
science fiction means that there is a path from our here-and-now to the future,
which involves time passing and plausible advantages in science could allow our
society to change. History has show that anything is possible.
There are many different ways in which Überveillance could occur in the
future and multiple futuristic movies provide us with examples of this.
For example in Steven Spielberg’s film entitled Minority Report (2002). Minority Report presents a future of increasing electronic surveillance. The conceived idea of a future with intrusive capitalism and government surveillance. This extreme, new technology allows police officers within the department of ‘Precrime’ to see, stop and arrest people for murders which are yet to be committed.
Another more recent example of
Überveillance, is in Neill Blomkamps film Elysium
(2013). In the film there is a $82 billion industry with at least 30,000 drones
which are capable of videotaping the facial expressions of people on the ground
from hundreds of feet in the air, which ushers a new age of surveillance in
American society.
As previously stated, history has shown that anything is
possible. Although the concept of Überveillance being a reality in our society seems
a foreign concept to us, no one knows what the future holds.
Referencing:
Elysium, 2013 Neill Blomkamps
Minority
Report, 2002
Steven Spielberg
Big
Brother
Hi Nick. You have provided some very good examples of Uberveillance. This is an idea that has been thought about and fictionalized for many years (such as George Orwell’s 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four), and is still a popular topic today which is mostly seen in many fictional movies and television. This situation is also appearing in real life situations too, with the recent Google and Gmail account surveillance claims, which could have been an interesting comparison to include in this piece. One thing that would have made this post a lot stronger would be the inclusion of scholarly references to support your examples. Nice work!
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