Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
Marcus Aurelius
News these days can give us PTSD and along with all the things pandemic has forced on us, excessive video conferencing on zoom and other platforms is one of them. In my decade long career I have spent lot of time over Video conferencing and I don’t mind making decision over them. But this was a pill too bitter to swallow! I am talking about the death penalty awarded to a drug peddler over Zoom in Singapore.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/20/man-sentenced-to-death-in-singapore-via-zoom-call.html
I am not here to make moral judgement on death penalty or whether it should be abolished altogether. I leave that to civil societies across the world. However, I do feel that use of technology like this to award death penalty is inherently wrong, deeply troubling and sets a bad precedent. We can go down a slippery slope where we might end trusting technology more than we should. It could also open the doors to use of Algorithms in justice system which is not a future that I look forward for. (Use of ‘Algorithms’ is intentional here instead of ‘AI’. )
I am afraid that it makes justice a reductive practice where the authorities are just there to punish and not pursue reform . It also asks a question if Tech companies which are global these days, are comfortable with their products are used in a way that it leads to intentional damage to human lives.
Don’t be evil!
Used to be Google Motto
Coming back to the the quote from Marcus Aurelius, I am still hopeful that nation states and those in authority will be reprimanded by civil societies and this would be a one off news . But we should be ready for a future where we as citizens and civil societies would have to work with big Tech and make sure that our societies remain empathetic and the ‘social distancing‘ we are doing right now does not become a caste system!