The sleek, smartphone-esque Orb Mini, the brainchild of Tools for Humanity and Sam Altman, promises to solve a problem most of us didn't even know we had: proving we're human online. Two biometric sensors and a shoe-in-the-face camera eyeball scan poofed together and boom, you’re an approved citizen of the World Network. Could this be a sign of things to come – a decentralized, accessible future? Or is it a gilded cage made from the biometric data of the most vulnerable people in the world?
Data Colonialism's New Face?
Let's be blunt. Given all that, the Orb Mini—despite being sold as a tool to empower everyone—has the unmistakable stench of digital colonialism. We’re not just discussing some small nascent project that has millions of sign-ups—most of them in South America, Latin America, and Asia. In these communities, resources and economic opportunities are frequently in limited supply. For the folks who live there, even a modest digital payout can be more than enough to motivate. Does that really count as empowerment when the terms of participation come down to agreeing to share your only truly unique biometric ID—your face—with a private entity? It sounds more like a revolution and more like a high-tech trinket peddler on a tourist boardwalk.
The diamond industry, for centuries, relied on extracting resources from developing nations, often leaving behind environmental devastation and social unrest. Now, we face a different era of data extraction, where our very selves are the mined database. Within this narrative, the Orb Mini shifts from a gateway to a decentralized future to a piece of extractive value harvesting. This value mostly circulates from the Global South towards Silicon Valley.
Artists As Guinea Pigs?
The staggering and chilling impact this would have on artists is the most alarming part. The promise of blockchain-based opportunities, and the implied universal basic income model, could be a game-changer for artists struggling to make ends meet. Imagine a world where creators are directly compensated for their work, bypassing traditional gatekeepers and earning a fair share of the digital economy. That's the utopian vision.
What’s at stake when that aspirational promise relies on giving away biometric information. What might it mean if joining in this brave new creative economy requires artists to trade in their privacy? This would leave them vulnerable to future exploitation. Are we establishing a precedent that all artistic expression comes with the condition of submitting all material submitted to art projects to a global biometric database?
Think about all the similarities to the first days of chat or social media. Artists rushed onto platforms like Instagram and Facebook, seduced by the potential of exposure and connection. These platforms soon became echo chambers. The algorithms didn’t reward genuine artistry. Engagement was king, and many artists found themselves stuck in a never-ending hamster wheel of content creation, running after the next like and follower. Is Worldcoin trying to lure artists into a new Faustian deal? In doing so, they lose short-term benefits for far greater long-term dominion over their own information and identities.
Who Controls The Future?
The implications of the link between Worldcoin and OpenAI, both projects led by Sam Altman, are even more alarming. Combine Worldcoin’s "proof of human" technology with OpenAI’s AI prowess and what do you get? The potential outcomes are nothing less than revolutionary! Might the Orb Mini one day wind up as a centerpiece of AI-fueled surveillance and social control?
This isn't just paranoia. AI has suddenly reached a point where it’s creating unbelievably convincing fake material. This enhances the confusion for average users trying to distinguish between man and machine on the internet. In a world where AI can convincingly mimic human behavior, the ability to reliably verify human identity becomes incredibly valuable. Who decides what being “human” means and who owns the infrastructure used to check that?
The future isn't written in stone. We have the power to shape it. We’ll need to dig deeper, question more and interrogate the frameworks and narratives fed to us by the tech world. It’s critical to uplift the voices of those who are most easily exploited. As fun as the Orb Mini may seem, we need to take a closer look at its potential implications. A future where our irises pave the way to the digital experience is rife with ethical dilemmas that we need to face head-on. Are we investing in a connected, inclusive future for all Americans, or just for the wealthy few?
