Thanks for posting.

“Surveillance capitalism” does have a kind of ring of fear about it.

Logically; Cameras, sensors, and systems used to collect and process data about people, serve to remove value from those surveilled, to those surveilling.

Obviously that is not a good thing, except for those gaining profit, maybe.

But I wonder how many have considered the opposite.

What would it take, for the surveillance infrastructure to deliver value to the surveilled, rather than remove it?

Imagine if all data collected from each individual was somehow monetised and delivered directly back to the individual generating the data.

In that case, we would be demanding to maximise the amount of data that could be collected from us. The more cameras and sensors the better. Every smile, glance, and frown worth something, rewardable. Even babies could make money.

That might sound far fetched. But it isn’t really.

Not after the idea of profit is removed.

Imagine in addition to the surveillance infrastructure, every person is equipped also with a free money token generator, tied to their identity, generating a fixed number of tokens every day.

Imagine then also those tokens offered in a marketplace, where anyone can trade their tokens for those of any other.

Imagine further someone choosing to make the data collected about them public, to be seen by all, and then that person going about their lives doing obvious exceptional things for others.

Such as might be done every day by care workers.

Imagine we might wish to reward those we see doing those exceptional things, by buying some of their tokens, with some of ours.

All of that might sound kind of far feteched.

Until we realise it might already be happening.

Free money might not be so bad after all.