Costco Dismay

I am a reluctant Costco shopper and not because they have done me any harm. The abundance has always made me nauseous and the passage of time has not diminished the symptoms. If anything my tolerance reduces with age. My most recent foray was particularly upsetting. Right upon entry, I saw a fantastic proliferation of smart and connected home devices. Google, Amazon, Nest et al had wares on display to help connect all parts of my house to my voice or touch so I could have even less use for my faculties. I am not sure I want to start down this slippery slope of having an assortment of big brothers being overzealous about simplifying our lives and routinely failing to protect data we so happily hand over to enable them "improve" and "optimize" how we live. There is the school of thought that online privacy never existed except in our imagination - we have been baring our souls to search engines for decades now. What more harm could we do by having our voice and touch interpreted by machines.

That said, if these appliances are mainstream enough to be showing up in Costco right next to the boxes of oranges, vitamins, shampoo, and socks then there is really no turning the clock back. This realization made my heart sink. I might well protest the internet and refuse to go online. It is a valid way of life but the limitations could be crippling if not life-threatening. I struggle to understand why such technology is not met with a lot more circumspection from just about everyone. It fills me with dread to think of a time when I have no choice in the business of being smart and connected, no choice about letting an assortment of devices listening in all around my home and place of work, no choice about where and how my data is used. It always starts with a make-believe choice and then comes a point when enough people opt-in. This is when the former choice turns into the default option. The voice of the customer was heard and addressed. Maybe this is how we get on the path to selling our collective human soul.