33 SSI: our dystopian nightmare
Philip Sheldrake
While much of this book paints a very bright picture of an SSI-enabled future, that future is far from assured. The answer to, “What could go wrong?” could fill an entire book of its own. In this chapter, Philip Sheldrake of the AKASHA Foundation tries to condense that answer into one highly thought-provoking chapter about why SSI architecture can express only a small fraction of the richness of human identity and relationships—and why it may never be able to express the rest.
Put starkly, many millions of people have been excluded, persecuted, and murdered with the assistance of prior identity architectures, and no other facet of information technology smashes into the human condition in quite the same way as “digital identity”. Therefore, if ever there's a technological innovation for which “move fast and break things” is not the best maxim, this is it. We need to move together for psychological, sociological, and ecological health.
Based on previous analysis, the editors invited me to contribute a chapter with the title “SSI: our dystopian nightmare”.[1] While it is a challenge to address its flaws in one chapter, it was nevertheless a privilege to be invited to do so and a testament to those extending the invitation.
As a whole, this book describes how a radical technology will shape our lives, our businesses, and our futures. It says wonderful things. Here is the other side.