Verifying Your Existence

 

The question of verification has grown to be larger than life.

It used to be a preoccupation that documents submitted in an application had to be examined and witnessed by an authorised third party as true and authentic.

All officially sounding and in actual physical process.

The temptation of human forgers then jumped on to digital and electronic communication and representation.

Authenticity is no longer confined as significant to just art pieces, printed psssports and land title deeds.

We now question the
validity of identities purporting to be our financiers, government reps, medical consultants, bosses, employees, fans, suppliers - and even ourselves.

That may be because we are dealing more in faceless transactions interacting with low cost maintained robots, software and AI.

The screen is what we touch, talk and manage in not just entertainment, but also for other essential activities in the course of contemporary life.

Hackers intercept the vulnerable points in such processes.  They can create false websites, stir fear on their targeted victims and mislead customers to part with what they really want, be it useful personal details or false consent.

Even videos and photos of events on social media can be put on to our minds and faces out of context, unverified and hijacked for less savoury known and unknown agendas.

Our own images can be transformed to Avatars, replicas of our own beings or artificial reconstructs of our likeness, but existing only in different worlds.

When more things need to be verified, as uncertainty can strike when we least expect it, a climate of reluctance can arise.

Commerce can also give us no choice as they promote more self service, online purchasing and reduction of human contact in sales, delivery and payment.

When websites, apps and  media content get hacked, our personal data fall into the hands of dark forces for future use.

When we deal face on in person, we can gauge and interact in better confidence about the viability and reality of a transaction.  Most of us are just not equipped to verify things subject to hidden manipulation through technological hype and ability.

#yongkevthoughts