All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Another fantastic, dark, mind-blowing, visually-rich documentary by the BBC's crown jewel, Adam Curtis. All I can say is: WATCH!

And I can also share the following ominously prescient quote:

“It is fashionable to suggest that cyber-space is some island of the blessed where people are free to indulge and express their individuality, this is not true. I have seen many people spill out their emotions - their guts - online and I did so myself until I began to see that I had commodified myself.

Commodification means that you turn something into a product which has a money value. In the 19th Century, commodities were made in factories, by workers who were mostly exploited. But I created my interior thoughts as commodities for the corporations that owned the board I was posting to - like Compuserve or AOL - and that commodity was sold onto other consumer entities as entertainment.

Cyber-space, is a Black Hole; it absorbs energy and personality and then re-presents it, as an emotional spectacle. It is done by businesses that commodify human interaction and emotion - and we are getting lost in the spectacle.”

Carmen Hermosillo