Once And Future Digital ID

A compendium of writings and video essays on Technocracy, Digital IDs and surveillance.

I have an awkward relationship with Digital IDs as a subject of discussion within the zeitgeist. I am simultaneously accused of being a paranoid technophobe who kicks up a fuss and panics about nothing, while also being patted on the back for being prescient. The truth of it is, I should probably take the proverbial L on Digital IDs because I thought they were imminent during COVID and that, indeed, Digital IDs would be the off-ramp. None of this happened. The entire COVID saga was memory-holed, and a great deal of speculation and theorising went with it.

To an extent, anyway. It was obvious in the real world that the digital surveillance grid was unfolding, even if for no other reason than that it was simply easier and more efficient for people to use their phones for everything rather than fumbling with cards and documents. My original analysis of the digital surveillance state drew on Bertrand de Jouvenel’s On Power. The power structure would push for more intrusion, more data, and more tracking, simply because it is an inherent aspect of Power to expand itself and its remit.

The expansion of the digital grid as an emergent phenomenon could rumble away until the regulation or technological capability allowed Power to formalise its control.

And now the British State has formally announced that Digital IDs will be made compulsory, and everyone is up in arms about it. The right are angry because they know the state hates them, the Britlibs are angry because they think it’ll be used as a racist tool against minorities. The older hard left are seething because the Tony Blair Institute and his billionaire donors are behind it. A few old-fashioned liberals are opposing it because it’s illiberal. There are also questions about the feasibility of even implementing the Digital ID, given that Labour is a profoundly unpopular government.

I have long suspected that Keir Starmer’s role is to get a few key issues resolved, popularity be damned. Like a bank robber going in through the front door, all guns blazing, rather than sneaking around in the dead of night.

Given that this subject is likely to dominate the discourse in the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future, I have decided to embed some of my older videos and essays in this post before moving on.

In 2023, I attended the Witan Conference and delivered my first-ever public address, face-to-face, on the subject of Digital IDs, surveillance, and their nightmarish potential. Ironically, this is the speech that led to me being doxed precisely because the digital surveillance state is already so advanced.

The speech is here:

It isn’t discussed enough, but the Online Harms Bill will slot neatly into Digital ID in the guise of age verification.

In this video essay, I explored how digital technology creates a gamefied real-world experience:

How Technocracy Undermines the Foundations of Liberalism.

What the incentives of a “woke” social credit system would look like, in contrast to China’s:

Here, I look toward localism as a potential safeguard to the technocratic surveillance state:

I do not doubt that my content portfolio on the technocratic surveillance state will increase now that the Digital ID has finally been given the green light. My initial impression is one of surprise at the widespread outrage and opposition to it.

Will it be enough? We shall see.