They’re Scanning Your Eyes for Money: The Disturbing Truth About Worldcoin’s Master Plan
Worldcoin is a controversial biometric identification project spearheaded by Sam Altman, CEO of the artificial intelligence research company OpenAI. It aims to create a global database of iris scans as the basis for a universal basic income (UBI) system in a hypothetical post-artificial general intelligence future.
The project utilizes orb-shaped devices to scan people’s irises, generating unique encrypted identification codes called IrisHashes. This biometric data would ostensibly replace traditional IDs and enable access to their envisioned UBI network.
Worldcoin claims this iris verification model is necessary to prevent fraud in digital UBI systems, ensuring only real humans can receive basic income payments. They position the project as an altruistic effort to smooth the transition into an AI-dominated jobs landscape where human labor is largely obsolete.
Over 2 million impoverished people, predominantly in the developing world, have already had their irises scanned by Worldcoin’s roving orb devices. The company aims to build a database of over a billion IrisHashes.
The Desire to Help the Vulnerable is Admirable. The Risks are Profound.
Superficially, the goal of preparing social safety nets for an AI-disrupted future appears benevolent. But Worldcoin’s methods reveal a naivete about power structures that should raise alarm.
Centralized biometric databases represent a Faustian bargain, sacrificing personal privacy and autonomy for the promise of a technological utopia. History shows that concentrated information networks inevitably spiral beyond their limited mandates, regardless of their creators’ intent.
Yet Worldcoin believes administrators of such systems will maintain perfectly noble motivations indefinitely. This is a dangerously optimistic assumption. As the MIT Technology Review notes, biometric collection of this scale targets developing world populations partly because “people have little money and few legal protections” there.
True Progress Calls for Struggle, Not Technocratic Quick Fixes
Furthermore, lasting positive change arises through struggle, careful coordination, and cultural evolution — not quick technological fixes to complex issues.
Projects like Worldcoin risk seducing us into gradually surrendering personal agency to an unaccountable technocratic elite. This tale repeats throughout history, from totalitarian experiments like communist regimes to the overreach of Big Tech.
The long road to justice requires communicating shared truths, balancing order and freedom, and centering human dignity. Worldcoin’s approach distracts from these challenges.
Misaligned Incentives Between Profiteers and Participants
Beyond mere idealism, there are troubling motivations driving Worldcoin’s backers. The venture capitalists funding this controversial endeavor stand to profit enormously should it gain adoption.
This misalignment between Worldcoin’s funders and its purported aid recipients is a recipe for exploitation. It resembles colonialist projects, with vulnerable populations bearing the burden of risky technological experiments.
No Easy Technological Panacea
In summary, there are no facile tech solutions to the complex social and economic problems ahead. We must not compromise hard-won principles of open society in reckless pursuit of a technocratic utopia.
With courage and wisdom, we can build a decentralized world that respects human dignity while resisting the corrupting influence of power. But we must remain vigilant. The future remains unwritten, a story we author together through struggle. The choices we make today will echo through time.
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