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Sony has recently announced that any video game purchased on its PlayStation platform will now require you to check in online every 30 days to retain access to the content you purchased. Fail to meet that check-in, and you will be locked out of any of the digital games that you purchased.
You will own nothing.
Needless to say, the backlash has been pretty brutal. And this is not just about video games.
Welcome to the new age of AI.
Be informed, not misled.
Any PlayStation game purchased digitally after March's system update will reportedly now require an internet connection once every 30 days to validate the license.
If the console stays offline longer than that, the games will not launch until you reconnect.
If you're like me, you may think, "Who cares?" I don't play video games anyway.
This is important because it involves much more than video games. It is a look at the future regarding AI content.
Things like audiobooks or movies that you have purchased and downloaded will clearly be going the same way.
You will own nothing.
Car companies are set to implement kill switches in their new vehicles next year. Patents have been filed that would allow for AI to unilaterally determine whether or not you are in the right state of mind to operate the vehicle that you purchased.
Ownership and control over your own possessions continue to become more and more bleak. If some random software or company is allowed to determine whether or not you are free to use your own property, what is to stop a repressive left-wing administration from pressuring companies to cut off service to their political adversaries? We already saw that the Biden administration pushed social media companies to suppress content they deemed dangerous.
Stories like these give you a good indication that we are heading toward a permanent renter’s economy. Nothing that you purchase will truly be yours. You will own nothing. You will be happy.
The rest of the story.
Back in January, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., proposed legislation to repeal a Biden-era regulation that will require all auto manufacturers to put kill switches in their new cars, as well as software to determine if a driver is impaired. It failed, with 57 Republicans opposing it.
Today, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is leading a battle to kill the kill switch as part of the new FISA legislation, but his effort isn’t looking good, either.
My initial reaction to this bad news was to get my beat-up 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer to the shop because I might now have to drive it for the rest of my life.
Obviously, I have no plans to drive impaired in any way, but the idea of owning a car, connected to the internet that the government can just shut off at a whim is an Orwellian step too far for me, and, I suspect, many Americans.
Journalist David Marcus says, "Sure, it starts with not letting you start your own car if you look drunk, but soon it will happen if you miss a payment, or fail to cover your EZ-Pass bill or say something controversial on a website."
He said, "I may be old-fashioned, but all I want out of a car is an engine and wheels. I don’t want it to talk to me, and I sure as [expletive] don’t want it to listen to me. It's a car, not my boss or my therapist."
"I could drive from West Virginia to Utah without my seat belt on in my Lancer, and it wouldn’t sound like the dinging and buzzing inside of a Vegas casino," Marcus continued.
"Never does my vehicle, in a soft and dulcet voice, with a blinking red light say, 'Dave, you’re driving a bit rapidly, aren't you?'"
It’s bad enough that cars are self-driving today. So, not only could the government potentially lock your ignition, it could use your own car to take you to jail, which I suppose is at least efficient.
Why do elected Democrat public servants and 57 Republicans oppose stopping this Biden law?
To borrow a phrase from the bad old days of COVID, "If it saves just one life."
Marcus says, "But if that really is the bottom line, then why not mandate that all vehicles have governors that max their speed out at 75 miles an hour? That would save an enormous number of lives and make policing traffic vastly easier."
He says, "If the issue is drunk driving, then install breathalyzers needed to start the engine. Problem solved."
David Marcus is a columnist and the author of "Charade: The COVID Lies That Crushed A Nation."
Takeaway
At the point at which we can no longer simply turn on our cars and drive them, without some go-ahead from the federal government, our cars stop being our own. We just rent them from the state.
Sadly, it seems as though that point is about to arrive, as once again, too many Congressional Republicans roll over like a cute seal at the zoo and watch our rights get trampled.
To make matters worse, we are now reaping the foul rewards of President Barack Obama’s "Cash for Clunkers" program, which mindlessly took hundreds of thousands of usable used cars off the market.
Not only do the Democrats want to control your new car, but they also want to destroy the old cars they can’t control.
Having a car is a central facet of the American dream, the conquest of distance, the freedom of travel, but that dream can quickly turn into a nightmare if we hand the keys over to the government.
And speaking of "keys":
- Revelation 1:18: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of death, hell, and the grave." This establishes that Christ has the keys to life and death.
- Isaiah 22:22: "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."
This establishes that the Supreme Authority rests with God.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.
