THE TRUTH ABOUT THE IDENTECO CORPORATIONWho are you?
It’s a simple question with no simple answer. From the dawn of time humans have struggled with their identity in the world: Who they are. What they believe. Why they exist. This existential crisis has brought many a strong man to his knees; caused countless sleepless nights in children; and shaken those without resolve to their core. Who you are matters. Not just to you, but to the world. We live in a world where all our movements and motivations are tracked. Everything and everyone can betray you. With a stroke of a key your credit card tells everyone what you ate for dinner. Your web browsing history tells your sexual fantasies. Your thumbprint tells your political beliefs. Your identity is the one thing you own...or at least it was. The IDENTECO corporation has made our identity, our human essence, this the most valuable tradable commodity on the planet. From birth, you’re implanted with a C.H.I.P., a small computer that keeps almost every piece of information it can gather about you—vital signs, education history, bank accounts, driver’s license—anything. Whether you want it or not, they can get any and all the information they could ever need about you before you have learned to walk. They use your identity, your metadata, to manipulate you. They know more about you than you may even know about yourself. As you can imagine it’s extremely lucrative information. They buy, sell, and trade your information to other corporations and individuals like the stock market. What do the corporations want with this information? Control. They can use it to keep you and the masses in check. It’s much easier than internment camps and the best part is most people don’t even know they’re being manipulated, much less watched. When corporations feel the need they create manufactured economic crises, wage war on competing corporations to gain tactical advantages, and exploit that hysteria to keep people loyal to the cause—whatever it might be that week. It’s a beautifully simple system when you stop to think about it—the corporations know how to keep people docile (feed them, make them feel like they have purpose, entertain them, protect them), they continue to make money, the world continues to turn. The system runs very extremely efficient, powered by the almost mathematical way corporations can read and anticipate the desires of its denizens. But that’s where you come in. You’re a variable, a glitch in the system IDENTECO and other corporations are not expecting. But, like I said, your identity is the only thing you own. So, what role in this system will you play? Are you just another cog in the machine, a conduit for cash and information to flow through? Are you more sinister, someone who will climb the corporate latter to become the puppet master? Or are you the ‘sabo’ in sabotage, meant to bring the machine to a halt? Most people don’t see the value in their identity, and the choices they can make, but you do. What does it mean to you? How much is your identity, your life, worth? In the coming weeks you’ll be exposed to more of the truth, and get your first shot to break away from the mold, or reshape it into your own. Oh, and one more thing: if the corporations think you’re valuable you can damn-well bet that other shady characters will find you lucrative as well. Just because someone doesn’t come with a number and a badge, it means they can be trusted. Watch your back. Good luck. —Gaspard, “The Wise Man” |