The Origin Point: A Future Tech Cyber Novella by Case Lane Read Free Book Online Page A

had ever
saved. Do you think they are going to turn around and start working
hard all over again? Not if they can avoid the pressure."
    "Yeah I think the true social fallout from
2008 has yet to be written. But the effects are being played out in
everyday life. The rise of smartphones came just in time to provide
people with a distraction from ever making an effort again. With
the malaise, people were waiting for an opportunity when they would
not have to struggle. Now they have found one. Without a depression
or a war to recover from or an evil dictator to be afraid of,
people can settle into their docile lives without guilt. Staring at
your mobile all day is not a sign of laziness, in fact most people
would assume you were engaged with someone."
    "That's the irony. Most people are not using
the smartphone to do anything smart. They are scrolling through
social media updates."
    "Which means they'll barely notice when our
system comes online, and we track and store their every move."
    "No, they'll walk right into."
    "With their heads down." Both laughed. "But
we begin a high tech race and gender war at the same time?"
    "Only with those who are paying
attention."
    "The issue is indirect. You can no longer
hang a 'whites only' sign in front of your business, but you can
code the directive into your business software. Since consumer
websites are already collecting demographic data about people, as
the information becomes cross-referenced and traded, every business
will eventually know each individual's ethnicity and gender, and
react as they wish."
    "A cyber Jim Crow world."
    "Exactly and no one would be the wiser.
Complainers will have a hard time proving the computer rejected an
applicant or buyer because decisions are made in split-seconds with
no face-to-face interaction."
    "Without transparent standards for gathering
and using personal data, you could also weed out people by
education, profession, or location."
    "Right, you can have the system
automatically reject graduates of a certain college who apply for a
job. Or you can have a 'no journalists' policy at your hotel. A
person whose profession is cross-referenced as journalist will
always receive a 'there are no rooms available message' when they
try to make a reservation at a hotel."
    "And a second later, I could book a room
because really the hotel is only at fifty percent occupancy."
    "That's the idea."
    "Yikes."
    "And the possibilities go on."
    "Actually given those scenarios, maybe the
outcome could also go the other way. Once these discriminatory
practices start affecting white people...and men, the media will
pay attention. Tech companies might have to think of ways to use
software to fight discrimination."
    "How?"
    "I don't know. But everyone will know they
can track the discrimination decisions. They will know when a woman
applicant is rejected and a man is accepted. Every company would
have statistics."
    "But they could also manipulate and manually
change those numbers at any time. You would have to be able to
infiltrate the business' systems to monitor their activity
24/7."
    "Well there's a job for the hackers. Besides
directly stealing consumer data like credit card numbers,
businesses will have to watch out for hackers who practice data
analysis on their decision-making information and publish those
statistics to the public."
    "Yes maybe some hackers are civil rights
activists or working with them. Imagine those stories. If a
business is suspected of having coded discriminatory practices into
its software, hackers could access those systems and pull the data
before the business decides to delete or manipulate the findings.
The ability to analyze those numbers would be a game changer."
    "Hackers would need to get organized if they
are going to become the champions of civil rights. Businesses would
instantly fight back, the data would be considered stolen. The
hackers would have to have documented evidence they could prove,
which would not be easy. They too