Science-fiction movies have a strange way of predicting the future. In case you don’t believe me, let me just name a few recent science fiction movies that will hopefully jog your memory:
- Movie: Minority Report (2002)
Technology: Gesture-based user interface - Movie: Total Recall (1990)
Technology: Driverless car - Movie: Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Technology: Wearable tech - Movie: Short Circuit (1986)
Technology: Military robot - Movie: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Technology: Mobile phone
Just a few days ago I linked a popular movie, Enemy of the State, to the national security debate, pitting the tech community vs. governments everywhere. Click HERE if you missed that. Today I’m linking “Kingsman: The Secret Service” to the free WiFi service being installed as we speak in New York City.
If you haven’t seen The Kingsman, it’s about a spy organization recruiting an unrefined, but promising street kid into the agency’s ultra-competitive training program, just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius. With a little help from IMDB and AceOfGeeks:
The global threat is the release a of new sim card that gives free wifi and calls to everyone around the globe. The sim cards are weapons, a neural augmentation device that triggers hyper aggression in people when broadcasting on a specific frequency controlled by Valentine. The controller of the sim cards can basically use it it out wipe out (i.e. kill) people who are not “on their side”.
So what’s the link to New York City? Just this week, workers began installing the first LinkNYC access points in New York. The hubs are designed as an update to the standard phone booth, using upgraded infrastructure to provide gigabit Wi-Fi access points. The full network will install more than 7,500 public hubs throughout the city, each replacing a pre-existing phone booth. (New York is finally installing its promised public gigabit Wi-Fi, The Verge)
Whether the service is free or paid, you better believe there will be some sort of “agreement” you must sign/acknowledge if you use this service, sort of like the ones required by Apple for your iTunes account – the ones that no one reads…. While this may not be a way to WIPE out a certain class or generation of people, like in The Kingsman, you can bet your last dollar the NSA (or some other like-minded government agency) will be spying paying very close attention and tracking everything you do whenever you are on this network. #youdecide
You can watch the official trailer for The Kingsman on YouTube. It’s actually a pretty good movie!
Bri Alys, LLC 