How Much Privacy Are We Willing to Give Up?
By Emma Jansen
"The Circle" is a terrifying look into what our world could come to and the consequences of it. This book was originally published in 2013, when technology was no where near where it is today, at that point in time social media was fairly new and our lives were not so public as they are now. In this novel, the company "The Circle" continually comes out with new programs that give people less and less privacy, terrifyingly, this can be compared to companies like Google and Apple, that keep coming out with new updates, collecting more and more of our data.
Usually in novels like this one, for example, 1984, which was published in 1949, end up being not accurate to the time they represent and the scary thing about "The Circle" is that it is pretty close to accurate. The concept of "transparency" where people basically live stream their lives 24/7 is something that is almost happening today. There is live streaming on Instagram and Twitch is another major platform offering it. While it is not a thing (yet) to plant a camera on yourself and live stream yourself literally all the time, we are not far off from that.
The part of the book where Annie gets crucified by the public for having ancestors who were slave owners and ends up having a nervous breakdown could just have easily happened this year. This concept of getting "cancelled" is something that is all too real. Another similarity to what could soon be real is the program that allows police officers to target people who might become criminals. This concept of predictive policing is a scary one because you are taking away people's free will and their ability to make the right choices by labeling them as someone who might become a criminal.
The part of the book where the mysterious Kalden is revealed to be Ty Gospodinov, the third member of the Wise Men who has actually been trying to take down his own company from within reminds me of the documentary "The Social Dilemma". In that documentary a bunch of former tech moguls speak negatively about the technology they created, stating that they never meant for the tech to become as advanced as it is. The sad part is that all these people left way after they capitalized on the success of these products, so their remorse basically means nothing. At least in "The Circle" Kalden is trying to secretly take down the company from the inside.
In the ending of the book where we realize that Mae has chosen not to denounce the company and instead is suggesting a program that will read people's brainwaves, literally policing people's thoughts, starting with her comatose friend, is a good metaphor against progress for progress's sake. Just because they possess the technology to read people's brain waves does not mean that that is something they should be doing.