Documentary: Offline is the new luxury
To be online all the time and everywhere. It sounds great, but it has its drawbacks. As digital networks are closing in, there are fewer places to be really on your own. Being offline is becoming a luxury. Where can you be offline?
We are connected to the internet even in our bedrooms. It’s the ambition of companies like Google and Facebook to connect the entire world, so that we can be online all the time and everywhere. Google has send balloons up into the skies over Sri Lanka to provide the island state with free Wi-Fi for a month. On the ground, more and more devices communicate through the so-called Internet-of-Things. We are going to be ‘glass citizens’ in a transparent house, connected for life to a wireless intravenous drip and traced anywhere via our smartphones. What does it mean?
A small but growing group of people is saying goodbye to lifetime connectability. They are researching ways to keep control. What can we learn from them about life in the digital era? With: Paul Frissen (political scientist), Sherry Turkle (psychologist MIT), Evgeny Morozov (internet critic) and Birgitta Jonsdottir (hacker & founder Pirate Party)
We are connected to the internet even in our bedrooms. It’s the ambition of companies like Google and Facebook to connect the entire world, so that we can be online all the time and everywhere. Google has send balloons up into the skies over Sri Lanka to provide the island state with free Wi-Fi for a month. On the ground, more and more devices communicate through the so-called Internet-of-Things. We are going to be ‘glass citizens’ in a transparent house, connected for life to a wireless intravenous drip and traced anywhere via our smartphones. What does it mean?
A small but growing group of people is saying goodbye to lifetime connectability. They are researching ways to keep control. What can we learn from them about life in the digital era? With: Paul Frissen (political scientist), Sherry Turkle (psychologist MIT), Evgeny Morozov (internet critic) and Birgitta Jonsdottir (hacker & founder Pirate Party)
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00:00digital networks are becoming denser and denser we are online all the time
00:16everywhere and there are fewer and fewer places where we can really be alone where
00:22and when can we still disconnect to be offline has become a luxury will we
00:28permanently lose data to the cordless drip tubes of the smartphone or do we
00:33take back control over our connectivity
00:47backlight went on a journey to the edge of the internet with the white spots app
00:53developed especially for this occasion it makes the invisible digital networks
00:58visible the scanner shows the cell phone towers that communicate 24 7 with
01:03our smartphones and tablets on the new white spots world map the areas with
01:09mobile phone and internet coverage are black the white spots are the areas
01:14where there's no signal yet with the app we go looking for the exit of the
01:20digital web that encloses us this is backlight welcome to the white spots of
01:25our world companies and governments want the whole wide world to be connected by
01:37wireless internet so they are experimenting with drones and satellites
01:42to achieve total connectivity but what exactly will it mean if this master plan
01:58becomes a reality will we never be able to be alone again if the whole planet is
02:03connected and we can all be reached all the time everywhere
02:07psychologist Sherry Turkle once described enthusiastically how computers are becoming
02:23part of our personal lives Wow but she now has serious objections on our app she sees
02:29the enormous density of cell phone towers around her it just makes me sad we're so
02:36connected and we're so trivially communicating on the white spots world
02:44map she wants to create more sacred places without internet and mobile phone
02:48reception I don't think they'll be places that will not be covered by the
02:53internet everything will be covered yes I think that the sacred spaces are
03:04places that we create where we choose to not use connectivity mean my classroom
03:11is technically black except that nobody has a phone or a laptop in them so it
03:21counts on your map as a black spot but it's pure white among my colleagues you
03:27know we went from a position where we said you know it's great to have phones
03:33and classes and laptops and classes you can be looking stuff up you can be you
03:38know enhancing your experience by being on the web to realizing that actually it
03:44was taking our students away from the conversation of classes away from
03:49conversations with us and with their with the people they were with it was
03:53distracting them they were shopping they were on Facebook and now we say
03:57actually laptops down phones down leave them in a basket we we were here
04:06together to be in a community but you used to be quite a believer yes I was
04:13but I'm an empiricist and it turns out that my observations of distraction
04:19were the same as what all the research was showing which is that when an open
04:25laptop in a classroom creates a circle of distraction around that open laptop
04:32so it's not just the person with the open laptop who is distracted it's
04:37everyone around in a kind of concentric circles of distraction and that research
04:44is so compelling as a matter of fact 89% of Americans say that in their last
04:50social interaction they took out a phone and 82% say that it deteriorated the
04:59conversation so in America we're at a kind of funny point where we're all the
05:05time doing something that we know is not really good for us so I think we're
05:12at a point a kind of tipping point where there's the possibility for change
05:27welcome to the International Institute of Digital Detoxification when you
05:31enter this area we will take all of your digital technology valuables and
05:35anything else that doesn't quite fit in with the campground details. I think it's starting to be a movement and I think you do see it when the most high-tech people want a low-tech education for their children Steve Jobs didn't want his kids to have iPads or iPhones no he wanted them to have long conversations at dinner and many many Silicon Valley parents send their children to
06:02Waldorf schools Montessori school schools where there's very little
06:06technology because the mandarins of this new society often put as their highest
06:13value the kind of conversation that this technology undermines there's nothing
06:22wrong with phones there's nothing wrong with connectivity I love connectivity
06:28what let me just get that I can't turn this off hello I don't think for me the
06:43point is to unplug I think the point is to know when to take a break
06:58I can't take it anymore to come to the bar and everyone is on their cell phones
07:17stay there, giving more importance to Shakespeare's fake phrase
07:22And for this beautiful girl here, she left her cell phone, she was laughing and laughing at the cell phone, so she created the definitive solution to this problem, the cell phone
07:37polar phone works like this, you put the beer in, the turn is on, the turn is on, the signal is blocked
07:46No signal.
07:50This is a smart device to trigger a response and make people start thinking that, all right,
07:58maybe here at the bar we should talk more, not be slaves to our smartphones.
08:04Here in Brazil, many people use the cell phones 24 hours a day.
08:08People are not living the moment, they're living the virtual world, and everything that's
08:13happening on the internet is more interesting, more important than their friends that are
08:18writing in front of each other.
08:23People are losing the capacity for boredom.
08:26When you're experiencing boredom, your brain is not bored.
08:30Your brain is doing some of the most important work that it knows how to do.
08:35It's laying down, it's called the default mode network, it's part of the basic autobiographical
08:43story of your life.
08:45It's doing important work for your mental stability and your emotional stability.
08:52These days, when people are alone, even for a few moments, they reach for a device.
08:58There's an extraordinary study that shows that after as little as six minutes alone,
09:04people would rather give themselves electroshocks, self-administer electroshocks, rather than
09:10just sit quietly alone.
09:14Yet there is a growing group of people who want to unplug once in a while.
09:19It's especially the elite, with the most expensive smartphones, who choose to disconnect.
09:25In the German black forest, a luxury spa caters to this need, offering deep sleep and digital
09:31detox treatments in carefully constructed rooms, where brass plates and graphite wallpaper
09:37block all Wi-Fi and phone signals.
09:43When you are with a mountain bike or hiking in the black forest, you see that you will
09:46have no connection.
09:47On most of the parts of the black forest, there is no connection.
09:53When you are always connected, you are never 100% focused.
09:59In Villa Stefani, we have 15 rooms, so from these 15 rooms, we have three very large suites
10:05and 12 double rooms.
10:08We don't force every client here to disconnect.
10:12You have some hotels where there is no Wi-Fi.
10:15Here, clients can choose, and we have a nice book here from Daniel Sieberg, it's a digital
10:19diet, it's the four steps how to get rid of this device and then have to break and to
10:24make some breaks.
10:26And when we see that clients maybe are open for this, we just give them the book and say,
10:31OK, you have time, just read, and maybe then they say it's nothing for me, but they say,
10:35OK, I will try.
10:36I will try that this time for lunch, we take the tablets away and we will talk to each other.
10:47Of course, you can choose to go offline for a few days, either in a luxury hotel or in
10:52a cabin in the woods.
10:55It seems so simple, just leave your phone at home, right?
10:59But is it also possible to live offline every day, no phone or Internet, and still participate
11:05in society?
11:09The Armenian mountains are the home of popular writer Aram Pashyan.
11:14He is sometimes called the new Franz Kafka.
11:17His stories and poems are shared on the Internet, but he has tossed his mobile phone away and
11:23chooses to live an analogue life, so he can concentrate on writing.
11:41Even in Armenia, where parcels sent by snail mail often fail to arrive, the density of
11:47cell phone towers on our White Spots app is dizzying.
12:18The first contact was an interest, from the beginning.
12:28I mean, there was some time on Facebook, Twitter, I had a conversation, maybe for a year or
12:40two, I kept it.
12:44But in the end, all that knowledge had problems with the knowledge, because...
12:55When you reach me, they call you every time and threaten you, and who has the courage
13:04to speak up, he also has the courage.
13:09And then some physical and intellectual social anxiety started, I was very anxious, and
13:18I didn't answer the phone at all.
13:21And I also decided that I had to speak up, and I did.
13:26And I lost it for all those reasons.
13:29Because at some point amnesia comes to the screen, in those social settings.
13:39How do people find you?
13:44How do they find you with your friends?
13:49I would say, if they really want to find me, especially in Yerevan.
13:54If I want to find Aram, I am calling to Armen, because he is the main contact with Aram.
14:02And also, if I need him very much, I am coming here, because I know his lunch time, and he
14:07is coming every day to Yerevan.
14:09And so, we find some kind of different ways to find Aram.
14:14It's just a question of, some people need it, some people want this iPhone, some people
14:21don't need it.
14:22And they can be happy without it.
14:25Happy and successful, also.
14:28For example, let's say, Aram's salary becomes very modest, as soon as we move to Armenia,
14:33we face tax evasions.
14:35In that case, he can start to re-evaluate society.
14:38His technique is very interesting, he is neutral.
14:41But interestingly, how do you use it?
14:44He can communicate with a single person.
14:47I am generally not against it.
14:50This is my life.
14:53Let people use it, communicate with it all the time, and give their lives to social
14:59media and conversations.
15:01And I think that loneliness is a good thing.
15:04It makes people feel good.
15:07And I think that loneliness is a good thing.
15:10And I think that loneliness is a good thing.
15:13And I think that loneliness is a good thing.
15:17And I think that loneliness is a good thing.
15:20It is one of the best conditions that nature has.
15:24It is one of the best conditions that nature has.
15:32I think that the seed doesn't grow at once.
15:36The long-term growing is the result.
15:39That's the result.
15:45And for that,
15:47it takes a long time
15:49for the seed to grow.
16:00In a place where there's no Wi-Fi,
16:03it's so quiet.
16:09What if there was a way to light up the entire globe
16:12and finally make all the world's information
16:15accessible to all of the world's people?
16:18Well, maybe finding an answer
16:21starts with looking somewhere new.
16:24Like up.
16:26And trying something different.
16:28Like balloons.
16:30Yep, that's right.
16:32Balloons.
16:34Because it turns out,
16:36that if you use balloons,
16:38it's faster and easier and cheaper
16:41to give everyone the Internet
16:43than it is to give some people the Internet.
16:50While the offline movement is growing,
16:53the Internet rolls on.
16:55The island of Sri Lanka was chosen by tech giant Google
16:59to be the first country with 100% coverage
17:02of free Wi-Fi.
17:04The company uses balloons
17:06equipped with the Internet routers
17:08as part of the experimental Google Loon project.
17:11Sri Lanka's Minister of Information
17:13is bubbling over with enthusiasm.
17:35But what exactly is the logic
17:38behind covering the globe with a digital web?
17:41What's behind all these initiatives
17:43to hook up the Internet
17:45and make it accessible to all of the world's people?
18:04Or to connect the entire world
18:06using drones, satellites and balloons?
18:10We ask Internet critic Evgeny Morozov.
18:16The goal is 100% connectivity
18:19on a planetary scale.
18:21Is that going to happen?
18:23Well, I think it's quite likely.
18:26As long as you can have some expected return
18:30coming from an area of the world,
18:33it's quite logical to expect
18:35that there'll be somebody interested
18:37in integrating it into the world market.
18:40For me, that's what it's all about
18:42because it makes lives easier
18:44for main players of globalization,
18:46which happen to be corporations.
18:48Then, of course, you need to integrate those areas
18:51into this network.
18:53And how do you integrate them into the network?
18:55Well, you basically build connectivity.
18:58You build networks.
19:00You make sure that any asset
19:03has the capacity to generate data,
19:07send it, receive it, process it, and so forth.
19:10And then you just need to have
19:12a massive amount of investment
19:14into creating those networks.
19:17I think with Google, there is a concentrated effort,
19:20but also with Facebook.
19:22Many of the firms that now operate
19:24into what has been called surveillance capitalism.
19:26It's this idea that somehow by aggregating data,
19:29by analyzing it,
19:31you can maybe offer some services
19:33which are nominally free to the users,
19:36but nonetheless you can monetize them
19:38because you're generating data
19:40that advertisers are interested in.
19:42So there are a lot of companies
19:44that are interested in that model.
19:47This is where security comes into play.
19:50This is where we talk to our transmitters
19:53about everything,
19:55everything that needs to be done,
19:57everything that needs to be done.
19:59Whether it's ECO H1 or EGL,
20:01there is no 3G.
20:03Now, after saying this,
20:05all over the country,
20:07in every village, every corner,
20:09in every month,
20:11we want to show you
20:13that Sri Lanka is a country of money.
20:18Do you think it's wise for Sri Lanka
20:20to accept Google Loan's
20:22total connectivity for their country?
20:24Well, I think in the case of many developing countries,
20:26and I think Sri Lanka here would be one of many,
20:29they are making a trade-off
20:31which fits with what the government itself believes,
20:35and I think what the government itself believes
20:37is that markets are good,
20:39American companies are good,
20:41creating more dependencies is probably okay
20:43as long as we can get some cash back,
20:46and in terms of electability,
20:48it's also a very great pitch to their population
20:51because ultimately the population gets something good,
20:54connectivity,
20:55whereas the government is paying absolutely nothing
20:57for its provision.
20:58I mean, ultimately, I think we have to understand
21:00that this is the new developmental model,
21:03that the idea is that these companies will come
21:06and build a lot of services for you,
21:08connectivity being one of them,
21:10health, education, transportation, and others are waiting
21:13also to be offered.
21:15With those companies quickly taking over
21:18parts of the infrastructure
21:20that previously was offered differently,
21:22ultimately, if you really want to go beyond the current model,
21:26you have to be asking very political, economic questions
21:29about things like data.
21:31Is data an asset?
21:33Can it be privately owned?
21:35Is it okay for a company like Google
21:38to collect my data while I'm using the service,
21:41then claim it as their own,
21:43and then basically derive all sorts of benefits,
21:45including financial benefits, from that data?
21:48You know, when I used to use the post office,
21:52I would have never thought that the post office
21:54would ever claim ownership over the contents of my letters.
22:09There aren't a lot of places,
22:11a few mountain ranges where you have to go,
22:14but you have to be an alpinist,
22:16not everyone is given that.
22:18So in Europe, it will be increasingly necessary
22:21to make the possibility of these kinds of white spots possible.
22:26Political philosopher Paul Frusen, too,
22:29is critical of the ambition to supply the entire world
22:33with cell phone towers and airborne routers
22:36that permanently communicate with our smartphones.
22:39He's afraid that because of the data trails we leave behind,
22:43nothing can ever be hidden anymore.
22:45You see all kinds of movements in the world of the economy,
22:48in the world of policy, in the world of international relations,
22:51also in the domain of security,
22:53to reach a total coverage in terms of infrastructure,
22:57to also provide everything we do,
23:00in the physical sense, but also in the virtual sense,
23:03in terms of popular systems,
23:05to be able to constantly keep track of where someone is.
23:09And of course, this is always shortened
23:11with the arguments of progress.
23:13It's nice if everyone in 2020,
23:16because that's what you have to say,
23:18can have access to the internet via a smartphone in 2020.
23:21And of course, it's fun for people to have those opportunities.
23:25But there's always a downside to it.
23:27There's always a downside to it,
23:30because the privacy protection
23:32and the protection of the right to be left alone
23:35is gradually diminishing.
23:37And a lot of people say,
23:38but if I have nothing to hide, then it's not a problem, is it?
23:41No, that's right,
23:42only there are no people who have nothing to hide.
23:44They don't exist.
23:45Very simple and plainly said,
23:47just give the pin code.
23:48Well, hardly anyone does that either.
23:50And there's so much to hide from everyone
23:53because you don't want to tell everyone everything.
23:55No, so people say, I have nothing to hide.
23:57That's really...
23:58They don't even know themselves.
24:04The pure physical presence of the entire infrastructure
24:07and all those tools and devices and apps
24:10that collect data,
24:12you can't turn those off.
24:13That's the problem.
24:14And that makes defining a place where you're invisible
24:17a lot more difficult.
24:20How can I deal with that as an individual?
24:22It seems like something that comes over us
24:24that we can't do anything about.
24:26Yes, that's also a big problem.
24:28Those poles that we saw on that app,
24:32well, of course you can't turn those off.
24:35But you'd have to think about
24:38whether you can give citizens the right
24:40to be invisible for that.
24:42Maybe we can also make that technically possible
24:44to be invisible.
24:45But the right to invisibility
24:48is really very fundamental.
24:51And maybe the technology itself
24:54also offers all kinds of possibilities
24:56to organize that.
24:57So that you are there,
24:59but you can't be seen and perceived electronically.
25:02A kind of Faraday's cage around you,
25:05so that people see you in a physical sense,
25:08but every device that can perceive you
25:10collides with a blockade.
25:25Based in the Netherlands, Holland Shielding
25:28is one of the world's market leaders
25:30in products that protect against
25:32electromagnetic radiation.
25:34Demand for these products has increased steeply
25:37over the past few years.
25:40The Internet of Things means that the bandwidth
25:43has to be even bigger
25:45to be able to connect all devices.
25:48That means that we have to go to even higher frequencies.
25:51And that means that more and more
25:53protective equipment is needed
25:55to prevent that.
25:58This is an antenna,
26:00and we can measure a very large spectrum with it.
26:03We do that here in an anechoic measuring room.
26:06And we can determine
26:09how much radiation a device emits
26:12or how sensitive it is.
26:14And then we can adjust the device
26:16so that it meets the standard.
26:20We now make 24,000 different products.
26:24Despite the crisis,
26:26we grow by about 30 percent per year.
26:29So that's huge.
26:32With the increasing wireless communication
26:35between all these devices,
26:37the chance of being tracked, traced and spied upon
26:40has risen accordingly.
26:43So there's a new market for radiation-free protection cages,
26:47secret services and law firms are among the buyers.
27:13Holy crap!
27:16It's beautiful and horrifying.
27:22Birgitta Jonsdottir,
27:24poet, hacker and member of the Iceland parliament,
27:27knows digital networks from the inside out.
27:30She also knows how it feels to be observed
27:33and spied on constantly.
27:35I know that I'm under heavy surveillance
27:38because of my involvement with Wikileaks and Snowden.
27:42There's nothing I can really do to stop it
27:45because it's so much.
27:47And what bothers me about that
27:49is that everybody who calls me is under surveillance.
27:52Everybody who writes to me is under surveillance.
27:55Do you remember the first time you went online?
27:58Yeah, I actually do.
28:00It was in 1995.
28:02And I just fell in love with it.
28:04So I felt it was a completely new possibility
28:07for creating new cultures
28:10and new ways of doing things,
28:12both socially and creatively.
28:14So, unfortunately, it became industrialized.
28:18And the Internet today,
28:20compared to how the Internet was back then,
28:23is an entirely different planet.
28:25It's become just like a really sad version
28:28with some of the worst things on planet Earth.
28:31It's become a tool to spy on us,
28:35a tool to manipulate us
28:38and to make us into these completely perfect consumers.
28:43So we've become a commodity.
28:45Our most precious, secret elements of our being
28:53are being sold as a commodity
28:55to push more stuff towards us.
28:58Our computers and phones have these cameras.
29:01And these cameras can be turned on remotely.
29:04And it's happened lots of times.
29:06So there's a reason why a lot of activists
29:10and people that are aware of this
29:12have started a while ago to use stickers
29:16that are specifically designed to put over the camera.
29:19And you can take it off if you want to go on Skype.
29:23They can also hear what you are,
29:25because there's a microphone in the computer.
29:28And the same applies to even Barbie dolls
29:33and your television.
29:36And it's going to get into everything, all your devices.
29:41Voice recognition requires massive processing.
29:45So it's sent off into a cloud.
29:48And a cloud is just a computer somewhere.
29:50It's not like it's up in the digital sky.
29:52It's just in very powerful computers.
29:55And so these companies that create these devices,
29:59they have direct access into your device.
30:03So somebody can be on the other line
30:06seeing you and hearing you.
30:09Hello Dreamhouse has the ability to be Wi-Fi connected.
30:12It also responds to speech commands.
30:15Hello Dreamhouse, bring the elevator down.
30:23That is so cool!
30:26One dance party coming up.
30:28Even in some cars you have voice command.
30:30And this is all happening very quickly.
30:33And I have not seen any laws or regulations about this.
30:37Nowhere.
30:38And so we're worried that hackers can get into our computers
30:41and take control over them.
30:44What if they can get control over your car,
30:48the computer in your car,
30:50or the computer that monitors your heart?
30:54If you think about all the stuff that you are in no control of
30:59putting into this massive database that's about you,
31:02that's dangerous.
31:04Now I work as a legislator
31:06and I have a specialist in the field of legislation
31:11that deals with these realities.
31:13And the fact of the matter is that
31:16no legislator in the world
31:18has been able to keep up with the rapid development.
31:22Technology is creeping further and further into our lives,
31:26says Jan Stottir.
31:28But if the government can't keep up with this digital acceleration,
31:32how can we get a grip on it?
31:53The tightly knit community of the Amish in the United States
31:57has lived through centuries of debating and adjusting new technologies.
32:02These fundamentalist Christians
32:04only occasionally allow novelties such as cars, telephones or computers
32:09into their daily lives,
32:11after careful consideration and on their own terms.
32:15With us Amish, we are dependent on public information
32:19With us Amish, we are dependent on public transportation for any distance
32:24and local travel we do in our slow way.
32:29And I think the horse and buggy slows us down
32:33and really helps the overall value that we are trying to create and preserve
32:38and not get carried away.
32:42Reverend Norman Yoder is willing to talk to us,
32:46but only off camera.
32:48He does not want to be filmed.
32:50What are the parameters?
32:52For sure not my face.
32:55I'd rather not have anything of me as far as that's concerned.
32:58The surroundings, I don't care.
33:00But as far as me, I don't want to be filmed.
33:03It's in the Ten Commandments of not worshipping any images.
33:09When technology comes along, we evaluate it.
33:12And one thing, it's really been frustrating to us.
33:17Let's say the fax, putting this printed paper through there
33:21and going through that line, it was like, we don't want to go there.
33:26But finally we adapted to that.
33:29So by the time most of the community adapted to that,
33:34that technology was already gone, they wanted email.
33:37So that's what we're dealing with.
33:39The technology is progressing so fast, it's hard to deal with.
33:48As a group we see more and more,
33:52we have to teach what the moral impact is in being involved in this
33:58so each individual can make better choices for themselves.
34:04We were asked to put a cell phone tower on our land.
34:08They wanted to rent, but we never did it.
34:14The tower's came was not for us, not for our people.
34:17It was for the other people.
34:19So it was here, and as more and more people adapted to it,
34:23the difference was huge.
34:25It was not for us, not for our people.
34:28It was for the other people.
34:30As more and more people adapted to it,
34:33the demand was that you communicate that way was getting higher and higher.
34:38We deal with a lot of non-Amish.
34:41They demand instant communication.
34:43They need to know now.
34:45And we get wrapped up in that.
34:49Now, dealing with Internet, email, that is a serious issue.
35:01A regular computer with your safety walls,
35:04you know, where you can't get on porn sites and things like that,
35:08now, when our lockdowns that we have,
35:12that is totally locked down.
35:15Can you go on the Internet with this computer?
35:18No, no, absolutely not.
35:20It will not play a movie by itself.
35:23It will not play a movie by itself.
35:26No, no, absolutely not.
35:28It will not play a movie picture or music or anything like that.
35:33It's not a computer that was torn down.
35:36It was built from the ground up like this.
35:39Especially for Amish?
35:41Yes.
35:42Would you mind showing me your mobile phone?
35:44Okay, yes.
35:45We keep it actually right over here in the drawer.
35:51And it's just a regular flip phone,
35:55and the only thing you can do with that is call.
35:59You cannot text, do anything like that.
36:02It's just a portable phone.
36:04So this is where it stays.
36:06But as far as going home, no, I don't have it.
36:10I keep it right here. That's for the business.
36:13We use technology as long as we use it,
36:17and it doesn't get to the point where it uses us and controls us.
36:21That's the bottom line of it.
36:23The Amish want to keep control of their lives
36:26and have distilled some strict directives for new technology.
36:30But there is some room for personal interpretation.
36:34Down the road is the home of seamstress Marilyn Lehman.
36:38After consulting her husband, she agrees to talk to us on camera.
36:43For her sewing business, she really needs a phone.
36:51Do you have a phone?
36:53Not in the house we don't have a phone, but we have a phone outside.
36:57We call it our phone shanty.
37:00And, yeah, we just have a voicemail, so that's how people contact us.
37:04If they need something, they know they can leave a message.
37:10And usually once an hour or so, I run out to check messages,
37:14and then I reply them.
37:16Otherwise, yeah, we don't have the phone in the house.
37:20That way I can just continue with my work,
37:23and I know the voicemail's there.
37:25If somebody does need something, they can always leave a message.
37:28It's right outside. It's beside the barn.
37:32I only have, like, 50 feet or so to go.
37:35So, yeah, I just really like it out there.
37:39Phone ringing
37:56Hello, you've reached a layman, and also a layman's sewing.
37:59Leave us a message, and we'll get back with you as soon as we can.
38:03Please record your message.
38:07Have you been online?
38:09No. No, I wouldn't know how to get online.
38:13So, no, I've never been online.
38:16Are you curious about the Internet?
38:19Um, I cannot even really say that I am.
38:24I mean, it's never crossed my mind,
38:26because I guess we've had successful business now for 14 years
38:29without any computer access or Internet access,
38:33and, yeah, just me and my faithful old phone shack.
38:42This is about us.
38:45All of us.
38:47Right now, a couple billion of us have access to the Internet,
38:51and amazing things have come from it.
38:54So what happens when the rest of us get access?
38:58It doesn't get twice as good.
39:01It gets like a bazillion times as good.
39:04Imagine it, for the first time in history,
39:07humanity firing on all cylinders.
39:10Everyone. Everywhere.
39:13It starts up here, at 60,000 feet,
39:16with planes powered by the sun,
39:18opening up the Internet to people everywhere.
39:22Google and Facebook are the new colonial powers?
39:26To some extent, yes, they are new colonial powers,
39:30because they operate very closely
39:33with the foreign agendas of the U.S. government.
39:37It clearly has a certain imperial dimension to it.
39:41You're basically seeing huge extraction of value,
39:44huge extraction of information,
39:48huge extraction of assets, intangible ones like data,
39:52which I think will be key to the functioning of those economies
39:56and to their ability to actually articulate
39:59the sovereign alternative to a world
40:02where otherwise they will end up completely integrated
40:05into a system where they cannot write the rules,
40:08they cannot sue the companies,
40:10and they just have to follow the dictate of corporations, essentially.
40:17Hi, Mark.
40:27Hi.
40:28I'm Alki Jain, and I'm a chartered accountant by profession.
40:31So my question is very simple.
40:34Why are you showing so much interest in India?
40:37Answer honestly.
40:46So our mission is to give everyone in the world
40:50the power to share what's important to them
40:52and to connect every person in the world.
40:54And India is the world's largest democracy.
40:58It's one of the biggest countries
41:00where if you really have a mission
41:03of connecting every person in the world,
41:05you can't do that without helping to connect everyone in India.
41:09Facebook, they consider themselves
41:11to be the biggest community in the world,
41:14the biggest democracy,
41:15because there are more people on Facebook
41:17than in China or India.
41:20So what Facebook did recently
41:22was they offered something that was
41:26or is called free basics in India.
41:30Free basic means that they want to give free Internet
41:33to the poorest people in India at a cost.
41:37And the cost is that you have only access
41:40to what Facebook wants you to have access to.
41:43It's the complete opposite to net neutrality.
41:47And there was a massive sort of protest against this.
41:51And so what Facebook did to try to push it even further
41:55was that they sent a message to all the Facebook users in India
42:00to urge them to sign a petition for free basics.
42:03They were testing how far they could get away with it.
42:06And they didn't start with a small country
42:08but the largest populated country in the world.
42:12And if there had not been some resistance towards this
42:16and awareness-building,
42:17then they would have gotten away with it.
42:19Welcome to Facebook.
42:21Thank you. Thank you.
42:23Now, there are still a billion people in India
42:26who we need to connect to the Internet.
42:28And connecting them represents one of the greatest opportunities
42:31available to humanity today.
42:34So I'm deeply appreciative of Prime Minister Modi's
42:37commitment to digital India
42:39to make this enormous opportunity a reality for all Indians.
42:43You have to understand what drives those companies.
42:45Those companies are not really interested in immediate payoffs.
42:49They are only interested in convincing their investors
42:53that they will keep on growing indefinitely.
42:56So as their user growth slows down in North America and Western Europe,
43:00they have to convince their investors in financial markets
43:03that they have the capacity to capture the markets in India,
43:06China, Russia, Latin America, and so forth.
43:09And the easiest way to convince the investors
43:12is by basically striking this deal with telecom operators,
43:16in the case of Facebook, and the same also in the case of Google,
43:19to bring in more and more people on board
43:22in the hopes of convincing the investors
43:24that once those people are on board,
43:26they'll also become users of Facebook, Google, and so forth.
43:36We have a lot of people here.
43:38We have a lot of people here.
43:40We have a lot of people here.
43:42We have a lot of people here.
43:44We have a lot of people here.
43:46We have a lot of people here.
43:48We have a lot of people here.
43:50We have a lot of people here.
43:52We have a lot of people here.
43:54We have a lot of people here.
43:56We have a lot of people here.
43:58We have a lot of people here.
44:00We have a lot of people here.
44:02We have a lot of people here.
44:04We have a lot of people here.
44:06We have a lot of people here.
44:10What if I'm living with my tribe in the forest in Sri Lanka
44:13and I don't want that connectivity?
44:16Well, I think if you're living with your tribe in Sri Lanka,
44:19chances are you wouldn't even notice that it's there,
44:23unless there is an effort to extract value from you
44:29by means of collecting data about you.
44:32Once you make connectivity a permanent feature of everyday life
44:36across the globe,
44:38ultimately people who find themselves amidst that connectivity
44:43will help to pay for the connectivity itself.
44:56We are definitely in the black zone.
45:02We are definitely in the black zone.
45:11In the last 20 years,
45:14the advancement of technology
45:17has probably put our guidelines more in a chaos
45:21than ever in history.
45:24And it's a serious thing.
45:27Where is this leading?
45:29The technology that the computer and the Internet,
45:32that basic technology,
45:34is creating the availability to have a one-world order
45:38and everything being done by paperless and all that.
45:43So the question to us is,
45:46when is that time going to be that we say,
45:49we're just not going to adapt?
45:55And I think what we're trying to do is a good example
45:58that could realistically be adapted in the whole world
46:02if we want to.
46:08I don't see a future where we massively disconnect.
46:12I see a future where we learn to connect with greater wisdom.
46:16That's my hope.
46:28www.microsoft.com
46:33www.microsoft.com
46:38www.microsoft.com