Brave New World?  You decide.

J. Michael Evans, president of the Alibaba Group — a Chinese multinational technology company — bragged at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: "We're developing through technology an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint.  What does that mean?  That's where are they traveling, how are they traveling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on the platform?"

Not to be outdone, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told those attending the WEF about a new technology his company has developed: "It is a, basically biological chip that is in the tablet.  And once we take the tablet and dissolves into the stomach, sends a signal that you took the tablet.  So, imagine the applications of that — the compliance.  The insurance companies know that the medicines patients should take, they take them."  He added, "It is fascinating what happens in this field."

He should have said, "It is frightening what happens in this field."

And then there was World Economic Forum Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab telling the audience of over 2,500 global government and business leaders: "The future is built by us, by a powerful community such as you here in this room."

If you say so yourselves.

This year's WEF theme was "History at a Turning Point: Government Policies and Business Strategies."

Just what the world needs: a global fascist oligarchy monitoring what we consume and where we go, with the aid of ingestible computer chips that notify authorities whether we have been naughty or nice.

What the world actually does need is for we the people, the non-elite, to declare our freedom and independence and reclaim control from the titans of Big Government and Big Business.

That wouldn't be easy.  And, unfortunately, the odds against us doing so appear almost overwhelming.

"So, hey!  Where are you going?  What are you eating?  Have you taken your meds yet?  I sure hope you are fully vaxxed and boosted.  No?  Why not, plebe?!  Do you not do as you are told?!  Well, you'll have plenty of time to explain yourself at the Gulag.  The Archipelago is beautiful this time of year."

Image: Cory Doctorow via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.