The Dwarf Lords: tiny devices, tiny minds and the new enslavement

Every genetic flaw or feature you own, including your personal smell.

Every visit to a doctor, hospital, state agency or public building. Every urban vehicle trip. Every taxi ride. Every visit to the local bottleshop or newsagent where you are watched by the unblinking eye of the security cam.

Every conversation on a phone, mobile or by radio, or meeting in a public building, government office or sporting venue.

Every document you read or write on an online computer. Every password you enter.

Where you are at almost any moment in your life. Even if you yourself have completely forgotten, the ubiquitous camera networks will be there to tell you.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever you say in a public space or building can be observed, recorded, analysed, stored for future use. This is the power that will be unleashed by the colossal data storage, fusion, mining and analytic capacity of quantum computing.

For individuals who fall under suspicion this data will be enhanced by the use of nanobots, tiny autonomous surveillance devices as small as an insect or even a grain of sand, which observe and report everything that goes on. Make no mistake, they are already under development.

The public image of a gigantic “big brother” surveillance brain is a misconception. In reality the information on any individual will exist in hundreds, even thousands of separate databases, most of them owned by the private sector. But these will be searchable in microseconds by a centralised agency with the authority to do so - and a quantum computer. These are, of course, no less than the enabling technologies for the global police state, though no one is admitting as much.

In this world, one need not have committed an offence in order to be brought to heel. Perhaps just written a slightly injudicious letter to the newspaper, or passed a few unfavourable remarks about the Leader. One only needs to be played back certain excerpts of one’s life which can be interpreted as suspicious by a controlling mind.

For example: “What were you doing on July 16 on the same street as a known terrorism suspect? Don’t argue - here is the vision to prove it …”

“Between 1990 and 2025 why did you purchase from Amazon.com seven books relating to terrorism, including biographies of Che Guevara, William Tell, Robin Hood and Ned Kelly - all known terrorists and insurgents?”

“Do you admit that in the past seventeen years you have on forty-nine occasions - detailed below - purchased a total of 75 kilos of garden fertilisers and over 100 kilos of sugar with potential for bomb-making? What did you plan to do with such a huge bomb?”