Futuring Project: Shane Aung

From the personal diaries of Lucas Williams, data analyst at the Pentagon, Washington DC.
Hired directly out of college; by this date, approximately 3 years into his career.

Date: April 15th, 2052

I’m finally done for the week. The number of surveillance spots and data sources to go
through are through the roof now. I was assigned to handle 72 of them today, and it took 15
hours to go through them all. Ended up flagging hundreds of places where I suggested to the
database that we investigate further for suspicious activity. Do I think that any of what I saw
today will result in the US catching some more terrorist. Nope; I’d actually be pretty surprised if
it did.
The workload has become so enormous over my time here because the government is
getting less picky. The definition of a “terrorist threat” used to be so narrow, and the criteria for
data that merited further investigation usually involved a significant combination of hate speech
against the nation or government, purchases of dangerous products or substances, proximity to
previous incidents, and gatherings of at least 10 high-profile suspects in a building. I don’t even
want to go into how specific the requirements for “high-profile” suspects used to be. They used
to make my life downright terrible whenever I had to comb through all of those citizen
descriptions. Now, pretty much anything that isn’t a middle school play or a baptism can get
marked for suspicion. Two people who checked out a book with some random radical content in
college and happen to be in the same city on a random day is enough to warrant us sending an
investigation squad into the area for extra surveillance and data gathering. I actually don’t really
mind the lack of specificity, though; it makes sifting through data way easier and it seems like
we’re being more safe by examining anything and everything we can. And it’s working! Overall
arrest rates are up, and the White House couldn’t be happier with our levels of output. Three
weeks ago the President and a few of his defensive technology advisers sent us a video
congratulating us on the work we’re doing, which is awesome. It just convinces me that the
increased thoroughness of our work and the larger range of our search for dangers to our society
is creating change for the better.
I won’t say that our assessments are always accurate. In fact, out of all the scenarios and
locations that we flag for investigation, more and more of them end up not turning out to be
threats. That’s honestly not a big deal for us though; as long as the number of scenarios that end
up being threats goes up as well, then we’re doing our job well. We’ve got the tech and resources
to check anything and everything, so why shouldn’t we. Better safe than sorry, right?
Our bosses are ramping up the measures we have to take regarding security and our jobs
as government analysts. Another leak was found inside the Pentagon a few weeks ago, and I
watched as armed guards dragged him down the hall. Since then, the information security experts
have had to comb through every single database and device in the building in order to ensure that
 Futuring Project: Shane Aung

we hadn’t been compromised. Apparently, no one’s seen the whistleblower since, but we’ve had
several mandatory assemblies where we were reminded of the punishments for leaking
information on the government’s surveillance actions. Your identity gets erased, you get labeled
as a threat to the government, and you are sent away to a detention center for the rest of your
days. This time, however, the higher-ups announced a new sanction where the government
would go after your family members and known acquaintances with investigations. Needless to
say, my coworkers and I walked out with an increase in the nerves that we already had, and a
stronger commitment to serving the government as loyally as possible.
It’s not like we aren’t used to a certain level of secrecy with our jobs. When we were
hired, we had to go through the standard training where we learned what we could say or do in
public, or around non-government personnel. It wasn’t until I filed taxes for the first time since I
was hired that I realized that my occupation was automatically listed as a general government
trainee. Didn’t really make me feel any sort of way. As long as there’s a job for me to get done
and get paid for, I don’t care about what I’m called. But now, we’ve been directed towards new
training modules where we’re being advised further on how to keep ourselves safe from any
forms of civilian or terrorist aggressions. Oddly enough, the biggest thing that we’re being taught
from that is to simply not spend too much time outside of our homes or our work, and more
government services like housing and grocery deliveries are being offered to us in order to
promote that.
I don’t mind keeping myself away from the public eye, especially after hearing the stories
of public backlash against cops and other civil service workers because of their association with
the government and its defensive security programs. I can only imagine what would happen to
me if people found out that I was someone who was directly involved with the control of that
data. I’d be a goner. But at the same time, I just don’t get why the public is so afraid. Of course,
terrorists and radicals have something to fear when it comes to us analysts knowing all of their
information, because that means they have to find new ways to hide or risk getting caught or
killed. But for the peaceful civilians, I don’t understand why they’re so against us! At some point
the public has to realize that giving us data not only helps us identify risks to society, but allows
us to clear the innocent from suspicion! Even after this, if they choose to be against the
government, all I have to say is if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Our data is what gives us the
power to protect the people from threats in our society, and while we may have begun to ramp up
our collection of data because of terrorism, is it so bad that we use it to scan the nation for threats
of other origins? If civilians ask me what convinces me to go to work every day and “betray”
them by using their data to help shape the country, my answer comes easily. Every day I’m one
of the few people of this nation that contributes to the fight to protect it. I’m the one standing
against terrorism. I’m the one who keeps them safe. And until they understand that, they’ll
continue to think in terms of themselves and not the nation. It makes me happy to see that where
the people fail to take initiative, the government assumes responsibility and takes action on the
people’s behalf. Even in these times of increased danger, I’ve never felt safer, because of our
 Futuring Project: Shane Aung

ability to piece together data and use it to root out possible threats faster than ever. If knowledge
is power, then data in its raw form is an even stronger power, and when we collect more of it,
regardless of its significance, the government gains a stronger ability to take action. And taking
action is exactly what we will do.