Perhaps the new frontier of pollution is the human mind — maybe we’re amidst a Silent Spring of the brain. It definitely seems that the same type of people that were the Dupont oligarchs, the Philip Morris poisoners, the Enron sleazoids, the subprime mortgage jackals, and the opioid juggernauts — are still here, but just have a new medium (and demeanor) and have changed their environs to the “open offices” of Palo Alto.

The current methods of the web’s large commerce, social and news platforms, are quite similar to those employed by these predecessors: create absolute dependency (by giving people what they “want”) without any concern for waste or collapse. But these new digital robber barons come bearing a dark, novel twist — they put a mirror in front of their subjugation; they literally make their product/content out of us. In the past these types had to adopt the style of the given moment — using models and performed scenarios to stage the use of their product. Now the product is actual photos and videos of us doing the things they could only previously mimic. As well, every inclination is logged, tracked and optimized — to mellifluously reflect our preferences back to us, so that we don’t know where our memories / storage / intentions end and their platforms begin.

It seems it’s suburban sprawl all over again except this time the landscape is our minds.