Skynet 2045?

So, this semester at Towson, I'm taking a class called, "Computerization and its impact on society." Sounds really pretentious, but it's actually an extremely important class that probably everyone born into our generation should take. Why? Because right now I am writing on a computer and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. Although, one day I would like to write an entire novel on a typewriter somewhere in France or Italy or whatever other place supposedly sparks the imagination of lonely introverted writers such as myself.

I am currently writing on an overpriced computer which I love and cherish and take everywhere. Apparently, all computers have trackers in them. Kind of figured that anyway, but to actually hear it from an intelligent professor who knows a shitload about computers certainly helps legitimize my paranoia. Is Big Brother already always watching?
Yes, he is. BUT WHY? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

I have also learned in merely one class, the effects and consequences of a capitalistic society such as The United States of America. Wal-Mart is the number one retail store in America. Why? They were some of the first to establish a way of computerizing their whole store. But they also do disturbingly accurate and effective research with their marketing. Monitoring everything shoppers do from whether or not they turn right in the store or turn left and the likelihood of either to buy something. Do you really want to live in a world where your whole life is about buying shit you don't need? And even if you do need it, should your inconvenience be the wealth of someone else?
The psychology of marketing is both scary and fascinating. Do you really buy things because you personally like them, or because everyone else has them? As unique and different as we all are in this country it seems like all the people who were once unique and different are really just the same. Do you only like things because you see them on TV, or because you really and truly are fond of them? I try not to sound like a snob when I say that I want to like things for a good reason. That reason is my own. Not someone elses.

So, for all you sci-fi nerds out there, is the Singularity really as close as we think it is? Perhaps. Or, the fact that everyone is so convinced that it can and WILL happen is just another  Y2K or reasonable fear of technology. Working class men and women have constantly feared that their jobs will be replaced by machines. This fear has been around for hundreds of years. It's understandable seeing as how history proves that our jobs are often replaced by machines (or we just hire Mexicans to do it, because that's so much cheaper). We have phones that talk to us now. I'm pretty sure that's the first sign.

But what about our conscience? What if we ourselves are replaced by computers? What then, will happen to free will, to individual thought? Will we all have our actions and emotions be controlled by some omniscient being typing into one big computer? Will the soul simply become a series of ones and zeros floating around in the sky somewhere? I'm not entirely so sure I want to stick around to find out.