Orwell’s 1984 now seems almost premature. He had not yet imagined the AI of 2026.

από

1.A punk band’s logo on a shoulder bag. A cap. A pair of glasses. An orange fabric zipper cover. Some similarities in body build and footwear. According to the Greek police, assisted by Artificial Intelligence, these constitute the “solid evidence” that linked three suspects to the arson attack on the Marfin bank in 2010.

2. Then came the anonymous accuser:
“For sixteen years I have carried a secret inside me that has never allowed me to find peace.”

3. Meanwhile, the two arrested suspects categorically deny the accusations, insisting that they had already left the demonstration when the violence began.

        _________

Orwell’s Big Brother watched you.
The Algorithm of 2026 does not even need to watch you.
It only needs everyone else to believe that it is always right.

We find ourselves—or rather, we have been led—into the constellation of terror. We are bombarded from all sides by volleys of panic and horror. The climate and extreme weather phenomena, weapons of mass destruction in the hands of reckless Russian and American leaders, the rise of the Far-Right, deadly pandemics, the global economic crash; we are surrounded by threats and plagues the likes of which our grandparents could never have even imagined. And this despite them having lived through the horror of two world wars.

Terror here possesses a collective identity. The individual is equally exposed to these same threats, while additionally absorbing their own personal insecurity and anxiety, left at the mercy of the vengeful whims of a Chrysochoidis or the demands of an unpredictable electoral race that desperately demands leftist “heads on a platter.” Once again, just like back then, with the old-fashioned “impalements.”

“A logo on a bag, a hat with glasses, and a zipper” are Hellenic Police’s (ELAS) “irrefutable” AI-generated evidence, used to “build a case” against the three defendants regarding the 2010 Marfin Bank arsons. The fuse was lit by one of “their own,” who today—just a few months before the elections—received orders to send that email with a 16-year delay. His crises of conscience coincidentally began today, even though innocent people had already been incriminated and imprisoned twice in the past for the exact same case. They were later acquitted, but… after the fact. And the anonymous informant of Chrysochoidis’ “court” knew the secret even back then, as well as the culprits by name. Yet, he experienced no such pangs of conscience and remained silent, only to discover them today, when his boss desperately needed his confessions.

However, these are all well-known methods from the past. What is new is that today, the establishment has placed a new weapon at the service of snitching—one infinitely more powerful and terrifying than before: Artificial Intelligence. It is AI, as both old and new Goebbels-mimics of the System trumpeted through all traditional and modern means of propaganda, that decided the guilt of the accused. According to Chrysochoidis, it was AI that signed off on the arrest and pretrial detention of these three citizens after 16 years—citizens who maintain their innocence! Not the “Authorities.” AS THE NEW INDEPENDENT VOICE AND JUDGMENT. AS NON-RIGHT-WING, AS NON-GOVERNMENTAL, AS HAVING NO SELF-INTEREST OR OTHER MOTIVE, AS NOT OBEYING THE ORDERS OF THE POWERFUL, ULTIMATELY. These are the assets the officials tossed onto the table of arguments, right alongside the… “irrefutable” evidence of the detainees’ guilt: the zipper, the glasses, and the hat! With these absolute facts did the independent judgment of AI forge ahead.

“For whom the bell tolls,” Diotima? And how will you defend yourself today to a historical website that elevated you to “first violin of the orchestra,” and whose core motifs and principles include the famous legal maxim: “it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”?

Unfortunately, there is no answer. Only one that sounds more like an apology than a substantive answer. “I am carrying out orders, …” I wash my hands, like another Pilate!