It started when Gmail drafted replies to messages in my Inbox. Knowing that Google was reading my mail made me realize it was tracking my Google searches, tracing what I watched on YouTube or
Netflix, trailing podcasts and music I listened to on Spotify, snooping on my views and buys on Shopee or Amazon. Piecing together all this gathered information, an algorithm kicked in and curated content I am supposed to be interested in. All the things that pop up on your social media accounts and searches are not random at all. We should be concerned about what the internet knows about us individually and the way it has profiled us and sold our data to their sponsors.
Take the real Hospicio de San Jose, founded in the 18th century, that moved from place to place until 1810 when it settled on the Isla de San Andres on the Pasig, later renamed the Isla de Convalescencia. Hospicio, when I last visited in 1980, housed orphans and the aged. It was then accessible through a small road from Ayala Bridge.
I’m sure if I am more patient I will find documents that will give a full history of someone’s madness and from it, we can draw a picture of both the patient and his world.