So for my first blog post on the site I’ve decided to start things off with the biggest thing going on: Pokémon Go. To say this thing is everywhere is an understatement.

At first it seemed to just be taking over my own social media, which at college age makes sense. But next thing I know, Serious, non-tech sites like CNN, TIME, and the freaking Today Show have extensive coverage of the Pokepocalypse. People are playing this thing at the strip club/graveyard, at the Westboro Baptist Church, and Fighting ISIS in Iraq.

But not all is well in the Poke-verse (yes I'm gonna keep making these dumb puns)

Go has some fundamental problems that cant be fixed overnight. first off, the game has created an environment where there are legions of people are roaming around to set coordinates that:

A. Anybody with the app can see.

while you cant actually see other players, you can see where they are going. because of this, its incredibly easy to predict human behavior. (which, unless you happen to be the NSA or ESPN, isn't easy) I know I like to joke about the fact that Miitomo is Nintendo doing Market Research, one dumb quiz at a time, but the analysis one could do with this stuff is astounding. GO's developer, Niantic Labs, is an offshoot of google. it developed its first AR game, Ingress, to help map footpaths and other pedestrian locations. (more on that in a sec.). Already people have been straight up mugged because people are staking out Pokemon to Poke-Rob you.

B. Aren't always the most public places.

I've seen multiple social media posts where people have claimed to see non starter Pokemon (who all spawn when you start) in backyards and houses. i personally am not able to see for sure, but it seems that the game doesn't have any real strict guidelines for the exact locations of Pokemon. speaking of which, is ISIS still the weirdest place people have played GO?

Now as far as Landmarks, like the gyms, we have a way to see those on a larger scale. as i mentioned earlier, GO is built on the foundations of ingress. most of the locations in the two seem to be shared, and there is a map of ingress' world. all of the dots are individual landmarks. As you can see, its very easy for GO to be luring you somewhere you never would be before. that may sound great, but if it means going to Shadyville, count my white, skinny, frail ass out.

But What Does It mean?

In the Cyberscurity World, there's a theoretical nightmare on the cusp of reality. the world where because some idiot thought he should make a Wi-Fi Microwave, toaster, and oven 3-in-1 combo, a hacker burns down your house. we like to joke about Watch Dogs as being kind of absurd, but when i play it, i get reminded how painstakingly close we are to it being reality. except the skills needed isnt gonna limit it to one douche in a trenchcoat, but thousands of random people on the Internet

In conclusion, we are doomed.