Themis: censorship gadget seems straight out of 1984

A gadget for the classroom that immediately sounds a siren if you say something unkind about transsexuals, ethnic minorities or believers. The Themis is a rather controversial invention.

Gadget for a safe space

Social activists are doing their utmost to ensure that we do not commit micro-aggressions, do not make bad jokes and address everyone with the correct gender pronouns. But for this they are (unfortunately, according to them) limited to the Internet and its immediate environment. The places where bad jokes are made are just too many, and so it will never work out with changing society into one big safe space.

But luckily there are smart people who come up with solutions for everything. Like the inventor and designer Zinah Ahmad Issa of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (United Arab Emirates), who has developed the ultimate gadget to re-educate even the biggest unkempt bears. The “Politically conscious object” Themis, named after the Greek goddess of justice.

The Themis: real-time conversation eavesdropping

The idea behind the Themis is as simple as it is controversial. You send the sound signal from the classroom or other environment to a server on the internet. As soon as it recognizes words that are wrong, such as fat, blind, gay or other misthinking, this server sends an alarm signal to the Themis.

This then produces an extremely unpleasant sound for 2 minutes, so that the culprit immediately knows that he really should not quote lyrics from rap songs in class.

With the help of this invention, teachers and entrepreneurs can protect their classroom, office or other public space from inappropriate language. The ultimate goal, according to Issa: to “manufacture a society in which each person holds himself accountable in an empathetic way”.

Memories of 1984 by George Orwell

The question is whether this invention will be introduced on a large scale. For example, the invention turned out to evoke quite a bit of controversy in Australia and to arouse memories of 1984 scenes. In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, large TV screens are everywhere, showing images as well as being able to observe their surroundings. Bit like a Samsung Smart TV. Indeed, the Themis does resemble this to a limited extent.

The hard-working individual Zina, meanwhile, is busy with other things, like reflecting her authentic self and annihilating gender as a social construct, in her words.