Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
If there is a winner in the corona pandemic, it is the QR code. The checkered box is everywhere, even though it’s been almost gone for years. I remember they were very fashionable for a while. There have been guerrilla poster campaigns that just showed a QR code and forced you to figure out what it might be about. Apparently a lot of people didn’t want that.
The QR code was developed in 1995 to mark assemblies in production at Toyota. It consists of a mosaic of between 441 and 31,329 black and white squares. The highlight is that up to 30 percent of the transmitted data can be faulty and the retrieval still works. He’s like someone who listens to you with a lot of good will.
The only question was, who wanted to know what was being told? Quite a few QR codes have been posted in public spaces. For each exhibition board there is a QR code with additional information, just like that on your cell phone. However, the question often arose: If it’s important – why should you have to look it up on your cell phone first and not write it down right away? The QR code became the code for things you don’t want to know because you don’t need to know.
The corona pandemic has changed that. Now we are constantly in the process of scanning QR codes. We need them to check in to the Luca app, we need them to register for quick tests. We need QR codes so we can identify ourselves as boosted. Now we get nervous when we stand in any queue and can’t scan a QR code to register.
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I recently read that Google is heavily criticized because the camera software on Google cell phones reads some QR codes incorrectly and assigns calendar entries incorrectly. A scandal today, before the pandemic nobody would have noticed.
I’m amazed that there isn’t a conspiracy myth about QR codes yet. Why hasn’t anyone come up with the idea that Corona was invented to force QR codes on the population? There are even conspiracy theories about barcodes. They are supposed to spread negative radiation. Some companies, especially those with a health-conscious clientele, print crossbars on barcodes to “neutralize” the harmful effect.
I can’t imagine anyone who thinks a barcoded herbal tea could contaminate them easily carrying around a much more complicated QR code. Who actually knows what’s in all those pixels? And why is it called QR? Apparently this stands for “Quick Response”. Or rather “Q Rules”? I am happy to receive information about the relevant Telegram group.
More: The first thing the Metaverse needs is a virtual jail