When even the NYT notices, it’s obvious 30 Apr 2009 From the New York Times: The Internet is no longer just an essential channel for commerce, entertainment and information. It has also become a stage for state control — and rebellion against it. Computers are becoming more crucial in global conflicts, not only in spying and military action, but also in determining what information reaches people around the globe. The article notes that a number of repressed groups, including Women in Iran, the Falun Gong in China and so forth, are making hacks available to evade internet filtering. About time, too… Censorship Internet filtering
Censorship Australia to impose “opt-out” filtering 2 Jan 2008 I’m going to have to start a “freedom watch” thread, I can see. Australia, under the ALP government, is to impose an “opt-out” internet filtering system on all lSPs, leading to the question asked by IT-Wire: what happens if I do opt out? Will I be listed somewhere as a… Read More
Censorship A chilling effect 24 Apr 2010 In the judgment in favour of Simon Singh against the British Chiropractic Association’s bogus defamation action, the judge noted that the use of defamation law on scientific discussions had a “chilling effect“, and a movement has resulted to reform libel law, to which all three major parties seem to be… Read More
Censorship On fear and risk 31 Jan 2010 I haven’t had a rant/sermon in a while. My parents’ generation went through the second world war, fighting tyrants and ideologies that sought to control our everyday lives; for which reason they are sometimes called “the best generation”. Their parents’ generation fought world war one and went through the Depression…. Read More
Computers are becoming more and more vital to our existence. I realized that when my laptop recently died – everything depended on it. And it would not surprise me, if the bond between us and silicon becomes even more intimate in the relatively near future. It may even become quite practical for us to wear implants someday. Some would say that computers provides a hook for the power-hungry to control us – and they certainly do, but even that may be short-sighted. In a way, we are like enzymes catalyzing the formation of something we really don’t understand yet. And enzymes must first bond with whatever they are assembling. In a scenario like this, the distinction between tool and tool-user begins to blur. Obviously, we use computers as tools every day. But computers also use us. They employ many of us in large factories (organelles?) to to build their children, and vast support systems for their children. Certainly we’ve catalyzed the formation of many other things before – houses, cars, spaceships, etc. But the danger here is that in order for something to do more for you, you have to give it more power (this is actually one theme of Lord of the Rings, believe it or not). We are giving the computer great power of control, and that control will only increase with time. Around the turn of the century, Bill Joy wrote an article touching on some of these things, called “Why the future doesn’t need us”. Is it all just futurist nonsense? Perhaps.