Market Forces and Open Hardware
06-13-2021, 02:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-13-2021, 02:19 PM by globaltree.)
Yay, the store supplied some more pinebook pros and pine phones, and the parents are tuned in to ordering them with me as the shipping recipient.
To answer more of the questions :
>>> You expect some external actor to be "spying on their daughters" - who?
Expect is a strong word, like we'd be disappointed if we were wrong... it's more like "fearing the possibility of" rather than full on expectations...
Who? Well, potential employees of internet service providers, the script kiddies, and the nation states: all of the above. The first two are more where the parents anxieties are, in regards to people spying on their children.
With nation states, however, the concern is more about spying on beliefs in a country where there is supposedly freedom of both speech and religion.
The century from 1936-2036 is tasked with an enormous responsibility: the emergence of computer science and its relationships to humanity and ethics. We're the first century of programmers, and we are building a foundation for future centuries, as always. IMHO, it is important to consider the human right implications of every line of code. It's not just important: it's like a duty to posterity. Its difficult enough for an individual to change an unhealthy habit, like excessive tobacco consumption--but it's even harder for a society to change an unhealthy custom, like racism, the pecking disorder, or excessive consumerism. Since computer science is relatively new and still in its first century, then we have a responsibility towards shaping its custom.
In my home, behind close doors, I want to be able to say anything that strikes my fancy, without fear of state-level consequences. I want to rant like a lunatic and scream insanities. And I do. I don't think we've degraded quite that low yet... but we're heading that direction... 2020 saw paid political agitators in the streets; peaceful protestors abducted off the streets by private mercenaries: how long before the private mercenaries respond to belief system data collected by technological devices? Wait. I recant my former statement: in fact, we have degraded that low. Consider how Dakota Access, LLC, hired TigerSwan for "pipeline security", and how Tigerswan used surveillance with support of local law authorities, to target, follow, and imprison people whose crime was caring about the purity of drinking water.
Is TigerSwan a nation state? No, its a corporation that get's hired by other corporations to do dirty work (bully and intimidate)... this is the exact type of entity that human beings need privacy protection from.
Supposedly there is something called "freedom of speech" -- but encryption of hamm radio internet in USA is considered terrorism... Protecting one's family from terrorism is considered terrorism... This is terrible.
My vote is the most powerful thing given to me by my country: powerful enough that elections get "interfered with". Rival political opponents may have the cash to employ firms like TigerSwan.
Since arranging face-to-face gatherings is more complicated than ever before (due to covid-19), the privacy of technological communication channels is more paramount than ever before.
Without private technological channels for political discourse, democracy is doomed.
So yes... lets nutracker. Let's use sram instead of dram. Let's build encrypted text-only low-bandwidth gopher networks that work on hamm radio, and use them in countries where such is still legal...
And regardless of how they say we'll use the private technology space to traffic drugs and children and every other horrible thing you can think of to get you to vote it away... please know that you privately solidifying justified resistance is what they really fear, and the real motivations behind prohibition of encrypted p2p networks in usa... I think we will have to find other ways to thwart those horrible things--because taking away privacy is just as horrible.
So that's my threat model. There are currently no devices on the shelves of stores that can save us. But at least there are open hardware manufacturers and it seems we are moving in the right direction. Thanks pine64 for listening to your community of developers. At least there's kill switches. That row hammer though... seems like all is lost...
I'm glad the supply chain issues were worked out enough that some units got shipped out (restores the faith that market forces aren't wiping out pine64!)
Cheers. Despite all the TigerSwans, and the people who believe in such tactics, I still choose to be cheery, and keep the peace by practicing it...
To answer more of the questions :
>>> You expect some external actor to be "spying on their daughters" - who?
Expect is a strong word, like we'd be disappointed if we were wrong... it's more like "fearing the possibility of" rather than full on expectations...
Who? Well, potential employees of internet service providers, the script kiddies, and the nation states: all of the above. The first two are more where the parents anxieties are, in regards to people spying on their children.
With nation states, however, the concern is more about spying on beliefs in a country where there is supposedly freedom of both speech and religion.
The century from 1936-2036 is tasked with an enormous responsibility: the emergence of computer science and its relationships to humanity and ethics. We're the first century of programmers, and we are building a foundation for future centuries, as always. IMHO, it is important to consider the human right implications of every line of code. It's not just important: it's like a duty to posterity. Its difficult enough for an individual to change an unhealthy habit, like excessive tobacco consumption--but it's even harder for a society to change an unhealthy custom, like racism, the pecking disorder, or excessive consumerism. Since computer science is relatively new and still in its first century, then we have a responsibility towards shaping its custom.
In my home, behind close doors, I want to be able to say anything that strikes my fancy, without fear of state-level consequences. I want to rant like a lunatic and scream insanities. And I do. I don't think we've degraded quite that low yet... but we're heading that direction... 2020 saw paid political agitators in the streets; peaceful protestors abducted off the streets by private mercenaries: how long before the private mercenaries respond to belief system data collected by technological devices? Wait. I recant my former statement: in fact, we have degraded that low. Consider how Dakota Access, LLC, hired TigerSwan for "pipeline security", and how Tigerswan used surveillance with support of local law authorities, to target, follow, and imprison people whose crime was caring about the purity of drinking water.
Is TigerSwan a nation state? No, its a corporation that get's hired by other corporations to do dirty work (bully and intimidate)... this is the exact type of entity that human beings need privacy protection from.
Supposedly there is something called "freedom of speech" -- but encryption of hamm radio internet in USA is considered terrorism... Protecting one's family from terrorism is considered terrorism... This is terrible.
My vote is the most powerful thing given to me by my country: powerful enough that elections get "interfered with". Rival political opponents may have the cash to employ firms like TigerSwan.
Since arranging face-to-face gatherings is more complicated than ever before (due to covid-19), the privacy of technological communication channels is more paramount than ever before.
Without private technological channels for political discourse, democracy is doomed.
So yes... lets nutracker. Let's use sram instead of dram. Let's build encrypted text-only low-bandwidth gopher networks that work on hamm radio, and use them in countries where such is still legal...
And regardless of how they say we'll use the private technology space to traffic drugs and children and every other horrible thing you can think of to get you to vote it away... please know that you privately solidifying justified resistance is what they really fear, and the real motivations behind prohibition of encrypted p2p networks in usa... I think we will have to find other ways to thwart those horrible things--because taking away privacy is just as horrible.
So that's my threat model. There are currently no devices on the shelves of stores that can save us. But at least there are open hardware manufacturers and it seems we are moving in the right direction. Thanks pine64 for listening to your community of developers. At least there's kill switches. That row hammer though... seems like all is lost...
I'm glad the supply chain issues were worked out enough that some units got shipped out (restores the faith that market forces aren't wiping out pine64!)
Cheers. Despite all the TigerSwans, and the people who believe in such tactics, I still choose to be cheery, and keep the peace by practicing it...
